Bookz on the Hood

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As I was writing my post yesterday I went out to the living room to get my MLA.  In answer to my husband's look I said, there's a bibliography.  "Of course there is," he said with a laugh.

After he read the post he asked if there were links to Amazon if people wanted to buy the books.  No, I borrowed all the books from the library.  The local libraries are linked in a system called CLAMS (librarians' general penchant for acronyms and a bit of Cape Cod humor) short for Cape Libraries Automated Materials Sharing, Inc.  My local library doesn't always have what I want to read, but the system handles requests and moves books around on a daily basis.  Just depends on how many people are in front of me when I request a book.

In my first library job at the BPL I worked in the office that handled interlibrary loans, since then requesting books has always seemed like a no-brainer.

My local library closed in March.  In June they started offering curbside pickup service.  By that time I had over a dozen books requested.  The order of what I got was random.  Other folks were requesting the same books as I was.  Some libraries in the system were filling requests, others not.  When a book came in I got notified.  Pick up was limited to 2 hours, 3 days a week.  We'd park in designated spaces at the library, call them up, tell them our name, what parking space we were in, and the color of our car.  A library staff member would come out with the books in a plastic bag.  She'd place the bag on the hood of our car and leave.  . . books on the hood!  We would then get out of our car, retrieve the bag of books and drive away.  (my husband gets credit for the title of this post, as well as reminding me how good the movie Boyz n the Hood is).

The pick up system has been modified. Now it's 5 days a week, 2 hours each day.  You still call, but now we are the ones walking up the 18 steps and picking the books up on a table with a plexiglass shield.  Safer for the staff and less required exercise for their legs!

I love libraries.  My town library has the lovely name of Brewster Ladies Library because it was founded by a group of women.  Everyone has always been welcome!  It has retained it's quirky name because this is New England and history is important.  BLL History