Home libraries and collections have always been a part of my life.  From the time I first learnt to read I have read voraciously and collected books and other text types, including music and film.

While in primary school I spent many hours helping the librarian, sorting and shelving books and in high school I did the same. Surrounding myself with books has become a source of joy and satisfaction.

Currently my bookshelves house around three thousand books and a thousand dvds. Add these to my extensive cd collection and my house is a cornucopia of words and music.

My years as a teacher across a range of KLAs has meant that I have acquired music, mathematics, geography, media studies, English and general teaching texts. My leisure reading preferences have resulted in an extensive fantasy and science fiction collection, as well a a substantial crime and thrillers fiction collection. Biographies, language books, children’s literature, classics and reference books such a thesauri and dictionaries of quotes round out the collections.

Many years of teaching music have also resulted in an eclectic CD library and an abiding interest in film, tv and media studies has led to a thousand dvd collection of movies, special features and tv series.

Therefore, with this many items, there is a system.  Music collection by genre and then alphabetically by artist; dvds by movie, tv or feature and then alphabetically by title; books by fiction or non fiction; fiction by genre then alphabetically by author; non-fiction by subject and then alphabetically by author.

Visitors to my home often comment that it’s a lot like visiting a small library, with its range of fiction and non-fiction books and its music and film collections. 

They are astonished that I can put my hand on a particular item when I want it.  I guess I carry around the catalogue in my head and there is logic in how they are shelved.

With my fiction double-stacked and about to overflow from the shelves it is no wonder that people think I live in a library.  But I couldn’t be more comfortable than I am knowing that another world is at my fingertips just by reaching out and opening a book.

Digital may be the way of the future but give me a good, old-fashioned home library where I can just reach out, touch and enjoy the books.

No wonder I am now looking at a career change to library work.