A Library Card

In the past, I've always thought of getting a library card as a fairly mundane thing. You go in, maybe show some ID, give contact information, and you're all set up. Perhaps assuming it would go the same in the UK was naive on my part. After all, I am a foreigner and there is the chance I will abscond with the British people's public reading material to some foreign country where they will never see it again.

I did not fully appreciate the threat I must pose when I entered the library.

At first, everything seemed straight forward enough... I would need to show two forms of ID - one with my signature and photo on it (they prefer a passport) and a piece of mail with my name and current residence on it. This last bit was a problem since we have received no mail and everything is likely to come in Russell's name anyway. I was still confident that this could be worked out, however. I explained that I was here for three months with my husband and I didn't have any mail yet. I got an appraising look and was asked if my husband was here on business. I assured them that he was, at which point they asked if there wasn;t anything at all that might connect MY name to the apartment we were staying in. I explained that there wasn't, but remembered that we did have the leasing agreement from the company with Russell's name on it. I asked if this might work just as well. The lady said that it would, provided I filled out a slip of paper with signatures. Perfectly happy with this outcome, I returned home to get the letter proving residence.

I returned to the library and spoke with a new woman. I proudly displayed my proof of residence and two pieces of ID. The woman I was speaking with looked deeply concerned, and said she would have to check with her senior co-worker. The senior co-worker turned out to be the lady I had talked with earlier. She looked at my proof of residence and said, no, this just woudn't do. I would need to pair it with a signature from Russell verifying that I was indeed living with him and authorizing me to check out books to our apartment.

So now I'm waiting for Russell to come home and give me permission to check out books. I suppose its not that big of a deal, but I'm still a bit bent out of shape over it. I don't remember it being this difficult to get a UK visa... Oh well. Can't be helped.