Holy Cow! Library Networks Are Awesome

[fuerstma]

I've been unemployed for a month now and I've been visiting my local library 2-3 times a week. Using their printer, scanner, etc... Well as I was walking through I found the Graphic Novel section

Now, I've been aware of ladies and gents on this and other boards talking about using the library to check out graphic novels, but I sort of always dismissed it as being a creation of "other, more modern states" or something. "That's a California fad, not a Michigan thing!"

I mean I worked at this same library about 10 years ago. If I mentioned to one of the librarians a great graphic novel they would have laughed at me (the average age was about 102).

Boy, how things have changed. Actually my local library doesn't have too much. I checked out one of the Neal Adams Batman volumes (they only have Vol 3) and The Long Halloween (which I found surprisingly unmoving in spite of my expectations otherwise) but most of what they have locally is manga.

But using the Library Network.. holy cow. My library is connected to about 20 other libraries, and they have quite the selection. Over the course of an hour I added about 8 books to my want list. I noticed 2 had come in, so I walked into the library to pick up my haul. I told the gent at the desk I had a few holds waiting for me, he went into the back, and came out with nearly everything on from my "Graphic Novel Wish List"...

Batman RIP Hardcover
House of M
First Kirkman Ultimate X-Men Volume
Batman: Year One
Ultimate Powers
New Avengers Hardcover (I was the 3rd person to check it out and several pages already ripped, shamefully)
Marvels: 10th Anniversary Hardcover
Doom Patrol Vol 2: Painting That Ate Paris
The Mammoth Book of the Best Crime Comics

Man, like I told the guy behind the desk: "it's gonna be a busy week".

I don't want to go back to work, I'm enjoying my "summer vacation"/unemployment way too much.

[mlpeters]

I've been unemployed for a month now and I've been visiting my local library 2-3 times a week. Using their printer, scanner, etc... Well as I was walking through I found the Graphic Novel section

Now, I've been aware of ladies and gents on this and other boards talking about using the library to check out graphic novels, but I sort of always dismissed it as being a creation of "other, more modern states" or something. "That's a California fad, not a Michigan thing!"

I mean I worked at this same library about 10 years ago. If I mentioned to one of the librarians a great graphic novel they would have laughed at me (the average age was about 102).

Boy, how things have changed. Actually my local library doesn't have too much. I checked out one of the Neal Adams Batman volumes (they only have Vol 3) and The Long Halloween (which I found surprisingly unmoving in spite of my expectations otherwise) but most of what they have locally is manga.

But using the Library Network.. holy cow. My library is connected to about 20 other libraries, and they have quite the selection. Over the course of an hour I added about 8 books to my want list. I noticed 2 had come in, so I walked into the library to pick up my haul. I told the gent at the desk I had a few holds waiting for me, he went into the back, and came out with nearly everything on from my "Graphic Novel Wish List"...

Batman RIP Hardcover
House of M
First Kirkman Ultimate X-Men Volume
Batman: Year One
Ultimate Powers
New Avengers Hardcover (I was the 3rd person to check it out and several pages already ripped, shamefully)
Marvels: 10th Anniversary Hardcover
Doom Patrol Vol 2: Painting That Ate Paris
The Mammoth Book of the Best Crime Comics

Man, like I told the guy behind the desk: "it's gonna be a busy week".

I don't want to go back to work, I'm enjoying my "summer vacation"/unemployment way too much.

Hmm... where I am in Michigan inter-library loans cost $2 each(for the shipping)... maybe more -- haven't done it lately. It used to be free (back in the '90s) and I inter-library loaned a helluva lot of art books, sometimes photocopying whole books (Andrew Loomis drawing books, the 1925 Franklin Booth book, "Sixty Reproductions from Original Drawings" - -before the recent Auad and Flesk books).

A local-ish library used to have most of the Russ Cochran EC hardcover reprints (like... 15 years ago...), but half of them have went missing -- either sold in a library sale (and I missed it - -dammit!), or were stolen.

[woljed]

I
Batman RIP Hardcover
House of M
First Kirkman Ultimate X-Men Volume
Batman: Year One
Ultimate Powers
New Avengers Hardcover (I was the 3rd person to check it out and several pages already ripped, shamefully)
Marvels: 10th Anniversary Hardcover
Doom Patrol Vol 2: Painting That Ate Paris
The Mammoth Book of the Best Crime Comics



Man that is an awesome list. Batman R.I.P. so soon.

[RickLM]

I need to do this more often. So far I've limited myself to what they have on hand.

[Randy Hassan]

My library's in the generically-named "The Library Network" (SE Michigan, I guess), and I get everything I can out of it. Every six months or so I just run a "DC" or "Marvel" or whatever search and see what's new.

Recently, unmediated interlibrary loan throughout the state was added to this catalog, making my range wider. For example, I actually got a copy of "Seduction of the Innocent."

Sorry to hear that you're paying elsewhere in MI. I've never encountered a charge for these services.

[mlpeters]

My library's in the generically-named "The Library Network" (SE Michigan, I guess), and I get everything I can out of it. Every six months or so I just run a "DC" or "Marvel" or whatever search and see what's new.

Recently, unmediated interlibrary loan throughout the state was added to this catalog, making my range wider. For example, I actually got a copy of "Seduction of the Innocent."

Sorry to hear that you're paying elsewhere in MI. I've never encountered a charge for these services.

$2 isn't bad... if the book is important enough -- almost like a rental fee (only with the money paying for shipping). It does force you to take fewer chances on books... but the internet can help with that ahead of time. ...And if you think you will want to own the book, you might save your 2 bucks and put it toward buying.

I'm in a rural area and we're on the "Michicard system", but inter-library books can come from anywhere in the USA - -I once had a book from a Texas library.

On the other hand, my high school library, back in the late '80s, had a copy of "Seduction of the Innocent" -- didn't know it was hard to find.