A Member Again

The X and I visited our library (City Library) at least once or twice per week. We usually order books or DVDs online and pick them up whenever they are available. When the library first opened its doors around 8/9 years ago, there was already a machine available to encourage members to self check on the way out. By the time I left Melbourne (mid 2011), everyone was expected to self check whatever they were borrowing. Friendly librarians were always around to help out if anyone got stuck. The X also used to do ‘research work’ at the State Library of Victoria. I usually tagged along as well. This State Library is a non-lending library but it is full of wonderful books. There was even a playroom for people to play video games for free. After many years, I came to expect libraries to be the same as my Melbourne experience. LOL.

The first library I ever encountered as a child was the one at my primary school. I was already in Primary 2 when I first heard of it. I paid a visit during recess one day but was blocked by a ‘door bitch’. She told me that I was too young to gain entry but even though she was a ‘big kid’ (Primary 5), I didn’t take her word for it. Nothing was going to bar me from browsing the books in there. As I was cruising along, the ‘big kid’ was busy looking in her bag for a piece of paper to take my name and student number down. She was going to dob me in to the authorities. The collection of books wasn’t very exciting and half the room was blocked off to house the instruments of the newly formed school band. So I left before she got back to me. LOL.

Around that time, a cousin of mine took her son and I to the Sabah State Library (near Gaya Street) for a visit. We were shown the children’s section and were not allowed to venture into the grown ups’ areas. As my cousin was organizing a membership for her son, she also filled in an extra form so I too could become a member. I was over the moon. The library card made me feel very important. We borrowed books fortnightly. There were heaps of British children’s titles back then. Unfortunately something horrible happened while I was at the library when I was about 9 and I stopped going. Luckily, the British Council library was an alternative venue available back in those days.

A few months after returning to Kota Kinabalu last year, I paid a visit to the same State Library one day. The air-conditioning was on full blast. The security officer wasn’t very friendly but the first female librarian I saw was smiley. I went to the children’s section to check out their collection of picture books in English. I was quite impressed! The non-fiction collection was good too. What nearly floored me was the collection of Christian books for children. I just got to leave to check out the librarians at the front counter with my own eyes just to be sure that I was still in Malaysia. The women sat around chatting with little to do because the library was virtually empty that morning. After the self confirmation, I returned to browse some more. I even stood at the very spot where something happened to me all those years ago. I didn’t feel scared or hurt. I guess that I was more hurt by the state of my relationship with the X at the time. Eventually I ventured into the grown ups’ areas, including upstairs. I love the desks and chairs upstairs. The chairs reminded me of school chairs in Australia. They were sturdy and quite new.

From visiting libraries once or twice per week in Melbourne to less than a handful of visits in almost 18 months, I recently made the decision to join the library again. The library that I described above has moved to a temporary address inside a fancy looking shopping centre called Suria. My Mum came with me hoping that we could score a Family card so we could borrow up to 20 items. I thought that it would work because we live in the same address but NO. I was allowed a two year membership for RM10 and my Mum, as a Warga Emas (Senior Citizen), was given a membership for free. We were each allowed to borrow two items. I was never charged a library membership fee in Melbourne and we were allowed to borrow as many books as we wished. We could also renew our loans online. Here, the library didn’t even issue us any library cards. Our ID cards (MY KAD) double as library cards. They didn’t issue a docket when I borrowed a book to tell me when to return it. The librarian simply stamped a date on a sheet inside the front cover. That was something I hadn’t seen in a long time. I didn’t think that people still do such things! As for the collection of books on display at this temporary library, it is very small. The amount of books reminded me of a teeny tiny library in Middle Park (Melbourne). There are more books inside a Borders Store than this Library @ Suria. It is quite a shock to the system for someone like me. So far, I have only borrowed one book. I will visit again this weekend. Hopefully, I will come to love it as much as the City Library in Melbourne. One day, the new State Library will be completed and I will have a new venue to visit. I think it is next to the Perdana Park in Tanjung Aru. Yes, that is the park with the Kompan playground. People tend to remember Perdana Park for the musical fountain but I tend to always have to point out its Kompan playground hiding at the back. Let’s hope that the new library will be filled with heaps of books and comfy chairs.