First of all, I'm sorry for this post being a day late. Library work and a lot of driving yesterday left me with no time to write blog posts!
I've always loved libraries, ever since I was little. Starting when I was about five, my parents would take me to the library and keep an eye on me in the children's section while I looked at books. I would find some great books--(and, admittedly, some duds)--to check out, and for the next day or so it would be nearly impossible for my parents to drag me away from the books to do school or chores.
I suppose my parents must have curated my book selections to some extent, since this was the late 90's and there was plenty of garbage in the children's literature section along with the good books. But the whole experience left me with a deep-seated appreciation for libraries which continued through grade school, high school, and college.
The only thing that always frustrated me was the limited number of books in any given library. I wanted more Edith Nesbit books? Too bad. I was interested in G.K. Chesterton? Good luck finding even one book by him in the public library. Then I discovered inter-library loan and all that changed.
I'm not sure how it works in all the US states, but in Michigan, using a service called MeLCat (Michigan eLibrary Catalog), it's possible to get books from all over the state. You just have to have a library card from a participating library. Instead of being limited to the books in your local library, you can now find almost any book you want. (The only books I've failed to find on inter-library loan, so far, are books that are long out of print.) Even some big university libraries, like Wayne State's Purdy-Kresge Library, are involved in the inter-library loan program!
There are only a couple downsides to inter-library loan. One is that books can take a week or two to arrive. In my opinion, though, it's well worth the wait! Lately I've been making my way through a lot of P.G. Wodehouse, some Louis L'Amour novels, and some sequels to The Scarlet Pimpernel...none of which are at my local library. The other downside to inter-library loan is that they usually don't let you check out very many books at a time (I believe five is the limit here in Michigan). This one is harder for me to work with, but I try to send back my books quickly after finishing them so I'm allowed to check out new ones.
Inter-library loan has expanded my reading horizons greatly. I no longer walk into my local library and groan about how few books there are there that I would ever want to read. Nowadays I walk into the library, go straight to the front desk, and pick up the books that have arrived for me from faraway libraries. It's wonderful. I don't know who was responsible for starting the inter-library loan program in Michigan, but I would like to shake their hands and thank them.
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