Ordered books from an actual library

[jack]

I ordered books from an actual library! Thanks to rmc for the idea!

I looooove libraries, both big and small, but not since I was young have I ever regularly actually *used* them for getting books. Partly that I wasn't organised enough to return books unless there were more I wanted. And I wasn't organised enough to order books for several days time and know I'd have time to pick them up. Partly that most books I really wanted I usually wanted to own, and were often a bit obscure, or more easily available cheaply online than by *going* somewhere.

But now, I suddenly realised when someone pointed it out, I _am_ organised enough to borrow books and return them and I _can_ order them to arbury, and there's several books I'd like to read but don't want to own, or want to buy but don't want the hardback for and the paperback hasn't come out yet. And I can order them to Arbury Court library, and go and pick them up on the way to work, and it's ok if I go and pick them up and am not in the GIANT library to browse because I already know what I want.

PS1. And I feel more like reserving books I want to read is usefully supporting the library rather than denying them to someone who needs them more (?)

PS2. Why don't they make more SMALL hardbacks? I'd be happy to pay more for a book sooner and sturdier, if it didn't take up the place of three of my other books!? :)

Comments

[spaceoperadiva]

We used to have this thing called interlibrary loan, where the local library could get books from a larger library in its system. Some of the books I got to see through interlibrary loan were very obscure, not available at all for sale, or were incredibly expensive. It was a lovely service that doesn't seem to be offered where I live now. And you can always buy your own copy (if available) if you discover that you liked a book more than you imagined.

[jack]

I primarily learned about interlibrary loan from reading Cryptonomicon... :) But IIRC when I was on the Cambridgeshire libraries website, it was one of the options (I didn't even know if it was the same thing in the UK). It's sad you don't have it.

I always felt obscurely presumptuous at reserving books at all (IIRC libraries within a county share books automatically, and ILL only applies between counties, but I'm not sure), it never occurred to me to order obscure things. But there was no reason for that, I'm not sure how I started thinking like that.

I love the idea of finding the just one right obscure book for a topic someone wants...

[spaceoperadiva]

I also feel strangely presumptuous when reserving books, especially if it's a waiting list with lots of people on it. It feels less bad to reserve books that I know few other people will read.

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's how ILL works here. You can also return any Cambridgeshire book to any Cambridgeshire library, not just the one it came from or the one it nominally lives in.