The Burnaby Public Library

I am a born bookworm. When I was a little kid, my parents would be forced give me books instead of toys. Why? Because I asked for books rather than new toys. I used to read on average 60 books a month, and I’ve explored anything from English literature to criminology to interior design to gardening. My reading, while not the same lightning bolt speed, is still very solid. For those of you who love it when I share little tidbits of my personal life, one of the things I have studied is indeed library science. Yeah, as if I didn’t have enough with dancing, theatre, school and volleyball, I also read books on how to classify books.

I did the cataloging of my family’s library (yes, I used the Dewey decimal classification system – this was before the Library of Congress system was adopted worldwide). I created a database with all of our books, and whenever my brothers or parents would loan a book to other members of our family, I would have a sign-out sheet and cards on the back-covers of each book.

Thus, it should not come as a surprise that I shivered and almost shed a tear when I signed up for my Burnaby Public Library card. Yeah, I get emotional around books. I wouldn’t have done a PhD if I hadn’t been consumed by a love of learning and fascinated by books. The big shocker to you should be that in all my years of living in Vancouver, I have never obtained a Vancouver Public Library card. And now, I have a BPL one, which means that my next step is getting my VPL user card.

The Burnaby Public Library has branches in Metrotown, McGill, Cameron and Kingsway. The BPL recently hosted a Rock Band competition for teenagers, and has many interesting programs. While I was here (at the branch near Metrotown, on Burnaby’s Municipal Square) after having had a great chat with Jason from the Burnaby Board of Trade, I wanted to focus on doing some academic and research work and I found it interesting that almost ALL the study carrels (very nicely designed, I might add) were full. I am always delighted when public services are fully utilized by their local communities. I’ll definitely be a regular customer of the BPL.

BPL is a member of the Public Library InterLink system, which enables you to borrow library materials from any InterLINK library simply by registering your card.

Related posts:

1. Fish Creek branch of the Calgary Public Library
2. Living my life as an open book: The Living Library Project at UBC’s @ikblc
3. The Vancouver Public Library
4. Putting back the public in public policy
5. Bar review – Library Square Public House