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I was going to post this on CS, but none of the fora there seemed appropriate (MiM was closest).
I have had a library card since I was about 5 or so. I remember going to the library once with my class in first grade, and being the only one there who already had his own card. (Which did not endear me to my classmates, little mamzerim that they were, but that's another rant.) At one point I had as many as six cards from various libraries (Brooklyn, NYPL, Queensborough, Buffalo/Erie County, Niagara County, and University of Buffalo), and five of them were even legitimately obtained. (OK, I really shouldn't have been issued a Queensborough card; I just wanted to complete the set.)
Now as an adult, I have a library card from the Passaic Public Library. This library (two branches) is a member of the PALSplus consortium, giving access to the 17 other libraries scattered over the county (the northern part of the county, the wide end of the triangle if you will, is much more rural and spread-out than the southern part with the cities of Passaic, Clifton and Paterson). We are also members of Open Borrowing, with borrowing privileges in Middlesex, Morris, and Sussex/Warren counties as well.
Up until now, we also had borrowing privileges in Bergen, Hudson and Essex counties as well. That last consortium has as many branches as all the rest of Open Borrowing combined.
Now they've decided that this goes away at the end of the year. No explanation is given, but bear in mind the old saying: any question that starts "Why don't they ... ?" can generally be answered with "Money". Note that Passaic County is like a long skinny triangle with the tip pointed south, and I live right in the tip; besides the two Passaic and two Clifton libraries, pretty much every other library within easy travelling distance is in either Essex or Bergen counties, and now I can't use those any more. I won't miss Wallington's tiny library in the attic of the DPW garage very much, but losing borrowing privileges in Nutley, Garfield, Hackensack, Teaneck, Oradell, New Milford, Fair Lawn, etc. will hurt.
My son happens to attend school in Bergen county; I drive car-pool a few days a week, and I'd gotten used to getting books in the various libraries within several miles of his school on my drive home, which now I won't be able to do anymore. I might be able to get him a courtesy card in the town where his school is; various libraries also sell courtesy cards for anywhere from $50 to $450 a year, and I might even have considered paying that, except that courtesy cards are only good in the libraries where issued, and don't reciprocate to the rest of the county, so there's not much point. I can't afford to buy a card in 75 libraries.
So now, I can either use the four libraries local to me, or I can drive miles and miles out of my way to the other libraries I can still access, or pay a fortune totravel into New York City to use my NYPL card.
I think I'm experiencing withdrawal symptoms, and it's not even January yet.
I have had a library card since I was about 5 or so. I remember going to the library once with my class in first grade, and being the only one there who already had his own card. (Which did not endear me to my classmates, little mamzerim that they were, but that's another rant.) At one point I had as many as six cards from various libraries (Brooklyn, NYPL, Queensborough, Buffalo/Erie County, Niagara County, and University of Buffalo), and five of them were even legitimately obtained. (OK, I really shouldn't have been issued a Queensborough card; I just wanted to complete the set.)
Now as an adult, I have a library card from the Passaic Public Library. This library (two branches) is a member of the PALSplus consortium, giving access to the 17 other libraries scattered over the county (the northern part of the county, the wide end of the triangle if you will, is much more rural and spread-out than the southern part with the cities of Passaic, Clifton and Paterson). We are also members of Open Borrowing, with borrowing privileges in Middlesex, Morris, and Sussex/Warren counties as well.
Up until now, we also had borrowing privileges in Bergen, Hudson and Essex counties as well. That last consortium has as many branches as all the rest of Open Borrowing combined.
Now they've decided that this goes away at the end of the year. No explanation is given, but bear in mind the old saying: any question that starts "Why don't they ... ?" can generally be answered with "Money". Note that Passaic County is like a long skinny triangle with the tip pointed south, and I live right in the tip; besides the two Passaic and two Clifton libraries, pretty much every other library within easy travelling distance is in either Essex or Bergen counties, and now I can't use those any more. I won't miss Wallington's tiny library in the attic of the DPW garage very much, but losing borrowing privileges in Nutley, Garfield, Hackensack, Teaneck, Oradell, New Milford, Fair Lawn, etc. will hurt.
My son happens to attend school in Bergen county; I drive car-pool a few days a week, and I'd gotten used to getting books in the various libraries within several miles of his school on my drive home, which now I won't be able to do anymore. I might be able to get him a courtesy card in the town where his school is; various libraries also sell courtesy cards for anywhere from $50 to $450 a year, and I might even have considered paying that, except that courtesy cards are only good in the libraries where issued, and don't reciprocate to the rest of the county, so there's not much point. I can't afford to buy a card in 75 libraries.
So now, I can either use the four libraries local to me, or I can drive miles and miles out of my way to the other libraries I can still access, or pay a fortune totravel into New York City to use my NYPL card.
I think I'm experiencing withdrawal symptoms, and it's not even January yet.