The accessibility of libraries
(I have been writing things and leaving them mostly finished and un-posted.)
I haven’t ended up doing very much zooming from home, but I have seen a lot of people who are, in meetings at work or in news reports. And I’ve noticed the people who have bookshelves behind their desk.
I really like how this looks. But while I am a little envious, I am not seriously tempted to change my own set-up. My furniture is arranged so that, from my desk, I have the best view out the window and my bookcases can all fit in this space. The goal here is to maximise my book storage without resulting in piles of books on the floor… or blocking anything too critical, like doorways or lightswitches.
(I can’t open one of my desk drawers because there’s a bookcase in the way. I bought this desk knowing that this would happen.)
I have reasons to be disappointed about the timing of this pandemic, but it has occurred to me that I also have reasons to be grateful that it happened this autumn and not last autumn or any of the autumns in my life before that.
My work situation in previous years would have likely (or, depending on the year, undoubtedly) been precarious. If I look back further to my student days, I can easily think of school years when I would have coped (and perhaps coped happily!) with doing school from home, but I wouldn’t have had access to a library.
I am so very appreciative of being able to access the library on my phone. My library have increased the number of overdrive/libby titles that one can “recommend” each week. I went searching for books to suggest and discovered that Elizabeth Wein has a new book coming out in May!!! The Enigma Game!
I still haven’t read her last book, White Eagles, because my hold came through right before the libraries closed and I didn’t get to pick it up. The catalogue says it is sitting on the shelf at my local branch… and it is a weird feeling, seeing those words but knowing that I can’t go there right now and borrow it.
I miss going to the library. It might be the going part I miss more than the actual library -- the detour on the way home from work or the excuse to go for a quick drive, the feeling of satisfaction in being able to mark off “return books” or “pick up books” my to-do list.
I like going on the evening when the library stays open later, when it is quiet and my presence hopefully reinforces the message that there’s value in staying open late. (I still think they should be open on more evenings, and even later.)
I haven’t always been able to just jump in my car and go to the library. I was thinking about the year after I finished high school when, abruptly, I didn’t have access to a school library and I was old enough that my local library would charge me for any holds.
Looking back, I think I’ve tended to think of my access to books that year in terms of the things I didn’t know yet: I didn’t know how easy it was to get to several of the library’s larger branches via public transport; I hadn’t discovered the good places for finding cheap, secondhand books.
But it dawned on me that the biggest stumbling block was actually that going anywhere cost money. I was still working towards getting my driver’s license so I couldn’t just borrow a car, and my income was sufficiently limited to make me cautious about taking unnecessary trips on public transport.
It was just a year. The following year I had my license and access to university libraries. I visited bookshops and charity shops and public libraries on my way home, so it was part of a journey I was already paying for At some point my library stopped charging for holds and joined an interlibrary library system, and then, later, e-library loans became possible.
Now, even if my library doesn’t get The Enigma Game, I can just buy it. On my phone. Unlike when I was a teenager, I have access to technology and money which make such actions easy and affordable.
It occurs to me that I also am sitting here surrounded by my own personal library. I have a shelf of books I haven’t read yet, and many more filled with books I’d happily reread. I didn’t own anywhere near this many books when I was a teenager.
…how accustomed one can become to the privileges of adulthood and of employment. Originally @ Dreamwidth.
I haven’t ended up doing very much zooming from home, but I have seen a lot of people who are, in meetings at work or in news reports. And I’ve noticed the people who have bookshelves behind their desk.
I really like how this looks. But while I am a little envious, I am not seriously tempted to change my own set-up. My furniture is arranged so that, from my desk, I have the best view out the window and my bookcases can all fit in this space. The goal here is to maximise my book storage without resulting in piles of books on the floor… or blocking anything too critical, like doorways or lightswitches.
(I can’t open one of my desk drawers because there’s a bookcase in the way. I bought this desk knowing that this would happen.)
I have reasons to be disappointed about the timing of this pandemic, but it has occurred to me that I also have reasons to be grateful that it happened this autumn and not last autumn or any of the autumns in my life before that.
My work situation in previous years would have likely (or, depending on the year, undoubtedly) been precarious. If I look back further to my student days, I can easily think of school years when I would have coped (and perhaps coped happily!) with doing school from home, but I wouldn’t have had access to a library.
I am so very appreciative of being able to access the library on my phone. My library have increased the number of overdrive/libby titles that one can “recommend” each week. I went searching for books to suggest and discovered that Elizabeth Wein has a new book coming out in May!!! The Enigma Game!
I still haven’t read her last book, White Eagles, because my hold came through right before the libraries closed and I didn’t get to pick it up. The catalogue says it is sitting on the shelf at my local branch… and it is a weird feeling, seeing those words but knowing that I can’t go there right now and borrow it.
I miss going to the library. It might be the going part I miss more than the actual library -- the detour on the way home from work or the excuse to go for a quick drive, the feeling of satisfaction in being able to mark off “return books” or “pick up books” my to-do list.
I like going on the evening when the library stays open later, when it is quiet and my presence hopefully reinforces the message that there’s value in staying open late. (I still think they should be open on more evenings, and even later.)
I haven’t always been able to just jump in my car and go to the library. I was thinking about the year after I finished high school when, abruptly, I didn’t have access to a school library and I was old enough that my local library would charge me for any holds.
Looking back, I think I’ve tended to think of my access to books that year in terms of the things I didn’t know yet: I didn’t know how easy it was to get to several of the library’s larger branches via public transport; I hadn’t discovered the good places for finding cheap, secondhand books.
But it dawned on me that the biggest stumbling block was actually that going anywhere cost money. I was still working towards getting my driver’s license so I couldn’t just borrow a car, and my income was sufficiently limited to make me cautious about taking unnecessary trips on public transport.
It was just a year. The following year I had my license and access to university libraries. I visited bookshops and charity shops and public libraries on my way home, so it was part of a journey I was already paying for At some point my library stopped charging for holds and joined an interlibrary library system, and then, later, e-library loans became possible.
Now, even if my library doesn’t get The Enigma Game, I can just buy it. On my phone. Unlike when I was a teenager, I have access to technology and money which make such actions easy and affordable.
It occurs to me that I also am sitting here surrounded by my own personal library. I have a shelf of books I haven’t read yet, and many more filled with books I’d happily reread. I didn’t own anywhere near this many books when I was a teenager.
…how accustomed one can become to the privileges of adulthood and of employment. Originally @ Dreamwidth.