Don't look down/ It's a long long way to fall

I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with the DC public library system. I've primarily (solely?) written during relationship upswings, so you would be forgiven for thinking that it's just a love/love relationship. And don't get me wrong, I definitely appreciate  public libraries in theory, but in practice they can leave quite a bit to be desired. Here are my top gripes:

First, let's talk about their website, because it's kind of the worst. It's incredibly hard to search, which is kind of unfortunate since that's its main purpose. Over the years I've gotten a bit better at using it (pro-tip: exact search is not your friend), but I'm still amazed when books don't appear at all when I search one way but do when I search another. This would be less irritating if it weren't for point two, because I'd at least know it was wroth trying all the variations to find a book. Additionally, the site has a tendency to freeze up after  doing just a few searches.

Second, let's talk about the selection. For a large city, the selection is woefully inadequate. Admittedly I don't always want super popular books, but only a small handful are that obscure to justify their absence in the library system. I still have more than 350 to go, and I'm already resorting to creative means to get some of these. Why doesn't DC have an interlibrary loan system? I ask myself this nearly every day.

Third, let's talk about the size of the libraries. There are a ton of neighborhood libraries and they are all itty-bitty and strangely full of DVDs (haven't y'all heard of streaming? Does anyone still borrow DVDs from the library anymore?). As a result, I have to rely on putting books on hold for all my borrowing needs; I never can walk into the library and just find books that I want. Now, I could go to the main library branch, but trust me, it's not better. It just has even more DVDs.

Now, it's not all bad. I know I'm not their real target audience, and they have done some pretty innovative things like hiring a social worker to work with homeless patrons. Still, I worry about relying on the library as the books get harder and harder to find.