I have recently fallen in love. With the library. I know that this is a fairly basic concept-- you check out books as you please and return them before the due date. If you don't, then you renew it or pay a fine. When I was little, I used to go to the library in my hometown and participate in their summer reading programs and they had all these prizes for reading a certain number of pages. I loved it.
I have lived in Oakland for over two years and hadn't gotten a library card because I thought you had to have some sort of government issued photo ID with an Oakland address on it.. not so! Apparently you just need ID and a piece of mail.
Once you get a library card in Oakland, you have to return two items on time before you can check anything else out, and then all of a sudden you can check out forty items. Yes, that's right-- FORTY items. I don't know why they think they can trust me with returning 40 things after giving back just two on time, but maybe it's all part of genius plot to profit off of late fees. Never mind that you can actually login to your account online and see everything you have checked out at a glance.
I love being in the library. Just having books checked out has made me get into the habit of reading more. Goodreads tells me that I've read six books in the past month (a pretty large increase from.. zero).
Navigating the library has been a lot of fun so far, and I've only visited the Main Branch. The staff have been really nice and helpful, too. According to the website, there are something like 20 libraries in Oakland-- one of them is even a Tool Lending Library. And I'm going to visit them all.
Post on the Main Branch coming soon!
 |
| A scene from Wet Hot American Summer |
Nancy: What?
Henry: Camp directing, I guess. Would that be...
Nancy: Henry. HENRY! Library.
No comments:
Post a Comment