Reading the British Library Systems Hypnotizing Matrix
I like some books. Have I ever told you the story about my father, and our “vacations”? Well, they would go something like this. Hey kids!, guess what? Aunt Edna needs help moving all the way across the country, so I know what we’ll doooo. Let’s pack up a truck with her stuff and move it for her. And on the way, we shall see what we see! I kid you not. While my friends were going to Wally World, I was stuck in a truck going a regulated 45 miles an hour in an unairconditioned UHaul truck cabin. But the icing on the cake? Definitely when my dad would yell out in a mock surprised voice… “Kids! Oh Look! Another University! Let’s stop and see the library.”
Seriously.
I may have over exaggerated the rest of this story… but this last bit was a direct quote. So we would putter the 30 foot truck into the university parking lot, and we would all get out and visit the libraries of some of the most prestigious libraries in the world. This is what we did for “fun”. And yet, I look back on many of those convenient pit stops with fondness, but only because of my later in life come to Jesus conversion with books. I always liked books as a young kid, but I didn’t become a libravore until maybe my 8th or 9th grade year. (IF you are curious as to whether or not you are a libravore, take this little unofficial test. When you walk into a new library to get a library card, is the very first question out of your mouth when you find the first book-baby-sitter (otherwise known as librarian, but clueless people), “What is the maximum number of books that I can take out at a single time?” If so, you are definitely a Libravore. Also, if you know what a card catalogue is… you are immediately in the libravore club. Microfiche? Um, no bonus points there, it just means you are an OLD Libravore. But I digress.) So I think back to those hallowed halls of biblio goodness and smile. (Small aside, my father also took me to every state capital along the way on one traversal of the United States… definitely don’t recall that with the same kind of fondness, and I was a Political Science major even.)
Anyway, all that to say I find libraries to be amazing. Take for example the fact that here in the United States you have the power to get any book sent to you, for free, from any other United States library system. And if none of them have it? No worries, the Library of Congress will ship it to you for free. I once walked up to the Library of Congress and expected to walk in and browse the stacks. Yeah, no dice. No one walks in to browse the stacks. No no no. I even pulled out my Senate Staffer badge in an attempt to be let in. “No no, Mr. Holmes, please just write the books on this sheet and we’ll have them brought to your office later this afternoon.” Which was an AWESOME perk, I might add. But not what I was hoping for.
magic of Interlibrary Loaning a book. Faeries do magic and voila, amazingness. It is a video of all the check-ins and check-outs within the British Library System. I see a line pop on the screen and I want to know about the person, and the book and I want to check it out too just to learn about that thing. For example, I saw a book titled, The Fall of the Romanovs: 1995, and I’m dying to read it. Mainly because I want to know what I’m missing out on that this British Library Patron is partaking in.
But to see these lines of books cascade by is a miracle to me. Just so many distinct ideas and experiences and learning moments. Such a singular goodness filled video from top to bottom. I adore this thing more than I can even express. And sure, yes I know just how weird that makes me. But possibly, the next time you are at the library, you could try hard to find a book that your library doesn’t have just to try out that amazing technological wonder that are Inter Library Loans.
