going to the library in your pjs

A momentous event occurred late this afternoon. I became a card carrying member of the Bundaberg Regional Library. This is the local council library. Apparently now, with last year's council mergers I can also borrow books from Gin Gin, Childers and Woodgate if I'm every out that way. Exciting.

Why momentous I hear you ask? (and even if you're not asking I'm answering anyhow). Because since moving back to Bundaberg eight years ago I have resisted rejoining the library. It was a illogical and irrational dislike of the library, probably because it was no longer the library experience I remembered as a child growing up here in Bundaberg.

You see the library is now flash and new (well about ten years old maybe more - not sure) with lots of computers and internets, and a special room for microfiche, and a huge kids section, books on tape, cds, dvds, large print, large non-fiction section and all the latest fiction. It has electronic doors and those beepy things that go off in great alarm if you try and sneak a book out. In other words, it is a contemporary well funded library.

When I was a child the library was located in a beautiful old bank building on Quay Street (yes near the river). (It's now the regional art gallery and painted a putrid shade of yellow). Back then it was traditional white. It was darkish and gloomy inside, and the books were all crammed in to a very small space. But there was a great kids section as well as a lot of non-fiction where I borrowed a great many books for ancient history assignments during high school. When my brother and I were very small the library opened late on a Thursday night. Sometimes for a great treat, after dinner and IN OUR PYJAMAS our parents would take us to the library to borrow some books. There seemed nothing strange about this. I seem to remember other children in dressing gowns but I might be imagining things. We would race up the ramp, past the eerie rock fountain which lit up at night, and spend a lot of time browsing the shelves. There were no scanners, just a team of ladies with a date stamp. I think the library cards were made of cardboard initially and then moved to plastic laminated with a barcode. But they were nothing like the plastic card that was expertly and efficiently dispensed to me this afternoon with its fancy barcode and identification number.

This new library is not the Bundaberg library of my childhood. But it does have a huge stock of dvds that can borrowed for free. So I relented and signed on the dotted line.