My contribution to The Writers’ Vineyard this month celebrates National Library Week, public libraries, and librarians.

One rite of passage in my small-town kindergarten was a field trip to the public library. I remember almost nothing about that trip except for one glowing moment: signing my name, in recently-learned cursive, on my very first library card. It would take another dozen years or so for me to finally get my driver’s license, and the freedom represented by being able to drive still had (still has) nothing on the freedom of being able to travel the universe of books which called to my five-year-old self that day.

Read the whole post here.