Library 4 All

As a kid who grew up in the 80s whose parents avoided buying overpriced items at the Scholastic Book Fair at school, I learned to appreciate libraries at a young age. As a 13 year resident of Sandy who uses the library rather frequently, I must say I have been overjoyed at the services our library offers. I love our local library!

They have a really excellent selection of books which is obviously well curated. They have a wonderful array of graphic novels, and it's not limited to the big name titles: they have lots of great things you might not expect. We have the ability to get books directly from the library itself or have them shipped from other local libraries within our linked library system to our home branch. I just pick up and drop off without having to use multiple libraries like I did as a kid. There are a wide variety of audiobooks I can listen to as either mp3, streamed, or on CD available for me to listen to while working in the garage. I recently jumped at getting some remastered Led Zeppelin music to give my sweet hifi system a workout. The entire band discography was available for pick up in just 3 days. Similarly, their DVD/Bluray selection is superb, and they have lots of domestic films which is really nice as I miss the old days of browsing video stores on Friday nights. My kids and I checked out a bunch of classic 80’s horror movies for a scary slumber party. It was such a treat and felt so good to do that again! Our local library has a seed library that lets you take to donated seeds to plant. They even have video games! I recently played on a SNES system while my kids played some new Switch games for free. Not to mention there are many family events offered: everything from story time for children, Lego builds, book clubs, to holiday themed gatherings.

Our city library offers a service called a Library of Things. The Library of Things is one of the coolest ideas I’ve ever seen. I have borrowed dozen of useful household items like a pressure washer, radon detector, air fryer, knife sharpener, a photo scanner, rock tumbler, food dehydrator, board games, a metal detector, and a VHS to DVD converter. Just borrowing those items alone has saved me hundreds of dollars and lot better than buying that stuff to use it twice before it spends 10 years collecting dust in a corner of the garage.

I was disheartened to see one of the comments below. I am not sure how someone who has lived here since 1979 and has never even been into the library can reasonably comment on it having no purpose and being a waste. Just for context, 1979 is 44 years ago and pre space shuttle, personal computers, and camcorders. It should be noted that many of the benefits listed above literally did not even exist the last time that commenter was even in our library. As some who used library services way back then and even more so now, I completely and emphatically disagree! Our local Sandy library has been worth every penny I pay in taxes and I experience the benefits of those services on a weekly basis.

At a time where people's money goes less far it's so nice to see this kind of thing. Honestly it's just nice to visit a space and use a service which doesn't exist solely to make a profit and that isn’t trying to sell you something. That might sound silly, but it's really something rare that I appreciate immensely. Our local library is a real community service that is worth protecting and supporting.