Library fever

Today, I visited the downtown branch of the Austin Public Library. I have a feeling I'll be going there regularly from now on. The branch nearest where I live is closed several days a week, and it has pretty slim pickings compared to the four story building I saw tonight. Several times over the last few months, I went to the local branch looking for a book only to find there was a copy at another branch, but not where I was was.

Libraries in general don't seem to get the credit they deserve. The ones in Texas that I've visited have all carried CD's and DVD's in addition to books and magazines, and it would take some time to get through all the movies alone. It would be cheaper for me to ditch Netflix and start checking DVD's out of the library, if only they carried every title I want.

I never cease to be amazed at the variety of books carried by most libraries, even when they don't have the exact title I want. At one library, I found a mid-20th-century edition of a book that billed itself as the complete history of human warfare. It was about 2,000 pages long. If I hadn't been moving shortly, I might have checked it out. Flipping through it, I saw that it started with the cavemen.

Librarians have a stuffy reputation, but one of the more amusing consequences of the passage of the Patriot Act was the reaction to Section 215 letting the Justice Department access records of what books anyone with a library card had checked out, under the rubric of a "terrorism investigation". They don't have to be suspected of any wrongdoing whatsoever. I remember reading shortly after its passage that some librarians were so enraged they began destroying the records so the government wouldn't have the opportunity to get ahold of them. Now that's serving the patron. Here, they place a sign on the door warning everybody of the possible consequences of using the library, and stating they will comply with the law. I wonder if that's had any effect on the usage American libraries have seen since September 11th.