A Visit to the Library

It took me a week to make my first visit to the local library and I think that demonstrated great restraint on my part. I took care of practical things like groceries and basic unpacking first. However, one afternoon recently my daughter and I walked to the library.

Let me repeat that. We walked to the library.

I have not lived in an area where we can walk anywhere since I was a child and now I can walk to the library in less than ten minutes. I am determined to like Ohio just because of this fact.

The library is lovely and the librarians were very friendly. One of them saw me snapping a few quick photos on my phone and came over to find out if I was a visiting librarian. I explained I was only a slightly fanatical library lover (who would love to work in a library) and she seemed absolutely thrilled to hear it. She gave me a tour of the whole library, a pamphlet with upcoming activities (mostly on Zoom) and explained how the library system works.

My local library is one of six or seven libraries in a county-wide library network so my card works at any of those libraries. But the county library system is also a part of CLEVNET which is a consortium of 40 library systems in northeast Ohio headquartered at the Cleveland Public Library. I can request books, or visit, any of those libraries. Let me tell you, I can find almost anything I ever want to read in this system. I spent a very happy evening punching in titles of books I have been looking to buy for years and have not been able to afford. Many of them are in the system. I have already requested five books as a test case to see how long it takes for things to arrive at my library.

The branch in the next town south of us has a MakerSpace and my son is thrilled about that. It has a 3D printer, a laser engraver, an embroidery machine, and a ton of other equipment that I can’t even remember right now. All you have to do is book a time slot and you can use it for free.

I didn’t take a lot of photos because I was feeling a bit conspicuous but these give you an idea of what the library near me looks like.

I want it to be winter so I can spend an afternoon at the library reading a stack of books in front of that fireplace. Also, any library that views shopping carts and baskets as necessary has my approval. If you look at the stack of books in the photo at the top of this post you can see what I checked out on that first visit. I was absolutely thrilled to find the British Library Crime Classics. I realized after I got them home that I had already read one on my Kindle but I am still very happy that they were there. I have had Mudlarking and How to be a Victorian on my list of possible book purchases for ages now. I have now read them both and highly recommend them.

Have I mentioned there is a used bookstore only two miles or so from my house?