10 Reasons I Love Yet Ignore the Library

Posted on 05. Dec, 2009 by kchristieh in books

I’ve always loved libraries. The first library I got to know was the Tenafly Library. I would join the reading club each summer and read as many books as I could. When I moved to the shore, I learned to love the small but robust Fair Haven and Rumson libraries. When I had a big report to write, my mother would drop me off at the Monmouth County Library. I remember spending many a winter and spring break there, while I imagined that my classmates were hitting the slopes of Aspen or sunning themselves on Hilton Head.

When I got to college, I learned to be picky about choosing the right library for the occasion. Meyer Library was the more social library, and I remember someone throwing a dummy off the top floor into the atrium during finals one year in a mock suicide attempt. They put windows up to block the atrium soon after that. When I couldn’t stand the chaos of my dorm desk, I’d head over to the South Stack Mezzanine of Green Library and study like a monk. I think I needed to hide out there since I’d be distracted seeing people anywhere else.

As an adult, I’ve appreciated the classic architecture of the Pasadena Library, and the impressive collection of the downtown Los Angeles Library. My local library, the La Canada Flintridge Library, is functional, especially if I order books online and pick them up there. Our local high school also has a big library with public access hours.

So why can’t I remember the last time I visited a library other than to say “hi” to the high school librarian? Here are a few reasons:

1. I already have a pile of books and magazines waiting to be read.
2. When I decide I want to read a certain book, I put in a request on Bookins, and more often than not I get what I want and just pay the shipping.
3. The wonderful Flintridge Bookstore is up the street, and it stocks the required reading books for our school district. I like to support them since they’re big supporters of our local schools, and since their business suffered when the truck crashed into them last year.
4. Amazon.com. Sorry, but I get free shipping.
5. When I read a book, I don’t always finish in time to return it to the library.
6. My local library is loud, bright and sometimes seems like an afterschool daycare facility. (The picture to the right is not of our local library: it’s a picture of the Camarillo Library, whose interior was designed by The Design Studio.)
7. The library usually doesn’t have what I’m looking for in stock at our local branch. They’re good about ordering online, but that doesn’t help if I’m in a hurry.
8. If I want to listen to an audiobook, I purchase it on iTunes and put it on my iPod.
9. I don’t need to use the computers at the library, since I have one at home. And through it I can access more updated research information than the printed encyclopedia at the library has. (Are there printed copies of encyclopedias anymore?)
10. My dog chewed up my library card, and then I lost it. Seriously. I was hoping to scan it for this post, but I can’t find it.

Someday I’ll probably get an electronic book reading device, which will further decrease the likelihood that I’ll set foot in a library.

This post makes me sad. I feel like I’ve abandoned a loyal old friend. I still support libraries, especially in communities whose residents don’t have the alternate reading resources I do. I fear for the future of libraries…

Links:

• Los Angeles County online book ordering. Have your library number ready!
• More beautiful library interiors designed by my website client, The Design Studio. Why doesn’t our library look this good?
• “Downturn Puts New Stresses on Libraries,” a NY Times article about how the economic situation has made some libraries havens for the downtrodden and thieves, and made librarians more stressed-out.

Tags: bookins, books, college, fair haven, libraries, library, monmouth county library, reading, rumson, stanford, studying, tenafly, the design studio