When I was a kid, I was interested in a number of professions that are now either outdated, or have changed completely. One of those dreams involved checking out books and things to patrons, and it was focused primarily on pulling out the little card and adding a date-due stamp.

Of course, if you’ve been to a library in the last 20 years, you know that most of them don’t work that way anymore. Either the librarian scans special barcodes, or you check materials out yourself simply by placing them just so, one at a time. Either way, you end up with a printed receipt with all the materials listed, or an email. I ask you, what’s the fun in that? At least with the old way, you’d usually get a bookmark for each book by way of the due date card.

As I got older and spent the better part of two decades in a job that I didn’t exactly vibe with, I seriously considered becoming a programmer. I took Java, Android, and UNIX classes at the local junior college, met my now-husband, and eventually decided I didn’t have the guts to actually solve problems with computers. And, unlike my husband, I have very little imagination when it comes to making them do things.

Fast forward to last weekend, the one before Thanksgiving here in the US. I had tossed around the idea of making a personal library system just for funsies a day or so before, and I brought it up again. My husband was like, do you want to make it tonight using ChatGPT? And I was like, sure — not knowing what I was getting into except for the driver’s seat, excited for the destination.

Continue reading “In Which I Vibe-Code A Personal Library System” →