The Wonders of the Library

Do you not read because books are so darn expensive? Have you gotten a library card but you hate walking up and down the aisles looking for books or they never have what you’re looking for? Are you sick of spending your whole paycheck on downloading songs from iTunes or renting movies from Blockbuster? Well, believe it or not, the Harris County Public Library has the answer to all of your problems!

Thanks to the wonders of the internet, you can “shop” for books, movies and CDs that are available at the library online. It can’t get any easier than this! You can query a specific item or just browse genre or author/actor/artist. And yes, I said movies and CDs too. They have a ton of stuff from Mary Poppins to Wedding Crashers, from Ashlee Simpson to Eminem. (And it won’t cost you anything to borrow a CD from the library and download it to your iPod!)

Once you find the item you’re looking for, you put in a request for that item. There’s no need to worry that they don’t have that item at the branch closest to you. If it’s at another branch, they will transport it to the one closest to you at no cost.

The only drawback is that if you request something that is very popular, like a hit movie that just came out on DVD or a book on the NY Times bestseller list, there will probably be a very long waiting list. But, if you’re in no hurry, you can just sit back and relax. They will let you know when it’s your turn to have the item and it’s been delivered to your ‘home’ branch.

*Now, I’m only speaking about the Harris County Public Library System because that was the closest branch to me for most of my life, but I’m sure that the Houston Library System or the system wherever you live has something similar!