As a freshman in college one of the first things I did was set up an email account. I already had a hotmail account before college (it didn’t get used much[oh, how that has changed, thank you gmail]) but I needed a school account. I went by Liz (still do) and so my email was L and then my last name. Well. Lowercase l looks a lot like uppercase I when written and not typed (or in any sans serif font, those little serifs help out so much with this problem!). I’m always worried when I fill out forms, like say, for a library card, that some 15 year old volunteer will enter it with an I and not l. It’s never happened. Still I worry. I tell you this (highlighting the library) because the Library is struggling. I set up eAlerts instead of getting letters. I could say it was to go green, but really it’s because I hardly open mail because everything else is online (opening an email takes way less energy then opening a paper envelope. duh). Well. I have never gotten an email from the library. And this time it messed things up. A brand new book that I’ve been waiting months for came out in February and I put a hold on it (online of course [which I can finally do because the library computers decided to accept the same 4 digit pin I’ve been trying to feed it for two years{this computer and I are locked in a death battle(am I using these parentheses and brackets and squiggles correctly?)}]). And the book came. And the book went. Because I got no notification. I could go onto my account everyday and check. But the point of the Alert is so that I don’t have to because the window of fulfillment on this hold: Now until October!! I’m not logging through 4 screens everyday for 6 months just for a book. Even a book I really want to read. Plus these alerts are also supposed to be sent when my books are almost overdue so I don’t have to pay a fine (If you added up my lifetime of overdue fines, I think you could pay for a wing in the library. Or at least an encyclopedia). Back to my point. After 5 weeks on the waiting list, I missed my chance at the book. And I only knew this because I logged in to put a hold on another book and saw that the first book was in and had to be picked up by the day before. I yelled at the computer a minute and then put it back on hold. The status updated 6 days ago to “In Transit”. It’s still “In Transit”. It has to come from a central MA library. My guess is it’s coming on the back of a turtle that is traveling from the Galapagos Islands.