Uh, hold on, Mom," my 11-year-old daughter stammered as we walked out of the checkout line at Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh's main branch. "I can barely carry all these books!"

I looked over, wanting to help her, but my arms were full too, and my arms were in pain trying to carry my booty. Yet her stack was about half her height.

Funny thing was, she would have devoured most of those books in just a couple days time. She usually went to the biography section. Abigail Adams, Florence Nightingale and Josephine March became her best friends. That was only the beginning for my daughter with an unquenchable appetite for reading.

My other child went straight to the truck and firefighting section. He probably checked out every book they had on firefighting. And his brother loved the animal books. Did we ever read books!

There was an electric charge when we entered the Carnegie Library in Oakland. Since we were members of the museum, we often would sneak the back way through the Hall of Sculpture to get there. We were down there nearly every Sunday, since our church was only a few blocks away.

Going to the library became our ritual. My husband would check out the Science and Technology floor with military aircraft books. I would be just about everywhere. I liked the cookbooks, religion books, and of course finding great read-aloud books and teaching materials, for we home-schooled.

Often we would break up and each head to our favorite section, coming back together, with my daughter and I taking the prizes for collecting the most books.

Our memories were of the old library, before it became modernized. Andrew's Alcove was not to be missed. You could never tell what bargain you would find in there.

We found a prize there one day: Ladder Company 108 with its black-and-white photos of a fire company in Brooklyn. Those books had a big influence on my son, who eight years later became a volunteer firefighter at our local fire station. (He still has the book! He practically memorized that thing.)

I found old pictures of birds mounted on cardboard that were selling for 10 cents each. I still have one of them, in a gold frame with different views of black-capped chickadees, which happened to be my oldest son's favorite bird.

I hung many of these "treasures" on the wall of our school room. In fact, I still h ave more than a few of them, though the last lesson was completed nearly six years ago and most of our fledglings have flown the nest.

I also think that the Carnegie Library had a great deal to do with our daughter graduating with high honors from college with a degree in writing and humanities. Maybe someday she will have a book there gracing the shelves. Thank you, Andrew Carnegie.

Our library habit started quite early. At our local library in Tarentum, we went to story time. The older two had a kind teacher who infused them with a love of books. I remember the children held hands with her and sang together at the end of "school," while their baby brother and I looked on.

This library is now part of the Carnegie. We always took advantage of its Summer Reading Program and special programs for kids.

Before the days of the Internet, I had to tell the librarian my request for home-schooling books and sometimes it would take weeks to get them. Each request had to be painstakingly typed up on a typewriter. Now all I have to do is log onto a page at my computer, press a couple buttons, specify a pickup and voila -- I usually have my book within a matter of days.

Because I am an avowed bibliophile, I appreciate this convenience immensely. If I want a book off Amazon, I will usually order it from the Carnegie first to see if it is worth my money.

I have so many precious recollections tied up with the Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh. If Andrew Carnegie were alive today, I would hug him and tell him what a difference his investment made in all of our lives.

If you don't have a library card, what are you waiting for? Andrew Carnegie and his extraordinary Pittsburgh library system have so much for you to discover. For me, the Carnegie Library has memories that no one can diminish.

Megan Vance of Natrona Heights, a day-care teacher and freelance writer, can be reached at mmvance@msn.com.

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