Culture Pass

Okay, if you're interested in the Culture Pass, go here for more information. Basically, this is how it works. Each library has a limited number of passes per museum. You go to the kiosk, select the one you want, and take one of the cards to the desk to check it out. They keep the card and hold it for seven days, at which point they restock it on the kiosk. They give you a receipt which you then take to the museum. You have to redeem it within 7 days and it's good for four free admissions (any age).

The program started on Wednesday, April 1st, and here at the Red Mountain Branch, the passes went FAST. Like, that morning. So they were all out of passes all week long until they could restock them on Wednesday, April 8th.

I found out about that when I was at the library the day before. I was one of several people asking about the passes. I wondered if I'd have to camp out overnight to get them or something.

I ended up going to the library shortly after 9 am on Wednesday morning, even though the library didn't open until 10am. I wasn't sure if that would be necessary or not, but I didn't want to take any chances.

It's a good thing I did.

There were already five people in line ahead of me. By the time the library opened, there must have been a good fifty people in line. (Give or take, I'm not good at estimating.) Fortunately for me, none of the people ahead of me were interested in the AZ Science Center. They all wanted to go to the zoo. And actually, the poor lady in front of me wasn't able to get the zoo because the people in front of her took them all. Can you believe that? Standing there for an hour and still not getting what you came for? She had a good attitude about it though. More power to her. Me? I'd be ticked.

But fortunately I got what I wanted, so yay for me. The librarians seem to think things will slow down once the initial excitement passes. I'm not so sure. Next time I decide to take advantage of it, I'll go early again.

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Let's see, did I answer everyone's questions? Nope, as far as I know, there's no limit to the number of times you can do this. But you can only check out one pass per library card per 7 days. I saw some people checking out multiple passes by using their kids' cards (thus, the reason why zoo lady didn't get her zoo passes). So if you have a lot of kids, you could do that.

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And no, they won't hold passes for you. It's strictly first come, first serve.