Library cards

Oohhh... exciting topic tonight... library cards.

Robin has been taking the kids to one of the Halifax library branches that is in a neighborhood with a lot of recent immigrants to Canada. At this library, white faces are in the minority. Today Robin and the kids picked me up from work and we headed to this library. The kids were particularly excited to use the children's computers. Lo and behold, you can't sign on to the computer with an adult library card. You need a child's card. So we asked the librarian at the reference desk what to do and she told us we needed:

1- the child's ID - anything with the child's name and a #
2- the parent's ID

We didn't have anything for the children's ID so she told us we could have a temporary card and bring back the necessary documents later. So I headed to the check out desk where I faced a road block. Apparently they wouldn't give me a temporary card and there was a red flag when I said that I didn't carry any kind of ID for the kids and would have to come back.

The end result... no temporary card and the instructions to come back with proof that I was the legal guardian.

Robin was offended for us but I was more offended for the immigrant population. I really think this "proof" was only necessary because of the neighborhood, not because of our family situation.

So to see if I was correct, we went to the library in our local neighborhood. Same situation... no children's ID... guardians of these kids.

The end result...we came away with a temporary library card for both kids which we used immediately to access the children's computers, and instructions to come back with the ID cards for the kids for permanent cards. No questions asked.