For the first time in more than a decade, I can borrow books from the library!
After finally returning 17 long-overdue books and paying $2 for a replacement card (somehow I incurred no fines or they were wiped in the intervening years, a completely unearned piece of good fortune that means I’ll be making monthly donations to the library for a long time to come), I used my new card to do some genealogical research. Not to check out books, but to access the Toronto Star archives online, and to request several rare old books at the Toronto Reference Library that I successfully scoured for metions of several of my ancestors.
Unobservant Bird 
In the past few decades I’ve been in exactly that same situation – except a couple of times it involved paying fines of over $200. But what a great feeling of freedom to get one’s privileges back!
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What’s funny is how much has changed in terms of technology since I last borrowed books. I’ve already downloaded four ebooks and put four more on hold, and I’m really impressed by how smooth the process was—I vaguely remember trying it once and finding it more trouble than it was worth. Even the library cards look different!
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So true! And in Toronto there are all sorts of other benefits – free training at lynda.com for everything from sharepoint administration to Adobe Photoshop and everything in between. Your library card gets you free access to Mango online language classes. The Parkdale library loans out musical instruments, some of the libraries now have 3D printers and there is some really great high end printing equipment in the reference library. I just found out last week, also, that you can even book recording studio time there.
It’s awesome how much libraries have changed in my lifetime.
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