The Library

Apparently we have all missed the library more than we knew. It closed, like nearly everything else, sometime in mid-March. It wasn’t until May when it opened for “Curbside Pickup”. My first trip there, I had ordered over 20 books to be picked up! But, finally, it opened its doors to the public again a few weeks ago. I didn’t even realize it was open until I drove over there to pick up a few things. For once, I didn’t care if I had to wear a mask. And Ed says I came home all smiles.

This past weekend, we all went to the library. I had some things to return, an item to pick up, and the kids are always up to going somewhere. Ed, too, wanted out of the house so we all drove our, put on masks, and headed inside. I had already warned the kids that all the puzzles, games, and computers they played on were put away. In fact, the library in general is somewhat like a tomb even if there are a dozen or so adults usually there. I have yet to see any kids. And no wonder with little to do, no cozy nooks to sit it, and no storytimes. My kids were quickly bored. And yet we walked out of there with thirty or more books!

To be honest, I’m a bit confused by it all. I understand that computers, especially ones kids drag their dirty little fingers across, are full of germs. And yet there are computers throughout the library set up as “card catalogs” (to date myself). One hopes the keyboards are frequently cleaned, but who knows. The library also took this time to install self checkout. I think the sole purpose is to distance ourselves from the library staff, but that doesn’t seem to be working out too well. To be honest, I used self checkout systems in Texas over ten years ago that were better than this one. I have had nothing but problems with, which means the staff person hovering about trying to give instructions from six feet away ends up two feet away taking my books from me anyhow.

First of all, if the idea is to eliminate places the public touches, why are they touch screens? In fact, I have to touch the thing to get it to start…and then scan my card…and then touch it again to type in my passcode. I know systems you just scan your card and your account comes up – no touching of anything necessary. And why do I need a passcode? The library has on record public information: address, phone number, date of birth. I can find that with a google search. But just in case I haven’t touched the screen enough, I have to touch it get a receipt or not and log out. Just as the dozen or more people before me have done. As we would say in first grade: I just got Cooties!!!!

I also guess the idea of the big, black pad like thing is to make checkout easy because you can put four books on it and it somehow reads the codes all of all them. Actually, the book only has to be near it – not on it. And while this would logically lead one to believe it faster than running the barcodes under a scanner one at a time, I then have to look at the screen and quickly read each title to make sure it got them all. About 75% of the time it does. The other times, it has a problem with the book so it lights up in red and yellow. These must be put back on the pad. Sometimes more than once. And, if that doesn’t work, the barcode scanned. If that still doesn’t work, that’s when the hovering librarian (who is now three feet away trying to see the screen so she can give further instruction) comes closer to get the book from you and scan it herself. The old fashioned way with the scanner at her checkout computer after I have had to hand her my card. And by the time this whole process is over, I could have saved considerable time if we had started there in the first place. 

I guess I will endure a great many things to spend some time in a library.