A Timestamp from Long Ago

Libraries seem out of favor these days. People seem content to purchase their faves at Barnes and Noble, Borders, or Amazon.com. After a quick read, they quickly collect dust on the bookshelf. There are certainly some timeless classics that are worth owning (my leadership favorites are anything from Covey, Blanchard, and Carnegie), but many can be ‘rented’ for a few weeks from your local library and then returned back into circulation. Talk about a cost savings.

Fortunately, I grew up where frequent library visits were the norm. Summer reading clubs often found my brother and me competing to read the most books. Now that’s a contest worth having!!

After checking out a recent library book, I glanced at the first page and found the old, now-archaic check-out log – a track record of a book’s long, lost travels. A popular book logged many ‘frequent-reader’ miles. Some ‘fringe’ titles would go years without a stamp. You almost felt honored to be the first reader of that book in 5 years.

Today, it’s all digital. The book’s history is stored in some database. An e-mail informs you when your hold is available for pick-up or your book is near its due-date. Remember when we had to call the library to do this? Surely, we will never go back to a log of a book’s track record. In some strange way, however, I miss it.

Until next time,

Dan Naden
Naden’s Corner