Library meme!

A meme after my own heart!!! (via Morgat, who got it from Purplesque and Little M)

1. How often do you use your public library and how do you use it?

A lot and a lot a lot. I don't go often just to browse the shelves, but I am a demon with the reserve system. I love and adore the ability to order books through the Prospector system (other library systems in the state and nearby states) and the Inter-Library Loan system (any library in the world). If the Denver Public Library doesn't have the book I want, I can generally find it somewhere, and they'll deliver it to my local branch.

2. Has the coffee shop/bookstore replaced the library?

Not for me. The point of a coffee shop is to sit around and putz, and I can do that at home without the caffeine. And I'm trying really hard not to buy a lot of books because I don't have room for them. If I find a book in the library that I really love and know I'll read over and over, that's when I go the bookstore. And for me, shopping is something you go and do and get it over with so you can go home. No time for putzing.

3. Did you go to the library as a child? Do you have any memories of the library?

Heck, yeah! I was in church when I was a week old, and I daresay I wasn't much older on my first trip to the library. My most prized library memory is when Mom deemed me old enough to keep my library card myself instead of her keeping it in her wallet. We'd go to the library every Saturday, and I'd check out a tall stack of books, and by the middle of the week I'd read all of them and all of the books my sisters had checked out, too.

4. Do you like sleek, modern, active libraries or older, darker, quieter, cozy libraries?

I guess I'm nostalgic for the old days, but if sleek, modern libraries will get people in the door, I'm good with that, too. It's what's on the shelves that matters.