*bonks head* "ERROR! FILE NOT FOUND!"

[beandelphiki]

Okay, so I took a couple of books out of the SAIT Library on Sunday. Or thought I did.

This evening, I went to look for them, and couldn't find them. Anywhere. After a frantic search, I decided they probably weren't in my room. Shit, shit, shit.

I sat down, trying hard to remember where I might have set them down and left them behind. Then I remembered that when I went to the public library later Sunday, and went through the gates, nothing beeped. I didn't have SAIT books then!

Swearing, I came down here after running one more search, thinking maybe I'd check my SAIT library card, and see if the luck of the gods was with me, and some kind soul had returned them for me.

Honestly, I've spent my whole life paying all kinds of "late" and "lost" fines. I pay these things out of my ass. I don't want to end up paying for two books I didn't even get to read!

I checked my card, and...the books aren't on it.

Now I'm thinking...did I actually take those books out at all? Now I don't think I did.


I also think I'm going out of my miiiiind.

I need an appropriate icon for this, like the one of the inside of Homer Simpson's skull with the itty-bitty brain. Sadly though, my Adobe isn't working. *kicks it*

But ah, well. No fines. I just PAID $10 in fines at both libraries! So that's good.

Comments

[mhw.livejournal.com]

The best way that I've found for managing this is to reserve a bookshelf specifically for library books (and other books that people have lent me). I empty my library bag onto the shelf after a library trip, and when I've finished with a book it goes back onto that shelf.

I still sometimes forget, but it's certainly reduced my level of fines. But then I try not to worry about fines too much, because they make money for the library, which is always underfunded :)

[beandelphiki.livejournal.com]

That's a good idea! God knows, when the day to return them rolls around, I'm trying wildly to find them in the mess. But my biggest problem is really remembering to check when they're due...and then remembering the due date longer than 2 minutes after I've checked. And then remembering ON the due date that I have to take them back. :P

But then I try not to worry about fines too much, because they make money for the library, which is always underfunded :)

No, no. I'M underfunded. :P

[mhw.livejournal.com]

No, no. I'M underfunded. :P

Yeah, me too, believe me! but what I suppose that I'm saying is that I resent library fines less because they're at least doing something good for a resource that I value.

As to knowing when books are due: I don't know whether this would work for you, but our library books are always due back four weeks (+plus fudge for Sundays/bank holidays and so on) from the date of issue, so I know that if I take my books out on a Saturday (which I nearly always do) then they must be due back on another Saturday - so all that I have to do is to walk to the 'library' bookshelf and look at the date stamps every Saturday before I go to the library, and then I know which must be taken back that day. It can also help to keep them in 'most recently taken out on the right' order, but I'm not so tremendously organised as all that :D

Fortunately I'm a quick reader, so it's unlikely that I'll often need a book out for the full four weeks, unless it's something (like Musica Britannica VIII, which is the complete set of Dunstable's works that I'm slowly transcribing) that I keep out on semi permanent loan and have to remember when I have to renew it by to avoid a fine.

Other useful things that aid my scatty head are 1) A BIG calendar that I can write appointments and so forth on, and 2) A dry-marker whiteboard that I have on the kitchen wall, where I can jot down things like groceries and other shopping that we need to do, due dates for bills, and so on. With a pack of pens, it cost me something like £1.50 in my local home supplies shop, so it didn't cost much and has saved me hours of agonised worrying.