So, with the Cowboys meltdown, football season is basically over for me. I'll watch the playoffs off and on, but I get bored pretty easily without a team to root for. More time for the schoolwork!

One thing that ticks me off is the library system at college. I'm a grad student, which means I can check books out for 3 months. We can renew twice online, but after that we have to take the books back to the library to renew. All told, that's 9 months--or so you'd think. A little known codicil is that the due date comes up quicker if happen to renew too close to the end of the semester. So the library takes away your time if you happen to renew too early in a semester to get an additional 4 months. I checked out books in August, so my books, which I should have been able to keep for 9 months if renewed twice, were actually due in 5. Confusing? It was to me, too. I happened to renew in december for a second time and only got about 2 weeks instead of the expected 4 months because the term was ending.

Now, I've basically known what I'm writing my dissertation on for at least a year, so I've checked out books months ago on the topic. Moreover, I checked out books to help with the prospectus which was due in December as well. Today, I had to take 42 books (I even forgot 14 more somewhere in the bedroom!) back to the library to have them physically scanned back in, then back out for another 4 months. Isn't this a waste? If I meant to keep/steal the books, would I bother renewing them twice online in the first place? Also, there's a system where, if someone wants the book you have, they can "recall" the book so you have to bring it in for them when your time is up--meaning that I would know if another person wanted something I had. So I'm not hoarding books from others. Yet I have to go to the library to have them scan all these books and give them right back to me.

And it's not just us lowly grad students; professors are said to have to schlep their books in as well while trying to write papers/books to get tenure.

I have to complain, because other than this, our library is fantastic. I've never had a problem with getting books, orientations for classes, help with research, etc. It's just that the thought of having to bring all these books up here again in a few months, dragging a wheeled tote bag across campus, having to take all the books out and give them to the clerk with my pages full of tabs and sticky notes, then taking them back home, seems a little ridiculous. Yet another reason to hurry with the diss.