Do you still use your local library?

Libraries now are known as Idea Store and, depending on the branch, they offer an extensive list of services, mostly online, including access to e-books, e-audio books, magazines and papers. Our local one rents out DIY tools. You can also get cheap printing and they have computers and wi-fi. Idea Stores have a "warm hub" which is an area for local residents who are worried about heating their homes and/or are isolated. Many (if not all) also run family activities. There was a pilot scheme which borrowed "digitally excluded" residents a tablet for up to three months. The ones near us seem popular with school children who go there after school to study or do homework.

My memory of visiting the library as a child was being taken into a musty old building which smelt of wood and old books and there would be tables and chairs and silence - one whisper and you'd be shushed, too much noise and you would be escorted off the premises.

Although the Idea Store is much more community based than the libraries they replaced, I do miss those rows of dusty books and silence. :)
 

Our branch is normally filled with students, as well as adults using the branch computer, and people just sitting & reading. As far as I know, there are not problems with vagrants.
 
Pinky said:
Our branch is normally filled with students, as well as adults using the branch computer, and people just sitting & reading. As far as I know, there are not problems with vagrants.
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No problem here either. Although, the last time I went was just to do some printing but, I know a lot of local people use the Idea Store and they love it.
 

MACKTEXAS said:
No. I haven't been to my library in years. Anything I want to read can be found online. I've thought of going to the library to check out movies, but then I'd have to go back and return them. I'd just as soon buy those for a discounted price at thrift stores so I can watch it again sometime later on.
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I use Thrift books a lot. My collection is really growing.
 
We use the library primarily to pick up DVD's. We have a large network of libraries and we can order DVD's (and of course, books) from about 15 locations. I also like to walk to the library, prinmarily in winter, and peruse the papers and magazines.
 
CooCooforCoCoPuffs said:
The last time I went the stench from all the homeless vagrants and noise from poorly supervised and unsupervised kids made it impossible to "enjoy". This happened three times in a row, three different branches of the libraries in Tucson. They also have security agents sitting at a podium at the entry door of each library in certain parts of town. Two of the three bathrooms were filthy, destroyed.

So very sad because I used to absolutely love going to libraries. I used to enjoy taking my children to libraries and they knew how to behave in one, too. But what mother would take children to a filthy library infested with homeless people?
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I noticed about 20 years ago some of the new people at my church allowed their children to run and yell during the service. A friend of mine said that their culture was to not disciple kids until they were much older. No respect for the place, like the library, so I stopped going since they were wanted, not us older folks who wanted to hear the sermon.

Yes, the stench makes my nose burn but the fights and yelling is more than I can handle.

I must be getting old with all my complaints. LOL
 
Marcy Sheiner said:
I'm curious to know what you think of the Anne Tyler, when you get to it.
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Three chapters in I'm having a good time with this story. It is set only a little before my own childhood and there is much to identify with. My father was mostly absent but did not abandon us in the way Pearl's husband did her and their family. But, like the family in this story, my mother was the only adult on hand with a limited budget. As in this story my older brother resented the limitations imposed by our family's financial restrictions and blaming on our parents' shortcomings. My older brother and the Cody character shared the same cruel, bullying character and unhappiness. Unlike Ezra I had one younger brother before you came to my one and only sister and then 3 more brothers after that.

I don't identify with Ezra so much as I see my very youngest brother as being like him in feeling everyone's pain. But like Ezra I just took the finances in stride and was grateful for what we had. It was obvious that my mother was stretched thin and my father was sending all he made to her. My older brother was an a**hole.
 
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debodun said:
Only to visit the small food pantry they have. It's mostly produce (fruits and veggies) and eggs. Rarely they have cheeses and yogurt. This time of year while quantity is not the issue, but it doesn't have much variety - mostly apples, potatoes and other root veggies (carrots and parsnips), cabbage and onions. In the summer they have a lot more to offer, understandably. I usually get apples every week and potatoes and eggs when needed. Two weeks ago there was one ball of mozzarella cheese and I snatched that. Wednesday afternoon is the best time - I think the food is brought in that morning.
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Why are you using a food pantry, Deb? They're generally intended for people of such limited financial means that they can't afford groceries.
 
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