Saturday 13 March 2010

Library

As my library books were again overdue, I decided last weekend that I really ought to return them. I love libraries and enjoy meandering through the aisles of shelves so it always comes as a bit of a surprise to me when my books become overdue. Visits to the library are not painful, or embarassing, (most of the time) and I really should make the effort to go more often. Because I was returning my books and not the childrens books it took only a few minutes to gather them together as opposed to the frantic searching through every room in the house. The fact that there is no fine to pay on overdue childrens books is not helpful to people like me, who, due to the complete absence of punishment for late returns will hold onto the kids books for so long that I no longer remember what they are, let alone where they are. The battle cry of "Right then! We need to find the library books!" is met with zero enthusiasm and very little co-operation. Occasionally I will end up with an unsteady tower of books being built beside me, only to discover that we in fact own every one. Even when we, (I), have gathered them together and happily slid them across the desk to the librarian, you can bet that there will be at least one that I have missed.
Anyway, I finally got my act together and went to return my books. My thoughts wandered to the next task on my mental checklist as I walked up the ramp and through the sliding door. I made my way absent mindedly to the issue desk. But wait! What issue desk?! Where is the desk? I was completely shocked and disoriented to find the desk had gone, along with the librarians and instead were two blue glowing machines, cousins perhaps of the ticket issuing machines found in multistorey car parks. As I stood there toally confused a library person mysteriously appeared and came to my rescue. I anxiously clutched my books as she gave me an expertly brief tutorial on the new 'librarians'. These are the libraries new toys and they really are something to marvel at. Now when you borrow or return books, you just put them into a little recess in the front of the thing, where it then scans and displays the titles. You dont even have to put books in one at a time, oh no, you can put in a whole pile of books and the titles will quickly pop up on the screen! Wow! You then scan your library card, (this is accompanied by a very satisfying beep) and it gives you a little print out of the return date. It also allows you to pay a fine and give you change. Amazing!
It was so clever, I kept waiting for it to speak to me and I was as unashamedly impressed as my parents were when introduced to the wonderful world of text messaging. The children will of course grow up with this, they wll not remember any different and my telling them how it used to be will be as effective as my dad pointing out his old school to me and my brother when we were children. We looked, but we just didnt get it, the significance, the cast ofs of time.
Progress. It really is amazing, incredible even. Call me old fashioned, but I will miss the contact with a person, even if they do barely crack a smile, I will miss the stamping of the book. I will even miss the slight shame of handing over a book I know should have been back a week ago whilst mumbling a sort of apology.
There is however one plus point of the new automated system. These helpful devices print off a list of the titles you have borrowed, so no more wondering if 'Duck in Trouble' does actually belong to us or not. Unfortunately though, it is not going to help me find them.