A First Time for Everything

So today, for the first time in my 12 years as a professor at CWRU, I went over to the university library and checked out a book.

Now before my librarian mom hits the roof, let me just point out that the Astronomy Library is actually located in the Astronomy Department, literally about three steps from my office door. And I get books from there quite often. And also, astronomy is a very technologically oriented field (and one that's always been way ahead of the curve when it comes to electronic resources), so 95% of my "library activities" take place online (literature searches, journal downloads, database access, etc).

But today, for a class I'm teaching on the process and philosophy of science, I actually needed a book. My first thought was to wonder if I could get it at the public library, then suddenly I remembered we had a library on campus. So I headed over to that big building across Euclid, clutching a printout with the book info on it.

(there are rumored to be books in this building)

When I walked inside, I stopped, looked around for a while in confusion, then headed up the stairs to my favorite librarian's office.

Me: Bill, in this big, fancy library of yours, where are the, uh... well... you know.... the, uh..."

Bill: The books?

Me: Yeah, those things.

Bill (clearly resisting the urge to throw a shoe at me): Upstairs, third floor.

So I found my book, checked it out (another helpful librarian had to show me how to do that), and finally went back to my office to read...