At long last I have a library card.
Despite living here in Bismarck for nearly half a year, I was unable to get one because I had no proof I lived here. My drivers’ license has yet to be changed to a Bismarck address, and I used a post office box for mail since I didn’t want my previous place of residence on record as an address for me for anything.
A post office box wouldn’t do. Mail to it, which was “non-official” wouldn’t do. Anything else I brought in wouldn’t do.
Yesterday, my MDU (electricity) bill arrived here at my apartment address, and I rejoiced. I’m probably one of the few who did, but I’d been watching for it. It was the proof I needed.
“I want a library card,” I said at the circulation desk, for the umpteenth time over the past months.
“Well, you’ll need — “
“I have a driver’s license as photo ID and an MDU bill with my name and Bismarck address on it.”
“That’ll do.”
Darn right it’ll do. So here I sit with a little plastic card and the power to check out books and DVDs and access lots of services right online. I can reserve and hold all kinds of materials from my computer, then just walk over and pick them up (since I live so near it). The DVD selection is quite large, and so I certainly don’t need to use a video rental store. Oh, and of course, books. Magazines. And research possibilities like Ancestry.com access.
The power of a library card, and the MDU bill it took me to get it (after living in Bismarck since May and practically spending all of my free time at that library so much so that the workers in the coffee shop have long known what my “usual” order is)!
It’s not as if they hadn’t seen me before. But I needed proof that I was a resident. I immediately went online at www.bismarcklibrary.org and signed in and felt like I ruled the world.
I can’t decide what I want to check out first.
