Failure at the Pubic Library

Just got back from the city library.  Went to go get dad a city library card. My dad wants an actual
book, not a digital copy. He's 81 and new to town with a drivers license that expired 20 days ago.   ...and he couldn't get a card.

He can't walk far and he's with me, a guy that just updated his own dusty, unused, neglected and forgotten about library card.  "No sir, he needs to go get his license renewed so he can setup his account."  REALLY?

/forgive me dearest librarian friends.../  REALLY?  The buildings are cutting back hours because of lower use.  With the rise of ebooks and decline in physical checkouts,  there is nothing you could do to help this man?  Are there that many octogenarian hoodlums vandalising library books, cavorting around in a drunken pulp-based stuper, waging war on the economic success of the Pubic Library?  Is there a rash of disabled veterans checking out Garrison Keillor books and typing carbon paper copies to sell at illicit AARP swap meets?

He has the same address as I do. But they couldn't even make him a care-of in my name.  Yes, it IS a big deal to get my dad a new license.

Ahh, forget it. This small barrier to desired physical reading material has already sent him down a dark path.  I think he just took his walker and a bunch of small envelopes of Metamucil to sell to some young and influenceable 60 year olds on the corner.

photo credit: http://louisgreenberg.com/images/dusty-old-books1.jpg