The closest I have ever come to marital infidelity has occurred this week, when I began my torrid love afair with the WorldCat Library system.  My meager attempts to pretend to be a graduate student again have led me back into the dark embrace of information systems and my, things have changed.  I had a casual flirtation with Lexus-Nexus and a drink or two with JStor, but I find myself putting the baby down for a nap as quickly as possible just to get in a few more minutes with WorldCat.  When Peter is distracted I will try to slip by an advanced search or two.  In the dark of the night when its just me and my friend the Medela, my fingers brush over keys whispering lightly the terms “narrative” and “theology” into my disembodied companion’s attentive ear.

The features are legion, friend.  You can get reviews, library holdings, and synopses right there in several clever tabs.  And--this is my favorite--there is a sidebar where it will look at Amazon and other booksellers and tell you where to find the cheapest used copy of books in your search.

The thought of that just sent a shiver down my spine right now. 

We’ve had our differences, though.  Yesterday, while looking for a specific book, it brought back about ten with the words narrative and theology in the title.  What?  Where were you when I was doing my prospectus bibliography?  There is a narrative theology using the thought of John Wesley to look at the Bible?  What?  Why did not the vast stores of Boston University yield to me this information?

Its because they did not love me, that’s why.  Not like WorldCat.

The baby is stirring.  But I know I will try to keep her in the swing just a little longer because there is a used copy of “Why Narrative?” for 8.50 WorldCat wants to tell me about.

And I must listen.