Really lovely imagery and a nice tribute to the permanence of paper.

thinking about ‘the multitude of sticky fingers and careless restocking’
and ‘the familiar friends with predictable responses’ make me smile about my library experiences – I agree, a really nice tribute!

The flow felt a little choppy, but not bad, and I really liked the overall message. I liked the line about ‘sticky hands’ too—created a nice visual of eager kids tugging books off shelves to explore them.

I liked the message as well – the last line really makes this piece – though I feel the alliteration is at times jarring (perhaps you could add some assonance instead, to enrich the work).