Library Card

You probably know that Hubby and I reside in “the flatlands,” as Cousin Ambrose describes it. But we live in the Blue Ridge, which makes a difference if I want to go to the public library, or so I thought.

Last Saturday I went armed with our tax records and a recent electric bill to prove residency in our mountain county. And of course, when I requested a library card, the first question was: are you a resident? Not really, but I am a taxpayer. They probably love hearing that, but it worked.

The nice lady at the counter entered all my information into the computer and then began to frown. The last time I saw a frown in the public library was in 7^th grade, when the floor walker (or The Husher) ejected my friend and me from the library for talking. The talkers were sitting at the next table. My friend and I were quietly working on a North Carolina history project. We could have argued with the man, but I was only 13 years old and had been taught not to backtalk my elders. I eventually forgave him. I made an A on my report, I passed 7^th grade, and he is probably 120 years old by now anyway, so does it really matter?

But I digress. The lady behind the counter was frowning. No, she wasn’t planning to eject Hubby and me from the library for talking. She informed me that the card I use in the flatlands was already in the system and I didn’t need a new one at the mountain location. Nice. So I headed toward the Agatha Christie section.

It was pretty slim pickins over there. But our town is small, so I suppose the Agatha Christie section should be comparative. I chose 2 books. I specifically chose those 2 books because they were the entire Agatha Christie section. Again – comps.

I headed for the self-check computer. It rejected my card number and wanted a password, something extremely difficult because: a) I don’t have a library password, b) I’ve never needed a library password, and c) there was no keyboard to type a password in, even if I DID have a password. Back to the information desk, which was okay, because the nice lady – I’ll just call her Nancy because we were becoming good friends (and are probably even cousins if we check back far enough) – knew me by now and was most likely waiting for me to reappear up there.

Nancy simply did not understand why my card didn’t work. Probably operator error, which I will accept, because I err a lot when I’m operating technical equipment. She walked me over to the self-check and couldn’t get my card to work either (ahh – sweet victory) and got annoyed with the computer for wanting a password when I didn’t have one and didn’t have a keyboard to put one in even if I did have a password. So we walked back to the information desk together and she checked me out up there. Point to ponder: what is the difference between the self-check and the front desk scanners? Nancy also asked me to please come back on a weekday when the tech guy is there so he can fix everything.

This is a problem because weekdays are flatland days. And I really don’t want to spend another hour waiting for the tech guy to finish up with the other victims in line in front of me at the information desk, only to be told that he doesn’t know how this came about and just bring my books up to the desk and someone will be happy to check me out. It’s difficult to imagine someone being happy to do something for a library patron when that patron should be able to do things for herself. And really, if the library system is sophisticated enough to detect that I already have a card somewhere else in the state, why isn’t it sophisticated enough to let me breeze through the self-check machine without assistance?

I was complaining to a cousin about this problem and he was wise enough to advise me that this is probably not worth launching a multi-agency investigation into the mysteries of state library card interoperability, so I should simply continue to stand in line and check out my books at the information desk.

I just hope that the next time I go to the mountain library, there are some different Agatha Christie books to choose from. If not, I went to a whole lot of trouble to check out the only 2 Agatha Christies in the county.