Today I was in the office and announced to my boss that I was going to the local library. He looked at me funny and asked why. I told him that I’m doing a talk on Martin Luther King Jr on Thursday and I needed more information. “There isn’t any on the internet?” he asked. I told him I needed more information, Wikipedia just isn’t enough. He looked a bit incredulous, then said “Good luck”.

So I went to the library feeling smug that I’m so world savvy I can work the internet and a library.

As it happened I could find very little info about King in the library. Partly because there were no computers in the library to look up the catalogue, only computers to look up the internet. I read a little bit out of a book in modern western history then went back to the office. My boss asked me how I went. When I told him he just said “Thought so.” He knows what he’s talking about. That’s why he’s the boss.

To be fair, had I been at Hornsby Library say, or the NSW Library, I’m sure it would have been a different story. The local suburban frontier outpost library I was visiting seems to be more designed as a rest stop for taxi drivers and a place to display signs about bag stealing.