ZWD: Inside Chapter 7

The last time I used the Dewey Decimal System and the Card Catalog was . . . . God I don't remember. Over the past few years when I have gone to the Library I have used the computer to find everything. But to actually get the little scrap of paper and that nub of a pencil and thumb through the wooden cabinets filled with index cards, it has been years. It's a fantastic system and very handy. Some may call it antiquated with it's low tech functionality but it works when the power is off. 

Look at that MEME up there, the map, survival books, gardening and plant recognition are all applications you can use on your phone or a laptop/tablet. You walk around with most of the worlds knowledge in your pocket. More knowledge than has ever been accessible to humanity than at any other time in history and you play solitaire, angry birds, or just chat with others instead of using it. I know because I do the same. But what if it were taken away from you and you needed maps, survival books, gardening books or plant recognition books just so you could stay alive? 

I know the last three post have been a big advertisement for your local library but that where you would go to find out all this stuff. It's that simple. But once you get there and you gather all the information you need from all those sources how do you treat it? 

I had our hero's just take the books they found most valuable with them. Rip pages form the next important ones and make tons of notes in notebooks for the rest. I figured that with all the information they would need they would have to carry out about forty pounds of books if they took just the books in tact. So they cannibalized what they had to to make it convenient.   

As a bit of a bibliophile I have to admit writing this part of the story where they tear pages from books was a bit painful to me. I don't condone it but I saw the necessity for it in this extreme case. To all the other bibliophiles out there I apologize for even suggesting it in the story but for them it was a matter of life or death so I hope you understand. 

I had actually on one of my visits to the library gathered up several of the books I thought they might need just to see how heavy the pile would be I think my guess of forty pounds was right. I was able to minimize the pile to about twelve pounds, six each. I though they could carry that easily enough. Funny thing about that time when I was looking at the two stacks of books one of the homeless guys I had talked to asked me what I was doing and when I explained I was trying to figure out how much weight the information I really needed would weight he pointed to his head and said; "Knowledge is weightless when it's held here."      

I thought about that for a while and realized they would have to "study" in peace so they stayed in the library for a few days. They may have been safe but they did not bring enough food for that long of a stay. It was time to go.