Both of us got Garland County library cards yesterday. As I talked to the guy who handled the process of getting a card for me (a different person took care of JB), my appreciation for the library increased. It is far more “service” oriented than I would have expected. There are more no-cost programs that are actually interesting than I would have thought there would be…and there are more than I knew about in the branch library we frequented in Dallas.
I put my card to immediate use by requesting a hold on a book that I had wanted to check out (Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, by Haruki Murakami), but which I could not find on the shelf (and online I discovered it was due to be returned to the library tomorrow). Less than an hour later, I got an email saying my book is available for pickup until October 24.
I learned that, after an initial 3-week limited-use period, my library card can be used to check out ebooks, books on tape, and that I can stream films on my iPad. Hmm, this is more than I contemplated I’d get from a library in a town of only 35,000 residents.