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Hello, this is Harris County Public Library staff member brian crab dish and I'm interviewing Cindy prior today. I have been with the Harris County Public Library for seven years and I'm recording this interview on April 17, 2021 at the administrative branch and Cindy it's your turn.

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Hello everyone. This is Cindy poor. Earlier I am a a friend of the Harris County Public Library, a patron, a visitor and a reader um recording this interview right here in my very own home Um on March the 17th 2021. Perfect. And thank you so much

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for joining me today Cindy. Um, so for this series that we've been doing, we're just asking some of our partners, our volunteers are patrons um, a little bit about the library and their experiences. And so one of the very first questions I'd like to ask you

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is is how are you affiliated with Harris County Public library? Because you have a little bit of a special kind of partnership with us. Yes brian other than just being a reader and a frequent visitor. I am lucky enough to be able to be associated with

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the library through the um, the Barbara Bush Houston literacy Foundation and in particular with the ladies for literacy guild and a few years ago some brilliant person in the foundation decided that we should collaborate with Harris County Public Library and have what we call the curiosity

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cruiser and I believe now we're up to three of them and that is a then full of not just any books but books that have been curious curated by the library and through the foundation is books that we know Children really, really want to read and

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they are staffed with mascots and lots and lots of fun and um, I love it because it almost has the same feeling that I used to have when I was little, when the ice cream truck would come through the neighborhood, You know, the book, you know,

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the curiosity cruiser is coming and I've actually seen that in person and that has been, um, such an incredibly valuable and powerful partnership. And so that's, that's really the way I kind of formally became involved with Harris County public library system. Well, you know, you just

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gave me a great idea. We need to get a little theme song for the cruiser as we're coming into a patient, just like an ice cream truck. So people that were coming in. Um, and you know, it is a bit of a loaded question because I've

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worked with you a few times Cindy with the cruiser and I'm so excited that we have had that opportunity. And you know, you also brought up a great point of the ice cream truck when you were a little child. So, so tell me, do you have

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memories of visiting the library as a child? What was it like then when you were visiting the library, You know, I grew up in an age where um, we had a library, uh, that was a little bit farther than walking distance. So my parents, usually my

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mother would take us about every other saturday. Probably coincidentally, that's how long you could check out a book. Um And so there was probably a little method of that. And so we would do that every other week. However, and I think this is one of the

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reasons that the curiosity crazier brings a tear to my eye is what was within walking distance for me. And and back when I was little, even when you were in the 1st and 2nd grade, you ventured out on walks with your friends and there was a

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bookmobile that came to buddies grocery store. Uh you know about I think about three times a week and it was I guess it was just an old bus, I don't really remember exactly, but you could use your library card at the bookmobile. And um I can

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remember going on that and there was there was the nicest older gentleman that always remembered my name and he also back before it was a popular thing to do, he got to know me as a reader and said, oh I think you might enjoy this book.

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Um and that was building a connection with me around reading. And a lot of people don't know this about me because my life has been full of of literacy and teaching literacy, but reading was not easy for me and I really did not like reading because

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it was so hard. Uh but he was probably the first person that I remember building a relationship with me around Reading and he was a librarian. That sounds just amazing and I can hear in your voice just how fondly you would think of the mobile and

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the fact that you remember bob's or barney, like we're parked. Yeah, it's really great to think of it. Oh I can remember every little thing about it. I can remember my little legs, you know having to step up on the bus steps, you know to get

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up into the bus and him reaching out his hand to help me up the steps, I can remember everything about it. It's very emotional for me and I'm so glad that then you get to be a part of kind of bringing that back because library didn't

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have a bookmobile and we don't we don't have a traditional bookmobile. Now, we've created like a hybrid model with with the foundation and the ladies literacy guild. Um and I think it works, it works really well, the kids seem to really, really enjoy it. Um So

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you know that that that's my, one of my next question is how long have you been a patron of the Harris County Public Library? How long have you been using our library system for? I've been, I've been using the library system since I moved basically since

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I moved to Houston in 1996. Um and um I will I will tell you that my my favorite Harris County public library is the Barbara Bush uh location. I love it so incredibly much because of the way they celebrate the earliest of literacy. Um They have

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a wonderful area where they celebrate early literacy with very young Children and they bring joy and play and fun and excitement all centered around books. So that's really my my favorite one. I must tell you, I I live in an area of Houston called the Heights

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And I'm within walking distance of the heights public library that I love going there. We love all of our libraries, our Houston public libraries. They're still our friends. And and while we're celebrating 100 years of Harris County Public Library, we're always celebrating libraries in general. We

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want people to visit a library. We don't care which one you go to. I don't care if it's on a vehicle, I don't care if it's a my free little library on the street. As long as you're reading books and you're going to a library in

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some way. Um So we were happy that you love the Heights Library as well. Um That's quite all right. Um But the Barbara Bush library, as you said, that's a wonderful library and you talked about that. They do, they're they're exactly what they happened on your

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bookmobile. They teach that joy of reading something that that that really resonates and we'll stick with you? Um So so with that kind of joy of reading, did you have a favorite book as a child that you remember me? Oh my goodness. Um That's like asking

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me to pick a favorite child. However there are some that come to mind and one is I remember I remember the books the first book but I wanted to read over and over and over again and that was um Put Me in the Zoo. It was

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a dr Seuss book and I loved that book. And of course what I think also what I love so much about those books is is that uh as I mentioned before, I struggled terribly as as a young reader and what we know about reading is that

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the more you read, you know the better you get. Oh that sounds like a dr Seuss line doesn't, the more you read, the better you get the better. Um And so what I found with those books is that they were they were fun and they were

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arrhythmic and they lent themselves to practicing them so without it sounding like I needed to practice them you know so I would read it over and over and over again until I could chant it and so that was but then you know I have I'll say

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that but then I have to say yeah the first book as a child that made me cry oh is charlotte's web? I I just it's I'm drawn to books where I where I care about the characters even though they're animals. Um and that bring emotion out

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in me whether it doesn't always have to be a sadness, but um I love I love to cry at the end of a book. I do too. It's it's funny to say that I love to be sad, but you know, a book is good when you

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cry at your any character, it sits with you. Yes, because you know, you've connected brian, you know, you know that you care about the people or the animals or whatever, it was in the story, you can't stop thinking about them and you really, truly care about

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them. Uh you know my I think the first book I cried at that, I can remember was the black cauldron series by Lloyd alexander. Yeah, I read this, oh the the ending still to this day, I remember sitting in my elementary school, I think my elementary

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school library getting the series and reading those. It must have been like fourth grade or something reading through that series and just I got to the end and it didn't it wasn't it wasn't a super sad ending, but it wasn't a super happy and and I'm

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not going to ruin it for anybody who hasn't had it. I'm not going to ruin it, but that ending has sat with me since. So I I'm I'm right with you on UNknowing the joy sad book well and yes, and the power of the written word,

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be able to still, because what I'm sensing in you brian is even all these years later, you're still feeling a little bit emotional just thinking about the, if I think about that series, I absolutely can I have to try not to and you're not mine. So

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we're gonna, we're gonna be okay, I'll start crying. So how about as a teenager, when you got a little bit older as a teenager, did you have a favorite book that you loved? Okay, I did and it's still one of my favorite books and it might

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come as a surprise, but john Steinbeck's of mice and men okay. Um and you know, I've thought about that a lot and I thought why is that my favorite book from, from my teenage years? And I think I know a couple of reasons one is is

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that although the subject matter is certainly not for little Children at all, um it is a very um, the actual lex I'll level or reading level of that book is really quite low. The words are simple, the sentences are short and so as a struggling reader,

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I really got into it because it was an easy, the words were easy for me to read, comprehension was always my strong suit. You know, if you told me something, I could learn it like crazy, but reading, you know, really big board, so to speak was

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hard. and so I found that book and it had such an incredible of deep meaning. And you know once again I go back to that whole thing I really care to this day about lennie and George and their relationship and the the sophistication of their simple

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simple relationship. What's that? Excellent. Excellent. So you know I got just a couple more questions and I'm curious since you've been a library user for you since you were a child. How have you noticed that libraries have changed over the years? O brien do you want

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the good or the bad first? Well let's do both. I mean okay let's do both because it is important that we look at the whole picture. Okay. You start with the bad first if you want and we'll finish off on the good. Okay. Okay. That sounds

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like a plan the to me and this is just me because I'm you know I am a a mature woman. And so for me libraries that I remember when I was little I think it's one of the reasons I still love the Heights library is that

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they were places of brass handrails and marble walls. You know they were like a special important place. You know but you know back then you know churches were built that way. You know office you know government buildings were built that way in. You know a lot

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of grandeur. And so when I would go into the library while it was a little bit daunting, it was like, okay I'm in a special place here. Really special place. So for me, you know, that is a little bit sad to me sometimes because we don't

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really invest in structures like that anymore. Um Unless it's a, you know, an older building. Um But oh my goodness, the good is is that they are oh and I must say I do miss card catalogs really well. And the only reason is because I was

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kind of obsessed on being a a dictionary nerd and I knew my abc order backwards and forwards and you know, I could go to the fourth letter and all that kind of stuff and so I I loved going through the card catalogs and finding it quicker

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than anybody else could. So that was kind of a that's a that's a whole other story. Um But now when you go into a library it is accessible to everyone. Yeah and this is something that can make me emotional because um today a library is just

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as accessible for someone who is down on their luck, perhaps not educated. Um There's all kinds of ways you can access information and no matter who you are, what your background is. Um they're not. Uh and you know, maybe I'll talk about the way they used

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to look, you know, maybe that made him a little bit stuffy too. I'm not sure maybe they did because they're not stuffy anymore. No. And they're they're very welcoming. And the other thing is is that, um, the library at least in my life, the library was

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really not for me until I was in about the first grade second grade maybe where now the library is for babies because we want because there are things that we can do to encourage literacy and even nine month old babies. So that's, I think that's probably

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for me. I know there's a lot of technology and all that, which I know is good and all that. But for me, I think it's the accessibility to everyone. Those. I mean first your your bad answer is a good answer Anyways, you scared me for a

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minute, but I you're talking to a librarian. I wish we had that grandeur in our buildings with marble pillars and just beautifully built. Believe me, I I would love that. That's that's a good, good bad. You need to make sure there are libraries are built. But

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your accessibility, uh, comments are just spectacular. And that's true. We, we really do want our libraries and, and normally I don't speak for other library systems. I'm gonna speak for every library system here. We want them to be accessible to everybody. We want everybody to be

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welcome to have something that they can come in and using the library and you're right, we want infants and babies and their caregivers to come in and learn the joy of reading before they even know they're going to the joy of reading. Yeah they're going to

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come in for story time and not even know what's going on. But when you do it often enough it just becomes part of your routine to come in and listen to stories. And if you start like that it's a very easy next step to reading your

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own stories when you were able to read. Um So really really, really I guess another good thing about libraries now is is that uh when I was little, the library in our neighborhood it was there was a portrait of a lady who had her finger over

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her lips like like that. It was like you're walking into a hospital or something. Um And now I'm not, you know I mean there's quiet spaces where if you want to go be quiet and curl up you know you can do that but you can also

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you know part of comprehension and part of loving a book is wanting to talk about it and you know you can talk in a library now. Yes. I think that's a good thing you to my favorite libraries are those that are built with silent reading rooms

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are quiet reading rooms because I don't think any librarians going to deny that you need a location where you can have that quiet when you're doing that type of work. But there is so much more than a library can do when you open it up and

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allow kids to read aloud and enjoy what they're reading and have a book club and talk about it in the yeah, all all wonderful things. Don't you think librarians are a lot hipper now too? Well? Uh, little bites on that one. But yes, I think the

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librarians and our librarians of old, I'm not going to take anything away from them. That was kind of what they had going and what what libraries are like back then. But I have to imagine that a lot of them might enjoy seeing um, some of the

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joy and the little kids faces when they're coming into the library instead of having to worry about shushing them. Yeah, I know I'm jabbering on and on. But that's what these are four of the job. So I'm going to do one more quick question before we

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okay. We've kind of been talking about this the entire time with uh, we've been beating around the bush maybe. Um, but we we we we bring these people because we know you love libraries. So tell me why do you support libraries? Well, okay for those of

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us who recognize that, that you can't be a reader if you don't have access to books. Um, you don't even have an opportunity to want to be a reader if you live in what a lot of people call the book desert. Um, and that the resources

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that are provided to Children who either for one reason or another it may maybe that they don't have the finances to have their own personal library. It may be that um but they just simply don't value reading in their home, you know. Um But that anybody

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can come and for no money for no money you can borrow a book and love it. And that book will always be a part of you. And I think that's one of the things that I also love about the library is that um I don't think

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that you can even put a price tag on a child having their own personal library. However every book that I have read that I have borrowed from the library and brought back in two weeks uh or well because because I was, I grew up in a

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generation where it was, it was, I think it was a Nicola day. If you didn't bring it back and that came right out of my allowance. Sure, sure. I mean that wasn't like something my mother would go pay for it. You have to pay for your

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late books then. Yes. So you know that was that taught me early on to be responsible. I love that. Um But every single book that I had for two weeks and I returned promptly. I don't remember all of them and I certainly don't remember every detail

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out of all of them. But at the risk of sounding hokey, they're part of me. They are. Even if I don't even remember them, they're a part of me. And so I think for a child to be able to go and and hold on and become

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a friend with a book even just for two weeks and then give it back so that somebody else can enjoy the book is one of the most beautiful things that we can give to kids. It's it's the way they can travel anywhere in the world and

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they can be anybody they want to be and they can escape and they can go places and do things that maybe they would never be able to do otherwise. Mhm. Well you said it, I think just as good as any librarian ever could. So yeah, absolutely,

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absolutely. Um So I really want to thank you so much for for chatting with me today. Um I thank you for taking your time out of the day for all of our listeners. Um You know, we hope you enjoyed our chat. Please look the other chats

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on our archives. Yeah. And if you're interested in talking to a librarian and becoming part of our library centennial stories, please contact your local Harris County public library branch and ask them about doing a recording. We would love to hear your story to. Uh so Cindy,

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thank you again and we hope to see everybody soon. Okay brian. Thank you. Thank you so much. I'll have a good day. Thank you. Bye Bye Bye.