When our kids were little, we used to play the "license plate game" in the car to keep them occupied. It sure beat twenty questions. Now my grandkids watch DVDs or play video games to keep busy. Wow, how times have changed! Times have really changed in the library business too. Computers are the reason. Fifteen or twenty years ago so-called experts were forecasting the end of libraries and the end of books. I even remember before that when the dawn of the computer age was leading other "experts" to predict the end of teachers. Kids would teach themselves, using computers. Teachers would be superfluous. Well, teachers are still here, books are still here and libraries are still here. In fact, people, driving around Nebraska, will notice a boom in library building projects. We hope to join the library building boom in the near future (with a little help from our friends).

Anyway, back to the "license plate game". Our family kept one game going for two years. At the end of that time, the only state we didn’t have was Delaware, leaving me to wonder if there really was a Delaware. At the library we now play a version of the license plate game with our computer sign-ups. Because our computer usage is so high, we use software to sign-up or "check-out" a computer for a specified time limit. Adults have a three-hour "check-out" period for computer use each day and must have a library card to use the computers. We provide a limited number of guest cards, which we reserve for people visiting from out-of-town. In addition, we ask that people list their name and address when they register for a guest card. An amazing number of people, using these cards, are from other states and other countries. Out of curiosity we began to play our own version of the license plate game and track the home state or nation of computer users. (If the FBI is reading this, we do not keep a list of names, just locations.)

During the past two years 45 of the 50 states are represented on our tracking sheet and thirteen foreign countries. Naturally, Colorado and Wyoming are the most frequently listed states. Florida, Hawaii, Arizona, Texas and Kansas are running neck and neck for third place in our library computer game. We haven’t had quite as many sign-ups from foreign countries this year. In 2005 Columbia won that division with eleven. This year Hong Kong, Mexico and British Columbia Canada are tied for the lead with three each. Last year, we tracked towns in Nebraska as well. This got burdensome so we just track how many times other Nebraska towns are represented. There were 90 last year and 192 this year.

Our computer software does not tell us who is using the computers, just how often they have been used. During 2005 public computers were used for 23,184 sessions, totaling 14,268 hours. As of the end of July, the computers have been used 22,739 times for 14,559 hours. These numbers are way ahead of the usage during the same period of time in 2005.

Staff members are frequently thanked by foreign or out-of-state visitors for the free use of our computers. We do not charge for use of computers because our budget comes from the city sales tax. Anyone who visits Scottsbluff pays sales tax so they are helping financially in the support of the public library. Visitors, especially from other countries, are astounded by the nature of FREE public libraries in the United States and the open access to information that libraries provide. (Now, I’m on my soapbox, but God help us if we ever lose this free and open access to information.) As Director of the Scottsbluff Public Library, I am proud that we are serving people from all over the United States and around the world. This has truly become an inter-connected world, and Scottsbluff, Nebraska is a part of it.

Oh, by the way, I just noticed, there are no visitors listed from Delaware. We never saw a Delaware license plate when we played the game in the car either. Hmm, is there really a Delaware, or is it just a figment of someone’s imagination?

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