The More Things Change...

...The more they stay the same.

We've lived hin Santa Rosa for almost 15 months, and it occurred to me, as I drove past our local branch of the library, that I ought to go in and get a card. The parking lot was busy with lots of cars coming and going. Preschool age kids were coming out with their moms, probably after a story hour. Most of the moms were carrying piles of storybooks.

Inside was a hive of activity. There were several tables of kids, probably from the junior high school up the street, deep in discussion. A friend of mine, a historian, told me years ago that the Internet wasn't really such a boon to research as one might think, since anybody could post a letter and claim it was from their great-great grandmother to her husband fighting at Gettysburg.

I would think lack of authentication would still be a problem with computers, but there was a bank of them behind the reference librarian. The need for them seems to have become nearly ubiquitous, for all kinds of things ranging from sending emails to downloading forms, making appointments or finding out who starred in that movie you just saw. The cabinets of little drawers containing the card catalogs seem to have completely vanished. The junior high school kids probably still have to learn all about, ibid, op. cit. and loc. cit.

I don't know where the high school kids go. There is one right next to the library, but they probably won't set foot in the county library until they start taking their own children to story hour.

There were quilts, made by local women, several of whom appeared to be on hand to answer questions. The high ceilings proved to be a nice place to hang them, well above the heads of the patrons. The woman who made the one in today's picture went to a lot of trouble to get it to rain, but her work seems to have predicted the change in our weather.

I filled out a short form, presented my drivers' license and was given two cards, one for my purse and one for my key chain. Despite the presence of computers and quilts, there are still stacks of books and periodicals and, yes, movies,. The library really hasn't changed much since I was in junior high school. And thank goodness for that...