One of your New Year's resolutions was probably to cut back on salt. If you eat too much of it, you set yourself up for cardiovascular trouble, high blood pressure, and death, and if you don't eat enough you set yourself up for electrolyte imbalance, nerve damage, and death. Calibrating your salt consumption can be one of life's adventures, but it can be done if you start paying attention to package labels and think before you pick up the shaker.
Salt's a lot more than just that shaker with a few grains of rice in it for humidity control. It's got dozens of industrial uses. 
It's been a bone of contention between nations and between social classes. A tax on salt called the gabelle was one of the things French revolutionaries objected to in the days when there were very few ways of preserving food, and people needed a lot of salt.
It's been mined deep under the earth, evaporated from salty creeks or ocean pools, and occasionally collected from the leaves of oceanside plants. There really were salt mines, where people were sent to do hard labor for political and intellectual crimes. It was a prime article of trade, and it still is.
Check out Mark Kurlansky's Salt: A World History to find out more about this fascinating edible rock and its relationship to human culture.
System status
A new library system and online catalog will debut on May 30. Here's the current status of:
- Checkouts: May 24-29 you must have your physical library card in hand to check out materials.
- Due dates: All checkouts will have a due date of June 22, except DVDs and GRU watt meters, which still have 7-day limit.
- Holds and requests: New holds and purchase requests cannot be placed until May 30, but those placed previously will continue to be processed.
- Returns: Please "Babysit Our Books" — keep them until the new system is running smoothly (mid-June).
- Registration: Continues as usual today, but cannot be done May 24-29, as our entire system will be down.
- Interlibrary loan: Continues as usual throughout the transition.
- Digital checkouts: OverDrive checkouts and holds will work normally throughout the transition.
- My Discoveries: Will be retired with the AquaBrowser catalog on May 24. Please retrieve any saved book lists before then.
- Website: The Library District website (www.aclib.us) will be up as normal throughout the transition.
- My Account: Account info will be available through May 24. Your account will appear on the new system on May 30.
- Bill payment: All payments including PayPal are working today. No payments can be accepted May 24-29
- New catalog: Watch for its debut on May 30, with new features.
More about the transition.
More about the new online catalog.
Have any questions? Please Ask Us!
