[mou] Birds of NA access fun

[Thomas Maiello]

I want to share with you how to gain access to the wonderful Birds of 
North America Online Database (or at least as far as I have gotten) 
without suffering the slings and arrows that I have over the last 
month.  Bottom Line - make sure you go to a Minneapolis Public Library 
to get the appropriate access numbers. 

I live in Anoka County and was (I am now) not very familiar with how the 
metro area library system works.  I went to the library in Brooklyn 
Center to get a library card so I could access the database (Oops - the 
Brooklyn Center Library is a Hennepin County Library - not a Mpls 
library!).  They gave me a temporary MELSA card but told me that they 
couldn't issue me a library card because I live in Anoka County.  They 
said I could use the temporary card to access the database until I got 
my card - then I would get a library card number over the internet and 
then a formal Anoka County Library card in the mail. 

I got home and could not access the database with the MELSA temporary 
card.  I waited and got the email with my library card number.  I still 
couldn't access the database.  I waited and got my formal card in the 
mail.  I still couldn't access the database.  I made many phone calls to 
Hennepin County and Anoka County libraries and got various degrees of 
help and suggestions on how to go about gaining access.  None worked.  I 
finally got hold of a Minneapolis Library.  (A big problem was that I 
didn't understand that only specific libraries were Mpls and that they 
did not communicate or link their library card information from any 
other libraries except Mpls..) 

Bottom line- I now have to go to a Mpls library with picture ID and my 
Anoka library card to get something so that I can get access to the 
Birds of North America Online database.  They said it would be only a 
minute and it would be easy.  I have faith that by day's end I will have 
access to it.  (I also have faith that I will see a Chestnut-sided 
Warbler today.)  If you don't hear back from me on this assume one of 
the following: 1) Everything worked out and I got access; 2) Something 
happened and I never made it to the library and had to suddenly leave 
Minnesota; 3) Aliens got me; 4) The food at the vegetarian restaurant I 
am going to before I go to the library was ill prepared and my 
constitution too weak to handle it; or 5) All of the above.  Please send 
your answer on a brand new pair of very expensive binoculars and a new 
field book to me in care of the Hennepin County Library System.  Answers 
submitted after 10:50 a.m. on May 18, 2006 will not be accepted.  
Winners will get to hear me squeal with joy as I peruse the BofNA 
database online.

Bottom Line - make sure you go to a Minneapolis Public Library to get 
the appropriate access numbers to access the Birds of North America 
Online Database.

Thank you for playing our game and I hope this saves anyone from a 
similar ordeal.

Thomas Maiello
Spring Lake Park
Anoka County Library System participant and hopefully soon to be Mpls 
library participant