My daughter and I are now proud card-carrying members of the Hong Kong Public Library. My plan to get library cards for us last year got as far as completing the form and queuing at the registration counter because I had forgotten to submit proof of address. I'm ashamed to admit that it took us six months to get around to returning with all the necessary documentation.
This is especially momentous for me because I grew up in public libraries in Canada. Both my parents worked during the week, and most shops were closed on Sundays back then. So every Saturday afternoon, my parents would drop off my brother and me at whichever public library was nearest to where they were planning to shop, because this was the safest place they could think of to leave two primary school-aged children. They would pick us up hours later, after they had finished their errands.
In those early years, I remember reading books only while at the library and participating in the librarian's circle time reading. By the time I reached the age of nine or 10, an afternoon at the library always ended with struggling to decide which books to take home, and being rushed by my parents because I could not edit down my choices for the coming week to the maximum I was allowed to borrow at one time.
There is a wide variety of picture books about going to the library, Don Freeman's Quiet! There's a Canary in the Library is a favourite in our home, with elegant sentences about animals causing a rumpus and giraffes reading tall tales.
Famous siblings Charlie and Lola make a trip to the library in Lauren Child's But Excuse Me, That Is My Book. Precocious Lola doesn't quite understand the concept of borrowing when she sees another girl walk by with the book that she wants.
In contrast with Lola, a character from another book series is too earnest about book borrowing. In Alexander Stadler's Beverly Billingsly Borrows a Book, Beverly Billingsly is horrified to learn that the first library book she checks out is two days overdue and imagines terrible consequences for this misdeed.