National Library Week (April 3 - 9, 2022) celebrates our nation's libraries and library workers' contributions, and promotes library use and support. This year’s theme is Connect With Your Library!
National Library Week was created by the American Library Association in 1958 to promote reading. Research in the mid 50’s documented the rising popularity of radio and television and librarians and book publishers feared they would displace books and reading as leisure activities. Today social media, gaming, streaming television and other electronic media are an even greater threat to reading. From 2003 to 2018, the average amount of time Americans spent reading for personal interest per day fell by six minutes, to less than 16 minutes per day (American Academy of Arts and Sciences). But there is also evidence that suggests the pandemic fueled a resurgence in reading. The American Time Use Survey by the Department of Labor found a 25% increase in reading among American adults in the second half of 2020. And Publisher’s Weekly reported an 8.9% rise in print book sales in 2021, with the biggest increases in fiction books, especially young adult fiction.
At Himmelfarb Library, the Consortium Loan Service supports the lending of books from any Washington Research Libraries Consortium (WRLC) library to our users for free. This opens a vast world of literature and non-fiction to all our library users. To search for books owned by all the WRLC libraries, use Health Information @ Himmelfarb and change the search scope to Articles + GW & Consortium as shown below.
Did you know that Himmelfarb has a Humanities and Health collection with novels and popular non-fiction titles? The collection is housed on the first floor in the nook area. Books have a 3 week checkout period and can be renewed up to two times. We’ve also recently introduced a free little library leave one/take one shelf in the same area.
Beyond CLS and our collections, we encourage our users to support the public libraries in their community. The DC region has many excellent public library systems and these days public libraries offer much more than just print books. You can loan books for your ereader with services like Overdrive or even get audio books! DC Public Libraries offers streaming audio services and Arlington County Public Libraries has a digital magazine service. Montgomery County Public Library’s Hoopla provides access to ebooks, audio books, TV, comics and more. Visit your local library’s website to find out about all the services being offered.
