neat library-related tool

I'm one of those sort of librarians: the ones that never return books on time and rack up huge overdue fines.*

No more!

One of my librarian coworkers told me about a cool site called Library Elf. It seems to do exactly what I need, which is pretty darned exciting.

From the site's main page:

Who uses Elf?

• Anyone who wants to reduce overdues
• Families with children and lots of books
• Individuals with several library cards
• Anyone who requests a lot of holds

What's delivered?

• Email and/or RSS alerts before items are due
• Email and/or RSS alerts on overdues and holds
• Consolidated list of yours or your family's library loans and holds
• Cellphone text message alerts for holds (US and Canada)
• Real-time checking by browser

It even integrates with your library account, as long as your library participates, which mine thankfully does.

As it stands, my public library will alert me when my books are overdue - 2 weeks after the due date, at 25 cents a book a day in overdue fines. I've heard tales that they swear this not a fund-raising mechanism, but I have my doubts.

Regardless: hooray! I'm optimistic that I will soon never pay another overdue fine!