I decided to make my first visit to the LA Public Library last weekend, which is kind of sad considering I’ve lived in LA for ~5 years at this point. The reason? I spend a lot of money buying books. I like owning them, but I really have no use for them after I finish reading them except for a choice few which I suggest to others (it’s nice to have a copy for them to read if they want). The fact that there is a huge network of libraries offering me free reading material that is the same as what I would buy is pretty hard to pass up. I also stumbled upon this blog post which suggest a couple cool features of the LA Public Library system. Apparently I can choose any of the materials available in all of LA and have them delivered to my local library branch. That way I don’t even have to drive to the library, I can just walk/bike to the branch close by.
Hopefully I can keep this up. Currently I have a bunch of books on my Amazon Wish List that I am hoping to read. My plan is to slowly work through them via the library instead of buying them on Amazon. If I really like the book, I might buy a copy, otherwise I will be saving myself some cash.
Anyone else out there utilize their public libraries? How well does it work for you? Any complaints?
Welcome to the future ATM! The LAPL is awesome. I don’t use it to check out books too often because I can get them for a lot longer time from USC (six months versus two weeks), but if I didn’t have access to USC’s libraries I would be all over it. I do use it as the poor man’s Netflix. Their movie selection is pretty dang good, especially considering you can order anything in the system to your local branch(es).
I have been using public libraries since I was a little kid. I remember I used it as an escape after school, to get away from home for a little bit. The library was just down the block. Although I was into athletics and all the normal ‘boy’ stuff, I loved going to the library after school and reading for a couple hours.
I still do from time to time, but I am with you, I like to purchase books now. And with the internet, it is much easier to research things online.
But I do still go.
Cheers
scott
@Ben: I just discovered the ability to have them show up at my local branch. That’s mind blowing and I’ll be using it a lot. Also, you can renew online so I think I can check things out for a while using that feature.