Library Week

Suggested by Barbara:

I saw that National Library week is coming up in April, and that led to some questions. How often do you use your public library and how do you use it? Has the coffeehouse/bookstore replaced the library? Did you go to the library as a child? Do you have any particular memories of the library? Do you like sleek, modern, active libraries or the older, darker, quiet, cozy libraries?

Last night I dropped by the public library on my way home from work at the university library to pick up a hold (the newly-published Etta for those interested in that kind of thing). I had to manuever past a library aide adding a cartload of books to the hold shelves who was in conversation with a library patron, but no one was in the self-checkout line, and I fingerpoked in my 14-digit library card number (actual library card is rather fragile, so I don't normally carry it) and was back to my car in a couple of minutes.

And that's usually how my trips to the public library go these days. I place holds online, nowhere near as many as I did before I started at the university library a decade ago, go in to retrieve them, and unless one of my former co-workers is at the circ desk (only one is still at this branch by this point) to catch up with, I'm out of there.

The parking lot is always full, though--I often have to park in the overflow lot--and plenty of people spend more time inside than I do. I usually feel a bit silly leaving one library and driving to another--I always tell myself I ought to wait for the university to get the new books I want (usually a lag of a few weeks, but occasionally several months) and use it only for the books too low-brow for it purchase, but I don't always listen.

Booking Through Thursday