Even an institution as old as the library is embracing technology

Have you checked out your library recently? If you haven't, I highly recommend it. It's truly your tax dollars at work. I first turned to the library about a year ago because of clutter and because I wanted Gabi to pick up her parents' love of reading.

It all started with book clutter (both my husband and I love to read and have very different taste in books which means twice as many books) and quickly evolved to toy clutter as well. But we shall manage the toy issue separately. However, after running out of bookshelf space (even my two year old has run out of bookshelf space) I decided at least I wouldn't keep adding to the book clutter in the house. Plus books are so damn hard to carry when you're moving. My friend Mara was telling me her movers charged her more for her books than for her baby grand piano!

Anyway, think of it as a Netflix for books, except for FREE! Well not exactly for free but at least you know where some of your tax dollars are going. But basically, when I think of a book I want, I log on to the Cincinnati Public library website, enter my library card number, and put the book on queue as well as the library location that I would like to pick up the book at. (To initially get a library card, however, you do have to physically visit the library, you can't get the card online. However, you can renew the card via phone when it expires so no need to physically visit the library for that). When the book is ready for me to pick up (which is usually very quickly unless there's huge demand for the book you want) I get an email telling me it's ready for pick-up at the library location of my choice. I also get an email close to the date when my book is due (great thing when you're a mommy and your mind is elsewhere!), and if I want to renew the title I can go onto "My Account" online and renew the title up to two times before I need to return it (I think the two times applies for books only, it might be less for DVD's and music but it's still cool if you're a tech freak like me).

When I go return my books there's a little "drive thru" (at least at the Hyde Park branch) which makes it very convenient when you have two kids in the car and don't want the hassle of having to schlep all the baby gear inside the library just to return something.

My favorite library story is that on the day of the last Harry Potter release I just happened to walk in to see if Gabi wanted anything from the kids' section and walked away with a brand spanking new copy of Harry. No waiting for my Amazon box to arrive, no paying for shipping, nothing. You can even rent DVD's which is great because my daughter is now all about Curious George so I can rent her beloved monkey or any other cartoon DVD for free (and also avoid DVD clutter!) especially since kids sometimes watch a DVD only a few times before completely forgetting about it. I got her a library card as well so that when she's a little older she feels like it's something she can do for herself, along with the many other things she wants to do herself lately. :) They have other cool things for kids such as story time and stuff like that. You can just look at the calendar of activities either online or at the library.

So go ahead, rent yourself a book or a DVD at the library and avoid the book clutter and the expense of buying a book you're never going to look at again or you're going to pass on to someone else just so you can avoid having more books at home. Not to mention I just love the smell of a good library, don't ask me why. I definitely didn't use to in college, back then the library was just another place to sleep at when your dorm room was so dirty you didn't even want to spend time there.