Yesterday was a red letter day for Cohen and Brinley. I took them to our public library and they were able to get their first library card. They were really proud and excited! It was rather sweet. Our local library just opened a beautiful new building so it is a special treat for them to go there. Cohen said to me, “Daddy, I think this is the best library in the whole world!”

Unfortunately there was a downside to the visit: poor service from library staff. The circulation staff were as slow as molasses in January, for one thing. Then when I asked for a book that was listed in their catalog as “in process,” I was told that they don’t do processing on Saturdays so I couldn’t have it. Great service, folks. Having a very good idea of what is involved in library processing, this kind of response was pretty insulting. Then as I waited for several minutes at the children’s reference desk, the staff member ignored me in favor of giving a grand tour of the new facility to some other people. I just gave up after awhile.

Overall, though, it is a very nice facility with generally nice people. I just think that they are still too much in the old, sleepy, nearly unused library mode. Plus, I am sure they are paid very little. One of the cool things there is that the whole collection now has RFID tags, and you can very easily check out materials on your own just by setting your books on a special pad and scanning your library card’s barcode.

One other thing about local libraries that is of interest is the fact that the library system to which our library belongs – the North Suburban Library System – has basically been forced to lay off all staff and shut down all operations due to the fact that the State of Illinois has not supplied any of their funds. As a result there is no more interlibrary loan and other services that people expect. Pretty sad. And this is a problem everywhere in the state.