I've always found something rather comforting about the library. When I was a wee small nipper I would have put that down to the hushed whisperings of the patrons, the smell of paper in leather bound covers, those wonderful old mechanical date stamps, the mindless tedium, the looks over the upper rim of the glasses from the old lady who thought you were breathing too loud, and of course the wonders of the Dewey decimal system!
These days, things are reversed. The library now mostly lives in my iPad, mindless tedium comes from too many games of words with friends, breathing is not allowed for fear of carbon dioxide exhalation, and the mechanical date stamp is replaced with annoying popup reminders of stuff you need to be doing instead of reading. And the leather bound cover? Yeah I do have one of those round my iPad. Like the medieval folk of yesteryear, I do tend to drop things, or force them into seat back pockets on aircraft, so it's important to protect your reading/audio book material.
Seriously though, I do have a love for the printed word, and even as a technology person I would be sad to think that would ever go away, I certainly hope to not see that in my lifetime. Sure, the library has had to move with the times, so as well as rows and rows of books, they now have Wi-Fi, computer stations, Internet access, automated check out and, for those who like to push the envelope, you can even pay your fines electronically.
In all practicality, my main reason to visit the library these days is because they have a good selection of books on CD, which is handy, since generally reading your iPad, iPhone, Kindle, a fine leather bound book or indeed the Dead Sea scrolls is frowned upon while driving, and honestly even with audio books, despite all that CD flipping I'd rather borrow it for free than pay for it, those things are pricey! At least if it sucks you're non the worse. read more
