The library computer is not just something that is there to allow the less well off to have free online access. You can access the library website from the comfort of your own home or wherever you happen to be with your up to date mobile phone – for all I know there may even be an app for it.
The catalogue is computerised so you can search for the book you want or just browse – you don’t have to brave the coffee shop, children’s story groups & teenagers to search the shelves. Libraries, still, have a lot more books than you may have been led to believe, from out of print to recent best sellers - it’s just that they may be in the basement somewhere or out to another borrower for a couple of weeks.
The catalogue will give you the details & there will even be an online reservation service which allows you to specify from which branch it will be convenient for you to pick the book up at a time convenient to you. There may well be a self-service system when you get there – no need to brave the librarian’s dragon eye.
But it is not just books – as a member of the library you will be able to access a variety of web sites which are hidden behind payment walls – the subscription having been paid for out of your taxes in a modern adaptation of the founding principles of the public library movement.
And if you don’t know which is your local library there is a handy guide on the web which gives links to all the public library sites.
Free Public Libraries have always been a very Big Society idea.
Links
The Modernisation Review of Public Libraries
Public Libraries on the Web
Edward Edwards - Pioneer of the Public Library.
Catalogue of the books in the Manchester free library: Reference ... - Google Books Result
Before the Welfare State - Cross Street Chapel
Related post
The British Library Catalogue
