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One thing my unemployment has done for me is encourage me to use the library more. In doing so, I've discovered something -- I sucked at using the library. To be fair, I have reason for this. As I was growing up (the last time I used the library), our county library was it. They didn't have interlibrary loan, they didn't have any association they were a part of... what they had was what they had. You wanted to read it, fine. You didn't, that was fine too. You wanted to read something that wasn't there? Better hope the bookstore's kind to you.
This developed a certain sort of odd blindness in me when I went to the library -- any library, really. For research, I could look for a certain topic and take what they had, naturally. But research was the only reason I'd use the catalog. Otherwise I'd go, browse a likely section, and take whatever looked somewhat interesting. If the branch didn't have something I was interested in, I'd just skip it and go to the store. Given that my local branch here in Seattle (the first time I'd used a library in years) serves a population whose reading tastes differ somewhat from my own, this meant that I didn't use the library very much. The thought of looking for a specific title might occur to me, but if it weren't physically there I wouldn't bother. The idea of holds (waiting weeks/months for a book?!?) was abhorrent to me, because who knew if I'd even remember it by the time I got it?
Oh gentle reader, how silly I was.
In need of a particular title, I went to the website and peruse the catalog. I didn't need it immediately and they didn't have it, but they could get it in theory from another western Washington library, so I decided to put an interlibrary loan request out. And then I started looking through other books, and decided "what the heck" and asked for holds. They were knitting books, so it's not like I need them now. And then suddenly there they were, a few days later! OMG! And then when I went in I got more books Before The Ones I Had Were Due! And then some more holds came in!
I'm now rich in books, some of which I'd wanted to read for a long time. Of course, not like I don't have a billion other things that need doing, but still! I stand amazed and proud, having conquered my general use library ignorance. Boo yah.
This developed a certain sort of odd blindness in me when I went to the library -- any library, really. For research, I could look for a certain topic and take what they had, naturally. But research was the only reason I'd use the catalog. Otherwise I'd go, browse a likely section, and take whatever looked somewhat interesting. If the branch didn't have something I was interested in, I'd just skip it and go to the store. Given that my local branch here in Seattle (the first time I'd used a library in years) serves a population whose reading tastes differ somewhat from my own, this meant that I didn't use the library very much. The thought of looking for a specific title might occur to me, but if it weren't physically there I wouldn't bother. The idea of holds (waiting weeks/months for a book?!?) was abhorrent to me, because who knew if I'd even remember it by the time I got it?
Oh gentle reader, how silly I was.
In need of a particular title, I went to the website and peruse the catalog. I didn't need it immediately and they didn't have it, but they could get it in theory from another western Washington library, so I decided to put an interlibrary loan request out. And then I started looking through other books, and decided "what the heck" and asked for holds. They were knitting books, so it's not like I need them now. And then suddenly there they were, a few days later! OMG! And then when I went in I got more books Before The Ones I Had Were Due! And then some more holds came in!
I'm now rich in books, some of which I'd wanted to read for a long time. Of course, not like I don't have a billion other things that need doing, but still! I stand amazed and proud, having conquered my general use library ignorance. Boo yah.
