HOW GREAT IS YOUR PUBLIC LIBRARY?

Mine Is Superb!

I have been using our North Beach Public Library since we moved here two months ago and I must tell you, it’s worth the 15-minute walk from my flat. Oh yes! I have been mostly borrowing books on "baking and cooking" and so far, I am delighted with the new readings and learning I am having from taking home these books from our library. I have made dinner using a recipe I fancied and made the authentic Spanish dish; "Paella" and I have tried another "Genoise White Cake" recipe most recently from the "How To Bake" book written by an Italian chef. With my time in my hands being a stay-at-home wife, I am able to schedule some afternoons to walk at the library and in doing so, I am discovering different baking techniques that I didn’t learn from my home economics classes since grade school to college. For instance, to increase the leavening power of eggs in baking sponge cakes, I learned that I could place the eggs in a bowl on top of a cooking pan with simmering water (to increase the volume of the eggs)! After which, one has to beat the eggs at the stand mixer and true enough, the volume increased! I did this two days ago and my sponge cake turned out to be so soft and delicious! This technique that I recently learned camefrom the book I borrowed from our library. So it's worth the time going there!

This morning, I woke up a half past seven; was happy to open my inbox and found out that the books I ordered from our library are now ready for pick up in the North Beach branch. Wow! FYI, library card holders here in CA may order books of their choice online if they are not available at their branch library. The San Francisco Public Library Website tracks down this request online and one could check availability of such and such books in all of their branches. Online, one can view where these books are available (i.e. CD, shelving, DVD, etc.) and its status is indicated as well if it is in or out at the moment in one branch. Once you have filled up the necessary details online (of course you need your library card number and PIN to do this), you'd receive an email if the book/s you ordered are available for pick-up. Otherwise, you have to check on their website for updates since reminders for due date of books and pick up dates for books ordered online are the ones given prompt importance for obvious reasons. As a borrower, you aught to give a dead line on up to when you want the library to search for the books of your choice. Here, the maximum time given is 6 months and a 10-day grace period is addressed to the borrowwer to claim the books for pick up once it has become available. Otherwise, the library staff would return them to the library branch where they originally came from. With this in mind, I was truly delighted to know my books are ready for pick up! I expected it to come several weeks from the time I went online a few days ago.

Those I ordered online are books authored by my favorite chef and TV personality named ALTON BROWN of "Good Eats" fame (in foodnetwork channel on cable TV) and on the net at www.foodnetwork.com. So do you order books online from your public library? You better do it if you want to enjoy the perks of living in your area since the county supports this and this is given to you for free for the tax you are paying the IRS annually! Personally, I am now careful about buying books- first, the cost these days is astronomical; second, there is no insurance that all recipes in the books are great and are easy to do; third, if these criteria are not clearly visible in what I am reading, I am not buying the book! And with this thought, I am just being practical and being smarter consumer! What I do instead is to photo copy those I find helpful in my daily kitchen routine and then return the books on due dates. To do the copying, I use our HP printer that has the capability to photo copy text and images aside from printing stuff programmed at the PC. Relative to borrowing books in our library, also I ordered the latest best selling book of James Patterson which is number 1 in New York Times' Best Seller list . FYI, I always consider feedback of editors from NY Times and Saturday Review as they are excellent literary critics. Anyhow, from my email I received this morning from our North Beach library, this information was written:

08-26-06
San Francisco Public Library Main Library, Civic Center
100 Larkin Street San Francisco, CA 94102-4733

***my name and address written here***

21223027809675

The material(s) you have requested are now at the library shown below (next to "Pickup At") and will be held for you until the date indicated.

AUTHOR: Brown, Alton, Alton Brown's gear for your kitchen
CALL NO: 683.82 B8122a BARCODE: 31223050823203
LOCATION: MAIN - 4th Floor
PICKUP AT: NORTH BEACH BY: 09-05-06

AUTHOR: Brown, Alton, I'm just here for the food : food + CALL NO: 641.5 B8118i BARCODE: 31223050811075
LOCATION: PARKSIDE BRANCH
PICKUP AT: NORTH BEACH BY: 09-05-06

Isn’t this amazing?

Back in Ripon, I never tried ordering books online (***sulk**)! Why? I don't know. But may be because the walking distance to where I lived was not very conducive at all to me at that time (but- hey, it was also a 15-minute walk to and from the house to the library on Main Street)! It's a different ballgame now because of how different life is here in San Francisco. Taking a walk is never a bore because in my neighborhood lies the most picturesque landscape that once could ever hope for.

Now don't you wish you were living in San Francisco?

NOTE: When I am unable to upload photos it means that the blogger website is screwed up again. Yikes!