Kevin's Watch

went to the library today and i am very impressed and thought others would like to brag on their library system.

i am a patron of the Brazoria County (Texas)

Alvin, Angleton, Brazoria, Brazoria County Historical Museum, Clute, Danbury, Freeport, Lake Jackson, Manvel, Pearland, Pearland Westside, Sweeny, West Columbia.

it is a interloan system and my card is good at any of the libraries. i have put the ones i've been to in bold.

Layna is the woman in charge of our local Angleton branch and she has worked wonders. where ther eused to be a handful of graphic novels she has a couple hundred just in our branch. and a wide variety - marvel, dc, image and many independent companies. and of course i have borrowed most of the other branches grapic novels.

we are in the monthly book club - this month is the Invisible Man (HG Wells) - a book i recomended. but we have a wide variety including many i would never read on my own. and we get to vote on what we read.

Julie has done amazing geneology research there. going back a lot further than i thought possible.

the are very current on books, audio books and (surprise!) movies to check out. I just saw they had Zombieland today.

public computers for thos ewho need them.

bcls.lib.tx.us/branches/ang/angleton.asp#BookClub

and much, much more.

ok - your turn people.

library.arlingtonva.us/Departments/Libraries/LibrariesMain.aspx

Only been to the Shirlington branch so far. The second trip was better than the first -- I found a bunch of novels in the new-book section that I hadn't read.

Sadly, tho, the county is cutting library hours again on July 1st. Seems like the county board (like most municipalities) believes libraries are an unnecessary expenditure. But they're not -- for all the reasons Sarge mentions.

Plus: here, you can do inter-library loan with a bunch of the surrounding jurisdictions. If I can't find a book at my local library, maybe Fairfax County or Alexandria will have it. (Actually, I've moved so many times around here that I have library cards from Fairfax Co., Alexandria, and Prince William Co. as well as Arlington. )

Plus: did you know you can rent out a meeting room at your local public library? Usually for next to nothing?

This is a big issue for me because Batty is in the process of earning a masters in library science. But between the funding cutbacks and the Baby Boomer librarians deciding to put off retiring 'til their retirement accounts recover...I dunno whether she'll be able to get a job as easily as she had hoped. And she's wanted to be a librarian forever.

Yay for libraries!