Library Website Down

It's been over a week since the Toronto Public Library website went down.  I knew it was pretty bad, and I suspect it involved a ransomware attack, but it seems even worse than I expected.  I had thought that at the branches themselves, the librarians would be able to access the system, but it was not the case at all.  They are processing all check-outs and returns on paper, hoping to enter them into the system at some point.  But I was looking for a specific book (The Sun Also Rises), and it is a total crap shoot to find it in person at a branch in order to check it out.  That was a major disappointment.  Also, they recently moved away from the old museum pass system to something that was completely centralized on the website, so that was also completely down (and very clearly a poor decision in hindsight).  I am a little disappointed at how hard they are finding it to restore the system from backups, as it is unlikely that paying the ransomware will actually work.  The library really is close to unusable at the moment.  (If I ever get around to it, I think I will have my engineer character call for capital punishment for the ransomware creeps, as well as military strikes against all the server farms supporting cryptocurrency.)  Anyway, had I known how bad it was, I would not have bothered going to a branch to return my overdue DVD and would have just hung onto it until later.

As it happens, I had just checked out three art books from TPL and didn't have anything on hold, so I'm ok for the moment.  However, I was considering putting Chagall and Music on hold, but there was a copy at Robarts, so I got that one instead.  Likewise, I didn't get in line for a hold on the Tom Thomson book (from the McMichael exhibit) but got out a copy from the Pratt Library at UVic.  I would like to know if the TPL is going to order a copy of the Jean Paul Riopelle catalogue for the exhibit that just opened at the National Gallery.  (I'll have to find the time to get up there to see this before it closes next April!)  They had absolutely no way to tell me when I was at the branch.  Sigh...

Since I was returning the Thomson book to Pratt last night, I grabbed a copy of The Sun Also Rises while I was there.  Most of the books on my current reading list are ones I own, though Kurkov's Grey Bees is coming up fast.  That one I can borrow from either Robarts or St. Mike's.  After that, I would hope the TPL is back in business, but, if not, I will see how many of the missing books are in the UT system.  I would suspect most of them.  There are two downsides to moving so completely over to the UT library system, however.  First, it is less convenient, geographically-speaking (particularly as it starts to get harder for me to bike and it is already dark when I leave work!).  Second, they still charge late fees, so I really have to get through the books I do borrow from them, particularly as an alumni borrower I only get 2 weeks and no renewals!  But it beats the alternative...