I did something shocking yesterday. I actually went to my local library. I can honestly say that this is the first time I'd been to a library since I moved to the States. I typically buy books instead of "checking them out" and do research on the net so I'd never really felt the need to visit a library.
Libraries are not how I remember them however (er, welcome to the year 2002). Instead of a card index telling you where to find books you now have all singing all dancing search engines running on lovely brand spanking new Dell's, this was an eye-opener for me :-)
and they do far more than loan books. A library is often the heart of a community with the librarian being a valuable resource on where to find information as well as what's going on around town. Libraries are a great place to people-watch as well. In Finland, libraries have public internet access terminals. Seattle was the first city in the US to go fully digital with their card catalogue in 1990 or so. Libraries should be cherished.
The first thing I do after mailing myself a letter at a new address is go down to the public library and get a card since I don't technically reside anywhere I don't have a library card and I don't move to anywhere that doesn't have a library.
Re:Libraries are the soul of culture
chaoticset on 2002-03-18T18:31:42
In Finland, libraries have public internet access terminals.I know they have them at the Bangor Public Library, but now I'm curious as to just how ubiquitous that is in the US.
Re:Libraries are the soul of culture
vek on 2002-03-18T18:46:34
The library I was in yesterday had loads of public internet access terminals.Re:Libraries are the soul of culture
koschei on 2002-03-19T04:27:25
Best thing about Tasmania is/was its libraries. All the libraries in the state were part of the same one, hence you could happily get books from any of the libraries to the one most convenient to you. The catalogue has been electronic since the mid eighties (and you used to be able to telnet in to access it, place holds, etc.; nowadays there's a web interface).
Quite nice really.
