Murder by Death

Most of my book friends have heard be bitch over the years about how expensive my library's InterLibrary Loan program is: $5.50 for every book requested.  The librarian was very clear about the program when I first applied for my library card.  This fee has always been a motivating force behind why I buy all my books.

But a couple of months ago my part-time work became much more part-time and it felt prudent to pare that book buying habit way back.  I sure as hell wasn't going to pare my reading back, so that meant finding a way to embrace my local library and its limited (regarding my tastes) collections.

I was on the site the other day, figuring out how to borrow their Audiobooks, and I saw a passing comment about how you could pick up or return your library books at any council (county) library.  That's all it said; I couldn't find anything else that expanded on that but I started to have the sinking sensation that I'd been part of a massive cultural translation fail.

So when I went to the library the other day, I asked:  Do you differentiate between ILL and inter-council library requests?  The answer:  Yes!  You can borrow any book in the council library system for free and it will be delivered to your branch of choice for pick up.

This is a perfect example of what I mean when I try to tell people that moving to AU was in some ways harder than it would have been had I moved to a non-English speaking country.  That librarian and I both knew what an InterLibrary Loan was; we just didn't know our definitions were different.

On the plus side, my choices have expanded exponentially.  :)