Libraries

I was doing some research in our library for a book. As far as I could tell I was pretty much the only one. I hate to be judgmental, but here we go.

I go in there and there are quite a few people. What is everyone doing? A variety of things. Finding CD's and DVD's they can check out. Or being on the computers. Or waiting for the computers. There is a limit of an hour, so there are usually people just waiting to get their turn to be on. What are they doing on the computers? Facebook or computer games or youtube videos. A lot of people doing what ever on their cell phone. Why come to a library to mess with your cell phone?

I've done all of those things myself, but it just makes me sad to see that happening so much in a library. There are all those books and virtually no one is using them. There might be a handful people looking through the bookshelves, but not very darn many. I'm almost always sitting by the encyclopedias when I'm there. I've yet to see anyone else use an encyclopedia when I've been there.

There is one group that seems to want to check out books - little kids. That is about it. Five year olds are all over this reading thing. I feel like telling them good job. That's the spirit. Read all you can, because apparently when you reach your teen years, you won't be reading anymore. By the time you're that age there will probably be some chip you insert in a port that's been installed in the side of your head. You won't have to read, you can just download whatever info you need directly into your brain.

What can I do about this? I know, lose the bad attitude. I'm working on it. I just hate that libraries (and people, generally) have seem to have evolved into something less intelligent than what used to be.

So, my goal for this week is to get over it, be less cynical, less judgmental, and whatever else kind of negativity I've got inside my head right now. This will be quite a challenge.