<p>Does anyone here actually have one? If so, does it work, as in, you go to the library, check out a book, read it, return it, repeat?</p>
<p>LTS:</p>
<p>Depending on the library, you may need to physically return the book if it’s due, then renew it if you have not finished reading it or you may renew it electronically. I believe our public library allows for electronic renewal. For public libraries, there is a fairly short time period for reading the book. For colleges, it may be 3 weeks, or a whole semester depending on status (student, faculty and staff)…</p>
<p>You can also request books electronically (though you have to pick it up yourseld!). For ex, our public library is part of a larger network of libraries. So you can request a book that is not in our library but is in another library in the network. You are notified when the book is ready to be picked up. When S wrote papers in high school, he borrowed quite a few books that way.</p>
<p>College libraries are also part of library networks and allow for interlibrary loans. You ask your librarian for a book, and if it’s not in the college library, the librarian will borrow it from another library. </p>
<p>If a book is out, you can place a recall request and the book will be returned by the current borrower within a week or so even if it was not yet due. At our public library, you can reserve a new title that has not yet been acquired or processed.</p>
<p>Hope this helps.</p>
<p>Marite, it’s not working out that way at all.</p>
<p>I work in a library. Libraries can differ from town to town and state to state. One thing that’s probably the same in all libraries is that to get a card you need a picture id and proof of address. Our library has a 3 week check out for books, including audio books and one week for dvd’s and video’s.</p>
<p>Our library is a popular spot and our 17 public computers with broadband access are often more active then book check-outs. We scan the cards for the barcoded number on your card and then scan the bar code on your books. You get a receipt with the books you checked out and the due dates listed. You can renew most books on-line as well as check out the catalog and place holds on books that you’d like to borrow in the future. We can also inter-library loan books from any other library (colleges included) in the state at no charge. But, that’s just our library!</p>
<p>Oh, and we have a huge catalog of books that can be downloaded onto your mp3 player, for free!</p>
<p>I don’t even know where to start. Didn’t want to pay $$$ for escapist fiction paperbacks, and wanted to read some very lazy stuff for the summer, so, I thought, I’ll just get a library card, check out some books, but I don’t have to waste money paying for a book that’s read in a day, etc. - I’ll spend my money on real, good books that we want to keep.</p>
<p>So, in D’s college city, I read the website, and it says if I’m not a resident of the city, I have to pay $100 for a library card. </p>
<p>Well, I’m not a resident of the city, at least not in any way I can officially prove. My official home is in another city - the fact that I’m never there is beside the point. </p>
<p>Anyway, I didn’t want to pay $100 (because that defeats the purpose of getting the library card in the first place), so, I trot down to the library with copies of the apartment lease, utility bills, etc., and proceed to try to talk my way into a library card for free. </p>
<p>That was probably my first mistake. I picked out two books, and went to the counter with my application. But I forgot about the fact that my D goes to school, in, ah, North Cuba, and articulating my request in my native language got us into some trouble. (Don’t get me wrong - I love the wild, illogical, lawless culture here - it balances very nicely with what I do for work, and it’s endlessly entertaining.)</p>
<p>The otherwise very nice lady more or less said I wasn’t a resident of the city and couldn’t have a library card. She answered several phone calls and checked this all out with several supervisors. Or she might’ve said I was an illegal alien - it was really hard to tell. The only thing that is certain is that she seemed to think that communicating with me in English and waiting on me in a timely manner were optional components of our relationship.</p>
<p>After an eternity, after I very patiently said something like, see here, I’m the money person, my drivers license doesn’t say I live in this city, but trust me, I hemorrage money here, I was finally allowed to take the two books, and a library card that she said was not activated, and I was told to fill out a green piece of paper with our apartment address. If the green piece of paper did in fact arrive in the mail, I was to return to the library with it in my possession, and if I was still the same person, I would be allowed to have my library card activated. </p>
<p>Well…we don’t exactly get any mail here. The various mail delivery people always bring tons of mail, and none of it is ever addressed to us. If anyone does mail us anything, I do not know where it goes. We don’t forward our mail for this reason - it gets held, but, since all bills can be paid online it doesn’t matter. But knowing no mail addressed to us will ever actually arrive at our residence, I cut sort of a deal with the mailman (got the Spanish words for green piece of paper and library) and he agreed to look out for me. </p>
<p>The green piece of paper came (imagine my amazement), and the next weekend I went back to the library with it and the two books, which I finished reading. Tried to return the books but another nice lady behind the counter said she could not code them back in or something because I didn’t actually have a library card. I produced the inactive library card I was given on my first visit, and that didn’t work; she tried to charge me a late fine. Somehow I got it across to her and a supervisor that they needed to figure this out, and , I left it with them at the counter to process and went to find three more books. </p>
<p>Got back to the counter, and - the lady was gone (shift change?) and once again I had no library card, or even a green piece of paper. Had to start all over again. But this time the system got hung up because they needed my phone number, so, I gave them my cell, which of course has a different area code than this city, so it started the “well you aren’t a resident” thing all over again. I could have given them my office number, which IS in this city, but, I was terrified they might actually call some day. (Marite, can you imagine?) </p>
<p>I am too tired to type the rest of the detail, but, somehow, following that visit plus two more, I now have four library cards (two more issued in subsequent visits and two more arrived in the mail, though not exactly in my name), and one of my borrowed books is missing because someone came to feed the cat last week while we were both traveling, and borrowed the book. Oh, and during my last visit I got a parking ticket while parking in the library lot - I cannot figure that one out, since there are no meters, and since the ticket doesn’t say what I actually did wrong (therefore it’s sort of hard to try to plead guilty) - so I just paid the $30, it was easier than trying to understand or try to ask local law enforcement to explain. </p>
<p>But I have to go to the library tomorrow to return the one book I can actually find, and, I don’t wanna go. But I DO want to find some more fun, escapist books to read…</p>
<p>Oh, okay, got your problem. </p>
<p>In our district, you do have to prove residency. This usually means something like a piece of mail or phone or gas bill. I suppose the way to go is to use your D’s library card.</p>
<p>Marite, she doesn’t have one, doesn’t need one. She offered me the use of her access at her college’s library but I don’t want to be using her things. But anyway, now I have four library cards. LOL.</p>
<p>Boy, I’m confused just reading your post! We also have a used book sale room where we sell all paperbacks for fifty cents and most hardbacks for $1.00 - that seems like a better option… What would work for a FREE card in our library would be any picture id and yes, apartment lease would work. In fact I gave a couple of cards out this week with just that as proof of residency. We actually like to issue cards because when we go for funding it’s good to have a large increase to show how active we are. Sounds like you found a really strange library. Good luck with that lost book, that is a big no-no. oh, and the reason that we don’t want cell phone numbers is that they are often long distance.</p>
<p>Wow lol my library is so lenient with everything. I have a library card but I lost it for a while so i just used my brother’s and they never said anything (even though I’m clearly not a boy). Then I realized I didn’t even need to bring my library card, if you don’t have a card they’ll just ask your name and if you have an account it’s fine.</p>
<p>Our libraries also sell donated or old books for less than a dollar. Also, try used books stores, as they’re usually cheap and will let your trade the ones you bought and read back in for credit.</p>
<p>Every 6 months our library has a book sale, I stock up on paperbacks and either give them away or give them back to the library to sell again after we’re done with them. I lost my library card a long time ago so I use my son’s card. No one’s ever said a word. Once though, when a book was late and I couldn’t remember the title, they wouldn’t tell me the name because of confidentiality issues. I just leaned over the counter and looked at the moniter myself. 
I’d go broke if I indulged myself in new books. I wish I could draw some books out to savor them, but I plow through too fast. Borrowing is great for us. My son uses the library at his school to get books to read for pleasure in his spare (ha… whatever that is…) time.</p>
<p>I’ve pretty much given up on our library because the hours they are open are less than convenient – no evenings, no Sundays in the summer, closed all state and federal holidays. I don’t know if my library card would still work. I find it much less frustrating to frequent Amazon and Barnes&Noble where a different plastic card works just fine and they are open every day from 9-9 and sometimes more. Amazon is open of course 24/7.</p>
<p>Well, I went down this road because I don’t want to pay $8 for a paperback fiction book that will be read in one day, and that won’t really be of any value to me past the moment I read the last page. I don’t mind paying for quality hardback books that I plan to own forever, and that we can keep on the bookshelves at home. </p>
<p>Plus, I figured to experiment with books that I wouldn’t risk paying for but that might be of some use or interest. For example, I checked out and read “Google for Dummies” on the off chance I might learn something I didn’t already know. It contained no new information and there was no value in reading it, but since it was a library book I didn’t lose any money in the experience. </p>
<p>This certainly hasn’t worked out the way borrowing from the library used to work when I was younger. </p>
<p>Over30 that’s a good suggestion. I’m remembering that once a quarter the National Press Club in Washington puts a ton of books on a rack, and they range from $.50 to $5.00 - and they’re really cool books. But this summer I wanted to read mindless fiction, not real books.</p>
<p>late to school, i have a library card. i take my card, go to the library, find my book, check it out, and return it two weeks later… then repeat.</p>
<p>it’s also a decent way to listen to new music or try out movies without having to pay to rent them.</p>
<p>Our library sells mindless fiction. A lot of these are books people donated, not things the library would normally stock.
Yard sales might work too.</p>
<p>Can you get a card in your daughter’s name? In my college town, residents and students at the local college both can get cards (for free).</p>
<p>Then again, my college town is very very small.</p>
<p>We don’t care who uses what card at our library either. As long as the person doesn’t mind that owns the card, it’s none of my business. If a parent asks about information on one of their kids cards, I would certainly tell them because the parent is the one that’s considered the responsible party anyway. The used book sale room at our library has tons of new books, paperbacks, audio books, etc. Just as we’ve found how different our schools are from town to town, state to state, so are libraries different.</p>
<p>other community organizations often have books exchanges.
I was just down at Fishermans terminal and they have shelves of books for people to leave books they don’t want & take books they do.
Used bookstores are often another way to find cheaper , sometimes brand new books.
If I was you and you seem to have the money, I would just buy some books at a used bookstore, read them and then sell them back to the bookstore, since you don’t want to keep them.
( or perhaps your library in the town that they consider you to live in ;), has the option of downloading the books)
or as garrl suggested, have your daughter check out the books for you.
My daughter had a library card in her college town.</p>
<p>LTS,</p>
<p>Having read your comments, I have a mental image of all these librarians who don’t want to loan out books, which is the opposite of what they should be doing. It sounds like there’s a language problem, too. I realize they can’t give books away but this is ridiculous.</p>