I love the library. I love going to the library. I love looking at books. I love pulling out a stack of reserved items with my name on it. I love self-checkout machines. I love renewing items over and over because no one else wants them. The library’s great, and a library in England should be even greater, right? I mean, it’s in England.

I did my research ahead of time to make sure there was a library in Ormskirk. I like to read, but I also love watching movies. I watch a lot of movies, and I rely heavily on the library system to do this. I didn’t know if the campus library had many movies, but I figured probably not. A day or two after I got here, I applied online for a library card (because I didn’t know my address before) and I got it in the mail a couple days later. I had been keeping a list of movies I wanted to see that I couldn’t find in the U.S., and since almost all of them were English movies, they were all available in the Ormskirk library catalogue. (WordPress is flagging this for misspelling, and now I’m not sure how I usually spell it. The Ormskirk library site spells it that way, but I guess it can also be spelled “catalog”.)

Well, I finally made it over to the library today. I had a book and a few movies waiting, and I wanted to look around and see what the library had to offer. When I walked in, I saw a big display of movies in the center of the building, so I walked over to check it out. They had a surprisingly large collection, including some surprisingly new releases, and it looked like they accepted media donations from people. I found two more movies that I had been wanting to see, and I took them up to the front desk. I hadn’t been able to find a reservation shelf, so I asked if this is where I pick up holds.

The man seemed a little confused — apparently I had missed the reservation shelf right in front of the desk — but I think he realized I was just American and inept. He scanned the two movies I had brought up and said, “Ok, so that’ll be £4 for these…” and started to point out the reservation shelf for me.

I said, “Wait . . . what?” (I probably said something a little more than this, like “It costs to check stuff out?”)

“Yeah, it’s £2 for each movie, and then 60p for the book.”

I probably sputtered something like, “Oh. Oh, I didn’t realize . . .”

“They didn’t tell you when you were signing up?”

“No, I didn’t realize.” I am embarrassed.

He had pulled out my reserved stack by this time and laid it all out on the counter. “So do you want to keep any of these?”

“Um . . .” I tried to analyze quickly. So many movies, so many good movies that I had wanted to see, so many good English movies. “I’ll just take the book for now.” It was Faithful Place, by Tana French, the third in an Irish murder mystery series that I had been reading. Funnily enough, I had just yesterday come across this book for £1 at a book sale in a cathedral in Chester, but decided not to get it because I would picking it up from the library the next day.

While he pushed the movies aside, I attempted to count the change in my wallet, and discovered I was just short. I gave him a fiver. I had a scarf and a heavy coat on, and was feeling overheated and awkward. He gave me change and I left quickly, silently grieving over the loss of Benedict Cumberbatch and Iwan Rheon facetime. I took the bus back to campus and spent my feelings on an EHU hoodie.

I forgot about it for a couple hours and just now came back to do some research. I found the spot on the Lancashire library website where there is a list of charges:

So, apparently, the 60p I paid for the book was actually a reservation charge, not a charge for the checkout itself. Checking out books is free, according to this. This put me somewhat at ease. I could still check out things out,  I just couldn’t reserve them. But I could get over that. I’d just have to mostly checkout what they already had available in the library, which shouldn’t be too much of a problem because it looked like they had a pretty large selection.

No, then I remembered. DVDs are still £2 to check out, whether you pick them up in the library or reserve them. It’s very sad. I’m not sure what I’m going to do, especially since Hulu doesn’t work here, but I have a free trial of Netflix for now. My movie addiction was cheaply supported in the U.S., but England doesn’t seem to be as accommodating. Also, I’m sure some people would argue that I shouldn’t be watching movies while I’m here anyway, to which I say, fair point, but every artist needs inspiration. That’s right. I am an artist, of film, and I need my movie time.

I feel justified now. That’s all I have to say, and I think this is my first grievance filed against England. I doubt there will be very many, and I’m sure I’ll find a way around it. People here watch movies too.