library reserved book machine

 Finally tried borrowing some books from our library.

They have a neat machine to pick up your reserved books.

Perfect for this pandemic...You don't have to talk to anyone and can even go before or after library hours to pick up your books.

If some books are too big for the machine you might have to pick them up at the counter, but other than that, this was easy to use.

This video was from a local cable show.

Just scan your library card and the reserved books come out "one by one".

If you want to find out when the books are due, login to your account and the borrowed books will show the date that they are due.

Cool yeah?!

library book return box

While waiting for Satoshi to run some errands at Shijo Station, I people watched and noticed this library book return box.

There were quite a number of people who stopped to return their books.

And then this guy came to pick up the books.

I thought he would just dump all the books into these blue boxes and be on his way...

Instead, he got down on his knees and took each book out and gently placed them into these boxes.

I was impressed on how well he treated the books.
 

library card

On this trip back, I tried to use my library card to borrow a few things.

But, I guess it had been awhile since I last used it because in that time, they had placed expiration dates on the cards and mine was expired.

So, I had to go down to the library, show ID and renew the card (no charge).

There were a few cookbooks I was interested in, so flipping through them through the library was a nice way to actually see them before buying.

Also, I was able to borrow a season of a TV show on DVD for a dollar.

I appreciate the library also transferring books that I wanted to see from one library to a library closer to me.

Do you use your public library?

so...

So, the library called to say that the book I requested was in.

I went to pick it up the other day.

It is a self-serve system.

Scan your library card, get the number for the area that they are holding all the books on request.

Then scan your requested book and your library card.

Out pops a receipt which tells you when you need to bring the book back.

No talking to anyone, just scan, and go.

I would think as a librarian you would be interested in seeing what others are reading.

As a person borrowing a book, I would've hoped there was more interaction with the librarian.

Was kinda sad that this is how they run the library here.

library card

Do you borrow books from the library?

I rarely do.

This past weekend was a 3-day weekend but we ended up not really going anywhere because of the rain/typhoon.

We did, go to the library for "research".

Satoshi was looking up info for a trip we are thinking of taking to Tohoku.

Me, I was interested in looking at a book I saw featured in another book.

When I checked on the computer, the book I was interested in was at another library, so I requested it to be brought to one closer to us.

I put in my request and the clerk told me that my library card was expired.

Geez, I didn't even realize there was an expiration date on it!

Apparently, my card was REALLY expired, like 3 years past the expiration....oops!

Thirteen years ago, I had requested the card so that I could take information out on kamon (family crests).

Can't believe it has been that long since I was researching that...

On another subject, did you know that most people go to the library in Japan to read manga? I was shocked when I first saw this 13 years ago.

When I was going to college, the only time I stepped into a library was to use their resources, like encyclopedias (do people even use those now?! maybe not with the internet now, yeah?!).

Satoshi said he never went to the library for research during college...

Have you borrowed anything from or gone to the library recently?