Did this bus play a role in your childhood?
It did for me! I remember being excited about the dates the bus would visit my school, and I'd spent the entire recess choosing the books to be borrowed.
For awhile, I've thought about how I've been underutilising the library facilities near my place. The nearest public library to us is in Bandar Baru Bangi, under Perbadanan Perpustakaan Awam Selangor (PPAS). So last Saturday, MH and I brought the kids there, motivated by the banner advertising a 'Pameran dan Jualan Buku'. The kids had a hard time pronouncing the word 'perpustakaan' though. Pustaan, puskaan - attempts by my two-and-a-half year old daughter. My four-year-old son fared better - he managed 'pustakaan'. They were so excited to go this place which their mummy has described as 'ada banyaaak buku'.
One of the objective of this visit was to register as members so that we can borrow books. We came armed with a passport-sized photo and copy of our IC. You see, many many months back, I had gone there earlier and took the forms and these were the requiremets as stated in the form. So I was pleasantly surprised when she said photo is not needed. And I also learnt that they have a photocopy machine there, so you can actually just walk in only with your original IC and you'd be able to register immediately - and borrow books immediately! That's another surprise. The form stated that it takes 5 working days to process the application, so I went not expecting to be able to borrow immediately. Boy, was I glad to be wrong. The thing is, they don't use the library card system anymore. We have to use our IC when borrowing (so that's why they no longer require a photo). I'm not sure whether I like this or not, because this means I personally have to be present everytime I want to borrow or return the books.
Membership is free. A member can borrow up to 3 books at any one time, and the books are due in 3 weeks. The penalty for late returns has increased, from 10 sen/day to 50 sen/day! Between MH and I, these are the books that we chose (well, actually I chose 5 and he chose 1 hahaha!). It's actually quite difficult to choose because they were quite a lot of interesting books. They do carry titles by Stephen King, Cecilia Ahern, Jodi Picoult, David Baldacci, Paolo Coelho, Agatha Christie, Joanna Trollope, and of course local titles by Ilham Hamdani, Abdul Latip Talib. These were just some examples. The collection is very limited of course, but I'm glad we're now able to utilise this public resource.
Members can borrow at any Selangor libraries, provided they haven't exhausted the 3-book limit. The state library in Shah Alam is open every day, but the others are closed on weekends except two Saturdays a month (week 2 and 4 - I always get confused which are those). If it were up to me, I'd arrange for all libraries to be open during weekends (not necessarily fully-staffed) and close them on 2 weekdays (say Tue-Wed?). Here are the opening hours:
Here's the link again, to check for their nearest library.
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