Libraries have a dark side too

I love the library. In fact, the library here in Boise is actually called the LIBRARY! with an exclamation point on the sign and everything which is one reason why I love Boise. I'm also a retired English major which means books are especially important to me. The library is filled with all of these sources of joy, knowledge, learning, and entertainment. I'm trying to encourage Marcus to love the library as well which is why we go there for story time and to play with the dinosaurs. I think their book club resources are great, and I love that we, the starving students, can check out dvd's for free rather than going to some rental store.

That said, I have recently discovered that the library has a dark side too. This realization has brought me no end of horror.

One of my new favorite things to do since becoming a stay-at-home-mom is checking out complete seasons of various shows on dvd and watching them when Marcus is napping or after he's gone to bed when Tim is out of town. I hate the garbage that's on television during the day and often in the evening, and I don't have to wait a week to see what happens after a show ends with some horrible cliff hanger moment. Win win.

When I'm lucky I can get the whole box set at one time and they let me have it for 2 weeks. However, sometimes I'm not so lucky and I end up getting one disc at a time with about 4 episodes on it. These can come from various libraries around the valley (they have a great interlibrary loan thing here). This second scenario happened to me a few weeks ago. I got two discs at once and they were from two different libraries (I didn't realize this until later). One disc had liner notes and the other didn't. Anyway, I watched the shows, took back the discs on time and called it good. Then, a few days later, I got this really fabulous e-mail that read:

NOTICE OF UNRESOLVED CHARGES
According to our records, the following charges are now due on your account. If you have questions, please call ---. If the charges are not resolved, this account will be sent to Collections with an added $10 fee. Thank you.
Misc fees=$65.00
Misc fees=$1.00
Outstanding balance=$66.00

Oh. My. Gosh.

I couldn't believe this horrible accusation. I have to admit that I was deeply hurt by it. I am one who always turns things in on time. I would never just put something that was damaged in the return bin. I'm not an idiot. I know they would find me and charge me. If something had happened to one of the dvd's I would have told them. Yet, here they were accusing me of something I knew I had not done. AHHHH!!!

I also admit that the word collections scared the crap out of me because I have perfect credit and we're going to be looking at buying a house in the not-to-distant-future and I need that perfect credit intact. Yes, my mind ran away with me and in mere seconds I had jumped from this e-mail to THE LIBRARY IS GOING TO STEAL MY HOUSE!!!!

After some phone calls (which Tim made because I was shaking in some corner mumbling "my house" over and over again--thank you, baby) we discovered that the liner notes of one of the dvd's were missing. Yes, I had accidentally switched them. ACCIDENTALLY! At this point the nice library lady on the phone said something like, "Oh, and you don't really owe that much. If the liner notes aren't found than you'll owe us $4. Our computer system just sends out that amount whenever there's something wrong with a returning dvd." EXCUSE ME? You just send out this insane e-mail with this large fine when the real amount is a few bucks? What is that about?

In conclusion, they called the other library and found the stupid liner notes so there is no fine, my credit record is still pristine, and I will be able to purchase a house someday.