[BarryRX]

It's been a long, long time since I've run into the autocratic librarian who would "shoosh" you at the slightest sound. Now, most of them are great sources of information. Some may be friendlier than others when helping me, but that's true of all my interactions. Libraries face a lot of problems today. Budget cuts have really impacted them. I remember when a book wasn't overdue until it was checked out for more than 30 days. Now it's overdue if more than 21 days. Increased revenue to make up for budget cuts is the only reason I can think of (help me out if I'm wrong retired librarians). There is less shelf space for books because of the increased space needed to be given to computers, movies, music, etc. If you come from a good sized city, you know that libraries have also turned into a de facto shelter for the homeless. But the OP's problem stems from our concerns over privacy. Information is freedom, and we don't want the big,bad government knowing what we're reading. Reading is very personal, and we may not want our neighbors knowing what books we're checking out either. Imagine a scenario where your husband and you were getting divorced, and he was able to find out you were checking out books on growing your own marijuana. It could very well be a deciding factor in who gets custody of the kids. I personally think you ran into a bit too much bureaucracy, but I can see their point also. they are probably just protecting privacy rights like we wanted them to do.