Library of the Year

Dear DC,

One of the things I enjoyed the most about my last apartment in Salt Lake was the 1 block walk to the downtown Salt Lake City library, voted best library in the country in 2006. It was a beautiful facility, had an amazing catalog, was extraordinarily hi-tech and was a place that people loved to spend time in comfy arm chairs. Basically it was the biggest, best Barnes & Noble you could imagine but with so so much more.

Now coming from that, I very nearly cried after my first DC library experience. I drove up to the "community branch" which was little more than a glorified hot dog stand (seriously smaller than my apartment). I didn't even go in and ran, not walked, to the "neighborhood branch". This was an older brick building with two floors, much better than the last place, but upon looking around, I realized that the literature section was two bookshelves with maybe about 50 books. Checking out books involved a stamp and card that gets removed from the back of the book.

Ok, so that was just small branch. The main library must be an amazing place housed in a historic building blocks from the White House. This is DC after all, our nation's capitol. Well I was right about one thing.....this is DC. And all the good-library-karma must be used up by the Library of Congress.

Alas, the main branch was the event that inspired my despair and near-tears. Literature was no longer two bookshelves but now a whole room filled with dirty bums looking at porn on the free computers....oh and there were a few books too.

The computerized catalog was down for maintenance but fortunately I came with a list. Unfortunately the entire sections of authors with last names starting with "E" and "N" were mysteriously missing. I resolved there and then that I would abandon actually going to library and just browse the catalog online and request my materials to be placed on hold.

I am seriously heartbroken about my loss of a quality library. Don't fear goodreads.com buddies....I will continue to read and post my progress, it's just that finding my next literary adventure won't be quite as enjoyable.

With Library-withdrawal Love,

Julia