I went ahead and applied for a Cuyahoga County Public Library card, today. It’s been years since I’ve had a library card and used a public library. If I recall correctly, I would have to say that the last time I used a public library was somewhere around 1994 and I couldn’t even tell you what I used it for – probably research for a paper in high school or something. Of course, in college, using the UGLI at the University of Michigan was common. But that was a massive library and a full online catalog and, let’s face it, I simply had to use it. This time around, I’m looking to investigate the catalog to see if I can at least preview some books before buying them or read some books without having to buy them. So I went online, filled out the application and my new library membership card is on its way to me.
My primary goal, here, is to get my hands on a number of books that I really don’t want to buy, but do want to read. Mostly, these would be reference books about business, investing, do-it-yourself books and fix-it manuals, and others might include cooking, travel and some IT books that are expensive and out of date as soon as they are published. This came about after seeing some books that I thought I wanted to buy but which ended up being examples of situations where you are looking at one book that is part of a series. So I’m standing there thinking that I surely don’t want to buy all of the books… can they really all be worth the money? Why do I want to buy 4 books so I can get the value I am looking for out of the one?
So we’ll see what happens. I’ve been browsing the online catalog for the library and it seems they do have a large percentage of these books that I am looking for at branches that are all pretty quick access to where we live. I have a card number and my cards will arrive in the mail, shortly. Might as well start getting some value out of those tax dollars we’ve spent funding the thing with, eh? The experience is set to begin, soon.
