For our first project for the Research Skills Workshop, we had to go to the National Library of Spain (which is actually quite close--just a few stops over on the metro), and get our library card and make some photocopies as proof that we were there.
Spain does not have open-stack browsing. This is a national travesty.
If I need to borrow a book, I cannot check it out. I have to fill out a little card with the book's call number and info, wait for them to bring it to me, and then take notes about it at the little desk that they have assigned me. I can make photocopies (maybe), but there is no way that the original copy is ever leaving the building. Just ask the security guards. They rifle through all of the papers that you bring with you when you enter the building and again when you leave, just to make sure that you don't try to sneak anything in or out.
I understand this entire procedure if I were trying to access ancient archives--or even relatively old archives, like from the '70s (kidding!). But the book that I looked at was published in 2010. So there's really no reason to keep it under lock and key.
I've just decided that I'm going to try to avoid researching there as much as possible this semester, since I don't really have much time to waste waiting for someone to find a book for me. It's a good thing that most of my papers this semester are based on class readings. And then, next semester, when I actually have to do research, I will have hopefully found more patience for bureaucracy.
Still, it's an awfully pretty library, isn't it?
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