Take a Look It’s in a Book

  
     One amazing resource that I think a lot of people may initially overlook when moving to a new community is their local library. After having spent, what at times feels like a lifetime, in higher education—and with it convenient and automatic access to the both the physical building as well as digital archives—I suppose that I took for granted what a wonderful resource these places are. It’s not just access to books either (although I’ll take the opportunity here to give my plug for good old dead-wood paper and ink books); libraries allow you to access plenty of other media formats. Movies, music, magazines, and newspapers (the few that are still in existence ) can all be found under one roof, and if the branch that you happen to be visiting doesn’t currently have what you are looking for, there’s a very good chance that one of their branch partners will, and they will order it from them for you. It’s really astounding. I know that lots of people out there are down on our government and public institutions, but regardless of your political ideology, I think you have to admit that our libraries are a true national treasure.  So I’m happy to say that literally one of the first things I did after receiving my State of Ohio drivers’ license was make a trip to my local branch of the public library and obtain my library card. I feel particularly lucky that my local branch is less than five minutes from my apartment, and after making that short drive and briefly filling out the required paperwork, I was reading short stories from Robert Heinlein, discovering the graphic novel origins of John Constantine, and catching up on the previous seasons of Community and Justified.  So, if you happen to relocate, don’t forget to go out and take advantage of this wonderful resource, and the next time library funding comes up during an election I implore you to support these vital public institutions.