Ordinary Gweilo

I recently went to the library for the first time in many years, and the first time ever in Hong Kong.

As a child I was a regular visitor to my local library. I remember the building as being a very modern glass and concrete structure with a curious split-level design. From the entrance you went down a few stairs to the children’s library, or up to the adult library. I still have very strong memories of the place, though I haven’t been there for many years.

Then when we moved (less than a mile) we started using another larger library that was in a much older building. Here the children’s library had a separate entrance with a curious spiral staircase, and it also had a free car park for library users, which was very handy when I started to drive! I spent many happy hours there selecting books.

My other main memory is that this library had very weak systems to look after their stock. When you joined you were given three or four ‘tokens’ and when you took out a book they kept your token and gave it back to you when you returned it. However, they didn’t actually track the individual books, so we discovered that you could take a book off the shelves of the library and “return” it in order to get an extra token. They also had a strange scheme whereby you could apply for additional tokens for ‘serious’ books, but this system also fell apart because when you returned the ‘serious’ book they gave you ordinary tokens!!

Needless to say, libaries now have computer systems that can track every book, though doubtless kids will still find some way to defeat the system!

I’m not quite sure why I got out of the library habit when I lived in the UK, or why it has taken me so long to join the library here. Anyway, I thought it would be a good idea to encourage my son to start using the library, so I finally got round to joining. My son’s approach is to go into the library saying he doesn’t want any books, then pick the first 3 or 4 he sees on the shelves that look vaguely suitable. Now we have read them several nights in a row and he is asking if he can keep them!!

I spend a bit more time choosing my books, and of course I am too ambitious and select more than I can read in the two week loan period. The two I have read (or at least started) are Peter Hennessey’s book about British Prime Ministers, and the second part of John Campbell’s excellent biography of Margaret Thatcher. I’m not sure how long the latter book has been in stock, but I was the first person to borrow it!

The most impressive aspect of the system is the facility to renew your books over the Internet. Very quick and easy to use (and handy if you forget which books you have borrowed).

I think I may have got back into the library habit.