FAVORITE QUOTATIONS

Libraries and Librarians

Virginia Living: How did you begin writing?
Adriana Trigiani: “It always starts with the librarian. My mother was a librarian. When I look at a book, the first thing I see is her face. If you want to write, you gotta read. To this day, I go into a library like a church. It’s a sacred space to me. It’s a wonderful thing to have a lifelong mountain to climb. And every day you try to master it. I feel a debt to great teachers and librarians.” Virginia Living, October 2022, p. 28

"We need to break new ground and reinvent libraries to meet the needs of current and future scholars.  Excellence is no longer measured by the number of books a library holds.  Now it's a matter of connecting people with the information they need--wherever they are and in the format they want...my friend who told me to get into librarianship so long ago was right.  I love working with students and faculty and the constant challenge of leading an institution through massive technological change.  I learn something new every day--and I can't imagine a better time or place to be a librarian."-- Karin Wittenborg, University Librarian, University of Virginia, The University of Virginia Magazine, Fall 2006

"At the moment that we persuade a child, any child, to cross that threshold, that magic threshold into a library, we change their lives forever, for the better."--Barack Obama

"When in doubt, go to the library." -- Hermione Granger in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

“Research shows quite conclusively that school libraries are a powerful force in the lives of America’s children. The school library is one of the few factors whose contribution to academic achievement has been documented empirically, and it is a contribution that cannot be explained away by other powerful influences on student performance. So, if you want to invest in a research-based strategy for helping to insure that No Child Is Left Behind in your school, this is it!” --Keith Curry Lance, Remarks at the June 4, 2002, White House Conference on School Libraries

"In the nonstop tsunami of global information, librarians provide us with floaties and teach us how to swim." -- Linton Weeks, Washington Post, 01-13-01, C01

"I have always imagined that paradise will be some kind of library."  --Jorge Luis Borges

"If you want to change the process, you have to change the product." --Nancy Polette on student research

From David Eddings, King of the Murgos--

"I'll have to admit that he's a very competent scholar."

"Isn't he just a librarian?" Garion asked, "somebody who looks after books?"

"That's where all the rest of scholarship starts, Garion.  All the books in the world won't help you if they're just piled up in a heap."

"A great librarian must have a clear head, a strong hand, and above all, a great heart...and I am inclined to think that most of the men who achieve this greatness will be women."  --Melvil Dewey

"Reading is a lifestyle, not a skill."  --Nancy Polette

Professionalism

Librarians who don't have PLNs, don't attend conferences, don't read cutting-edge professional literature--from both the library and the education worlds--are dragging our profession down.  And good people are going with them.  --Joyce Kasman Valenza and Doug Johnson, "Things That Keep Us Up at Night," School Library Journal, October 2009.

Teaching

We should be the teacher who makes being the student worthwhile.  --Henry Cole, Longwood University Summer Literacy Institute, July 17, 2014

Life in General

"And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight inside the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom." --Anais Nin, 1903-1977

"He [Haw] smiled as he realized: It is safer to search in the maze than to remain in a cheeseless situation." -- Spencer Johnson, Who Moved My Cheese?

"Worship God.  Cherish family.  Enjoy work.  Give back.  Act now."  --advice from Dr. Walter R. T. Witschey, Director, Science Museum of Virginia, to Longwood University's Class of 2007, May 12, 2007 commencement 

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Last updated November 6, 2022