Dewey and I go way back

Recently I reacquainted myself with the library system after years of either borrowing from friends or just purchasing books I really wanted. It was exciting for me to see that I could look up anything in the library location of my choosing right from the comfort of my own home. This was underlined when I actually went to the library and when I asked how to access the card catalogue, they set me up on a computer using what else, their website. Where were the long drawers with little cards and the smell of knowledge?

That part of the system had changed since I was a library assistant in elementary school but not the cataloging system that good old Dewey had created so long ago. Finding the books on the shelves is easy since I used to spend my lunch hours putting them away for the librarian. Numbers never let you down. The two years spent working in the school library were very fulfilling for me and I often wonder why I never worked in the local public library as a teen when one of my close friends did. At the end of grade 8, the librarian took all us helpers to Mother's Pizza (a now defunct but quite popular pizza restaurant chain in the 80s) for lunch.

Now when I find the books I'm looking for I find myself amazed that the self-check-out system used in stores has made it's way into the library system. All I have to do is lay the pile of books on a sensor pad and the computer scans the chips in each book as I scan my library card. And voila, print a due date reminder slip and we're off to the races. Pretty much a self-serve shop now, so what do the librarians do now?

One more discovery I made about the library when attending an employment workshop was the Scott's Directory where I can use the library website to access lists of specific business types in order for me to target companies to cold call for employment. Amazing! When I was in college and looking for directories of design studios, this would have made things so much easier. This system still uses numeric codes that takes the guess work out of finding what is needed. For someone like me who most times doesn't make sense, these numeric systems have made my life more manageable. Thanks Dewey!