The Library Conundrum

It's an unassuming building on Fullerton Avenue, near DePaul University. I used to live near here, and once I walked right past it, and at least two miles south on a sunny Saturday in September when I was out and about and looking for a library. I've only been here a three or four times, once to vote in vain for Kerry/Edwards.

My latest pilot having just wrapped up, I was getting in the mood this morning of What To Do Next, and suddenly found myself typing at a formica study carrol surrounded by Read! posters and PBS videos. I don't even remember driving here or walking through the book detectors at the entrance. One moment, I was eating a ham sandwich in my room, the next I was plugging my computer into the outlet on the floor. The maintenance lady just told me to get my feet off the chair in front of me.

Being at the library is sort of like going to the mall or sitting in front of the internet when you have nothing else to do. I'm always faced with crippling choice anxiety. Right now, there's a booth directly in front of me marked "Travel" with an inviting clipart image of a moon rising over an island, complete with palm tree. Just to right of this, there's another booth marked "Enclyclopedias", with an untouched World Book collection. On the left, DVD racks: "Pregnancy for Dummies", "Huey P. Long", "Secrets of Rose Gardening", "I, Claudius." I also have free WiFi access, so I won't get started on the online catalogue, or the new downloadable books on tape.

I sort of wish I was a regular, who knew the staff by name, and attended the monthly lectures on topical subjects. "Phyllis, are you going to be at the tax workshop on Saturday?"
"Of course, Matt."
"Be a dear and bring some of those gingersnaps, will you? They're dope."
"Ha ha ha! You got it!"

The truth is, I can never stay that long. I need my serious brain food in bite size pieces. I have no trouble watching a fifteen minute story on "60 Minutes" but an hour long documentary usually proves daunting. When one has the internet and cable TV and the radio and blockbuster and a Borders in every neighborhood, what good is a library? Sure, the books are free, but if you buy a book at Borders, you have the satisfaction of having bought a book, and you can tell your friends, "You know, I was Borders the other evening, buying a book..." not, "You know, I was at the public library the other day, attending a tax workshop, when I checked out a book that had a booger on page forty and that crackle of plastic that sounds every time you open the cover..."

I guess you go to the library when you don't know what you're looking for, which is essentially why I'm here right now. I ought to take as an example the little kid who just went up to the librarian and stated, matter of factly: "I'm looking for a book about Sea Creatures."