Cd'A home to Library of the Year

I've tried, but it's just not the same. I can't curl up with a Kindle; even its subdued screen feels too much like working at a computer. The iPad is too bright and the fingerprints distract me. My tired eyes need the gentler image of a "live" paperback. I want to touch the pages, listen to them turn. I like the smell of ink and love the smell of old paper. Seeing rack upon rack of colorful books - entire worlds inside them - as I enter a library elicits a unique blend of peace and excitement.

Reading is as much sensory as mental, or it was. Those days are numbered.

I hope I'm wrong. I hope libraries won't soon exist only in cyberspace; that lifelong I may enter a 38,000-square-foot building as aesthetically pleasing as the Coeur d'Alene Library and see, smell, and touch stacks of books in an atmosphere of quiet imagination. I still feel that little sense of adventure when I leave with a few of the 350,000 available choices.

That's just a little more than the number of people who use the city's library annually since the new building opened in 2007. About 17,000 attended at least one of 5,080 programs, including children's events, Smithsonian and history exhibits, movies, authors and other speakers, and even free computer training. The spacious meeting room on the ground floor, its walls lined with images of local history, hosts public lectures, candidate debates, and civic and community meetings.

Maybe those are the reasons why the Coeur d'Alene Public Library was just named the 2012 Idaho Library of the Year by the Idaho Library Association. Maybe it's the cozy chairs by the fireplace, or the tables with electric outlets near the window-wall overlooking McEuen Park. Teens might say it's the free Wii games, Internet, movies, or 24-hour e-book downloads (what, not everybody wants to remain a dinosaur like me?).

Perhaps it's the massive network of information. Coeur d'Alene is part of the Cooperative Information Network, a system of shared resources including Hayden, Post Falls, Rathdrum, Spirit Lake, Shoshone, and Athol libraries; that's what takes the inventory to around 350,000 for all of them. Last year Coeur d'Alene Library joined VALNet, a system in the southern Idaho Panhandle. The alliance is still under development, but soon that will mean local access to 30 public and school libraries. Taken together, CIN and VALNet will become the largest library system in the state, with hundreds of thousands of items available to library users.

Whatever the reasons for the award, congratulations are in order to the library, foundation, and supporters who celebrate at this morning's reception. That goes for patrons as well. One can never have too much knowledge. The benefit of a library in this world of blogs, Tweets, and too often inaccurate information is access to more reliable sources and, although they are a resource underutilized, access to data-expert librarians who can help a knowledge seeker separate the wheat from the abundant chaff.

"Successful people ask better questions and as a result, they get better answers." - Anthony Robbins

Sholeh Patrick is a columnist for the Hagadone News Network. Contact her at sholehjo@hotmail.com.