![\"Jake](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Web-Photo-20-1024x683.png\")
Jake Vest<\/p>\nJake Vest<\/p>\n
Photo by Vinnie Cammarano<\/p>\n
I\u2019d\u00a0like to say, \u201cI\u2019ve been thrown out of better places than this,\u201d but I\u00a0can\u2019t.\u00a0In fact, I\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0think of a better place.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Orange County Library System is\u00a0about as good as things get\u2026 and it is\u00a0giving me the\u00a0heave-ho.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nothing personal, just geographic.\u00a0OCLS\u00a0has\u00a0decided it will no longer provide \u201cfee\u00a0cards\u201d for\u00a0those who\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0live in that county, the kind of card I have\u00a0held for\u00a0the\u00a030 years\u00a0since I left Apopka for Eustis.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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See Member Benefits<\/a>Join Our Newsletter<\/a><\/p>\n This is a nerd\u2019s nightmare. OCLS is\u00a0not the only library in the world, just the best one I know of.\u00a0We have a system up\u00a0here\u00a0and it is serviceable, but not in the same league.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0like thousands of titles as opposed to hundreds, with\u00a0all sorts of obscure stuff\u00a0that Reader Nerds like to poke around and look for.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n I recently finished \u201cSemi-Colon: The Past, Present and Future of a Misunderstood\u00a0Mark.\u201d\u00a0When you can find a whole book about one piece of punctuation,\u00a0you\u2019ve\u00a0got a\u00a0collection worth browsing.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n I\u2019ll\u00a0survive, but\u00a0I really\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0see what\u00a0they\u2019re\u00a0getting out of getting\u00a0rid of me.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n I\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0cause any problems. How could\u00a0I?\u00a0I\u00a0haven\u2019t\u00a0set foot in the place for\u00a010 years. When I borrow a\u00a0book, I go to\u00a0a\u00a0website, click on an\u00a0icon\u00a0and my selection shows up on my phone. While I have no clue how this happens, I doubt that there is a human in Orange County who\u00a0has to\u00a0take part in the transaction.\u00a0<\/p>\n Nobody\u00a0has to\u00a0clean up after me in the restroom, my space\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0have to be air-conditioned, I never leave books on a table, nor do I\u00a0reshelve\u00a0a book in the wrong place.\u00a0No staff member\u00a0has to\u00a0replace\u00a0my chair, vacuum my cookie crumbs\u00a0or trudge over to the desk\u00a0tocheck me out.\u00a0Nobody\u00a0has to\u00a0wait while I rummage through my wallet looking for a library card. I\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0put chewing gum in the card catalog, park\u00a0illegally, leave fingerprints on the glossy picture books, raise my voice or dress in an unseemly or inappropriate manner.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n It would appear to me that the perfect customers for a library would be the people who never actually go to one\u2014those\u00a0who live elsewhere and check in via computer.\u00a0Yet\u00a0we\u00a0are the ones being jettisoned.\u00a0<\/p>\n The library as I use it is a machine, a little more high-tech and highfalutin, but bottom line not that much different than those in the average company\u2019s break room. The customer\u00a0makes a selection, pushes a\u00a0button\u00a0and the\u00a0peanuts are\u00a0vended.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Instead of inserting coins, I pay $125 a year to\u00a0browse and\u00a0push a button or two every other week or so.\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0having\u00a0a hard time\u00a0seeing how that $125\u00a0wouldn\u2019t\u00a0cover the costs of\u00a0that, but\u00a0let\u2019s\u00a0say it\u00a0doesn\u2019t.\u00a0<\/p>\n A Snickers\u00a0used to be a quarter. When the price went up, vending machine companies\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0post notices\u00a0saying\u00a0\u201cwe are going to quit selling you candy bars because the money you are\u00a0putting\u00a0 in\u00a0the slot is no longer enough to cover costs.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n They raised the price.\u00a0Now,\u00a0there\u2019s\u00a0an idea.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n I\u2019d\u00a0pay more if it was\u00a0an option.\u00a0Has anybody considered that bringing in more money might ease the problem of not having enough?\u00a0At some point, people\u00a0might quit buying, but\u00a0why not keep selling\u00a0at higher prices until then?\u00a0<\/p>\n I\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0get it.\u00a0There\u2019s\u00a0probably some\u00a0obscure book that would explain, but if\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0going to read\u00a0up on it, I better hurry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jake Vest Photo by Vinnie Cammarano I\u2019d\u00a0like to say, \u201cI\u2019ve been thrown out of better places than this,\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":363051,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[139,141,140],"class_list":["post-363050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363050\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}