Yesterday, I did something that rocked my world.
I replaced my library card.
After 15 years in Berkeley, I'd worn the old one out. It was chipped and peeling and feeling brittle. The librarian kindly waived the card-replacement fee -- I'd like to imagine that replacing a worn out card instead of a lost one warmed the cockles of her librarian heart.
With the new cards, you get both a credit card-sized card and a little keychain card, so Malasada could take the keychain card and pick up items I have on hold, just like I carry her big one so I can pick up hers. (She's picked up plenty of my hold items, but we had to remember to pass my card back and forth.)
The part that rocked my world is that I also got a new card number. And I don't know what it is. It's how you access your account online, and I could rattle off my old 14-digit library card number more easily than my phone number. And now I have no idea and have to resort to looking.
I've been using the library online more often, because they finally have a feature I've wanted for years -- you can save arbitrary lists of library holdings as reminders of things you'd like to check out some time. Naturally, thought I, you should also be able to ask the system what's on your list that's available at a given branch, so you could leave with it right then and there.
Except you can't. You have to check each item one by one to see what its availability is.
Ah well. It's still a good feature and it has resulted in me using the library more.
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