Any one that knows me probably knows that I love the public library.  How great is it to be able to check out books, movies, cd’s etc for free.  I’ve been going to the library since I was a kid.  My mom used to take me to the Newhall branch of the Los Angeles County libraries.  At the time you could borrow less-in-demand VHS tapes for free and the newer tapes were $2.00 or something like that.  Once I got into music I would start borrowing tapes and cd’s.  I think I also remember that when I was a kid I’d borrow the “Choose Your Own Adventure” books as well, and I’d check out a lot of them, more than I could possibly read in the amount of time I was allowed to borrow them.  I still tend to borrow more than I will have time to read, watch or listen to.

When I was in high school I discovered the County Library’s catalog.  I didn’t have the internet so I’d have to go to the library to acccess it.  But you could search for any book or movie or whatever and if one of the County libraries had it you could request it transferred to your preferred library (for me that was Valencia) and check it out.  Awesome!  I definitely took advantage of that.

When I moved to Tempe Arizona, I ventured to the Tempe library and was swept off my feet by the amount of Criterion Collection DVD’s they had.  I think they had almost every single title….almost.  So of course I went there every couple of days to return the films I had watched and get the maximum I could check out.  At the time I wasn’t working because I was going to the Conservatory, so I had quite a bit of time to watch movies.  It was the best.

I just got my first City of Los Angeles Library Card.  It’s for different libraries than the County card.  There is a branch by our house, the Encino-Tarzana branch.  The idea was that I wouldn’t have to drive all the way back to Valencia to access a library.  But I was struck by the differences in checkout policy.  I haven’t discovered if it’s just a difference between City and County or if every branch has it’s own policies.  At Valencia, you can check out a maximum of 50 items at a time.  Any combination, so if I want to check out 50 dvd’s I can (I think).  DVD’s are a week-long checkout, books and cd’s are a 3-week checkout.  You can renew items online up to 3 times each item.  So unless someone else has requested an item that I have checked out I could potentially have a dvd for 3 weeks.  For free.  Awesome!  The late fee is 25 cents per day for media and I think 15 cents per book.  This has come in handy for Scary Movie Month for sure, when Amy and I want to cram as many movies in as possible.  However, at the Encino Branch I can only check out 3 dvd’s at a time for 2 days and you can’t renew them online or at all.  I have to return them and wait for them to be reshelved before I can check them out again.  And the late fee is 2 dollars per day.  Holy Crap, that’s terrible compared to the Valencia Library.  I don’t think I can request Media items transferred to different branches either, but I’m not positive on that yet since I just got my card on Monday and I’ve checked out 6 dvd’s and one book.  So it looks like I’ll still be using the Valencia Library since it’s the best deal in the world.  Seriously, I love the library so much.  And it makes me sad when people don’t use this wonderful resource.  I just want to say thanks to my parents for taking me when I was a kid and introducing me to the public library.  I want to go to different libraries all over the country and compare them and take advantage of all they have to offer.  Even if most staff at libraries that I’ve encountered are kind of rude and seem lazy and seem like they don’t care about helping you if it means they have to do actual work.   Ok, I still love the library despite that aspect.  I have at least 10 items on hold for me at Valencia as we speak (and 3 of those are Raffi Cd’s from the late 70’s that Daniel Lanois contributed to.  Of course I wouldn’t buy them, but what better way to check them out and see if I like them.)

Currently Listening to:  Doris Troy – Doris Troy LP (1970)

wonderful Soul Singer’s lone Apple records release with contributions from George Harrison, Klaus Voorman, Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton etc.  How could it be bad?