[ale] public libraries

[John Mills]

howdy, kenji -

On Sat, 13 Sep 2003 kkonaka at mac.com wrote:

> I'm looking for some public library
> where they have lots of computer books in the atlanta area.
> eg., the one currently in mind is this:
>  The Practice of Programming -  kernighan
> (I'm keeping this one in my amazon.com shopping cart
> as "save for later", but this seems to stay forever as such :))
>  any suggestions? ...is there any college/university
> libraries open to public; don't necessarily
> have to be able to 'borrow' books, if I can
> walk-in and browse books it's already okay.
> # for this purpose, even a big book store may do as well
> # although the store manager may not be so happy :)

I understand there are two systems of on-line library services in the 
Atlanta area: DeKalb_County and Everyone_Else. Since I'm in the former, I 
don't know much about the latter, but the DeKalb system does more than you 
ask.

I understand each system has some advantages

You can search the whole collection (all branches) and find out what
titles are where, whether they're checked out, reserve a copy to be sent
to your preferred branch, and get an e-mail when it's there. You can also
get e-mail _shortly_before_ materials are due, and then [usually] renew
them by web!! (_Perfect_ for us, who check out large numbers of books and 
cruise them.)

There are also searches of several standard databases, bibliographies,
etc. Most of this can be done from home using a free library user account.
(You have to ask for it, though.)

If you think I'm a happy user, you're right.

> I'm in peachtree city by the way.

Your local librarian is your friend. Go ask what's available.

 John Mills
 john.m.mills at alum.mit.edu