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Sunday, January 17, 2010

Library

I don't believe I have talked much about our library situation down here in Price Edward County. Last year I was incredibly spoiled living in Arlington County. The libraries were excellent. The search database was online, so I could find any book I wanted before I got there. I could also put in my library card number, choose all the books I wanted, reserve them, and then they would be waiting for me at the front check-out desk when I got there. Chris could log in with the library card number and order his own books without telling me and when I went to check out, the librarian would simply inform me that I had books reserved and go get them for me. It was an excellent system. Very efficient. Did I mention I could renew all my books online, so I didn't have to go in if I wasn't done with them? The final benefit (which may not seem like a benefit to all of you readers out there) was that the library had FREE parking. In Arlington, free parking anywhere was practically non-existent...

Well, as you can probably guess, the library here has free parking! Parking isn't quite the issue that it was in Arlington. But that's kind of where the similarities end. There is no online book catalog, and honestly, instead of dealing with the minuscule hassle that threw my way, I gave up on the public library. I know it sounds lame, but I never know what I want to read and if I can't search online beforehand, it takes up so much time!

So I have chosen to use the H-SC library instead. And that means no more girly books for me. I don't even think this place has heard of Jodi Picoult. The library offers tons of research books and a lot of classics, which was one of the contributing factors to why I decided to start in on the book list I mentioned awhile back. I struggle to come up with classics to read, and while the library doesn't have many of the books on this list, it has a lot of them which will keep me busy for a year or two at the least.

The one thing I don't have to do down here at an all guys school is wait. I have almost never looked for a book online to find that it was already checked out. My thought is that a lot of these guys don't read :) Surprisingly though when I went to check out the dvd of Gone With the Wind, it was checked out! So I guess they watch movies - even girly ones.

This is the check-out stamps for the last book I was reading. Four people have checked this book out in the last 13 years. That's it. One in 1997, one in 2002, one last year, and then me. Plus, since I'm on staff, I get to check out books for a semester at a time (a total of four months) instead of for just two weeks. So all-in-all, I guess I'm reading better quality books so I shouldn't complain :)

6 comments:

Mr.T said...

Wow! I haven't seen a stamped library card in QUITE a while!

Dorothy said...

That stamped card takes me back to elementary school memories - and I am OLD!

jennie said...

you should write your name next to your stamp to catalog this moment in history. it could be years before it's checked out again

Patty said...

I, too, think back to my childhood when I see those stamps! I'm glad you are really into the classics; that way it won't be so frustrating. We have a great library system up here!!

Elizabeth said...

i'm glad you're still keeping up with your reading in spite of the hassle! do you know anyone who has a kindle? i hate reading on the computer but am really curious about what it's like.

maggie said...

I'm impressed with all these reading blogs! I'm glad you found a semi-decent library. Keep us updated on those classics! And hooray for stamped time cards... not those receipts you get these days and I end up losing :)