How many library cards can a book lover like me collect?

In recent years, the digital queues for e-books have grown increasingly long.

Say you want to check out an e-copy of Caro Claire Burke’s popular thriller “Yesteryear.” The current digital line at Montgomery County Public Libraries for the title is more than 2,600 people long.

Luckily for Marylanders, residents can get library cards from every one of the state’s 24 library systems. And residents of Montgomery County and Prince George’s County are eligible for cards from Washington, D.C., and six Northern Virginia library systems through a Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments agreement.

“It’s like Pokémon,” Maryland State Librarian Morgan Lehr told me. “I’ve gotta catch ‘em all!”

So if you’re itching for a certain e-book before your beach vacation, or your kid is behind on their summer reading list, you may want an extra card — or 10.

Having multiple cards is “kind of a hack” to avoid long waits, said Catherine Hollerbach, director of Prince George’s County’s Memorial Library System.

But in my quest for better access to free reading, I learned that libraries in this region offer much more than books. Beyond the ubiquitous story hours, I found libraries with lessons on sketching dinosaurs, workshops on lowering your utility bills, and classes on American Sign Language.

One day last week, I set out to collect as many library cards as I could and to talk to librarians about today’s library landscape. I logged 86 miles and came away with four library cards, bringing my total to eight.

Here are the highlights of my literary journey.

Maryland

It took me only five minutes to get my Prince George’s County library card at the Hyattsville branch, where kids read under a fake smiling tree and older kids kicked back in the Teen Zone.

Outside the stacks, a nurse offered free sexually transmitted infection testing.

As with most libraries, you need to show identification and proof of address. I used my driver’s license and a Pepco bill.

About 3% of the more than 538,000 cardholders in the Prince George’s system are Montgomery County residents.

Maryland launched its reciprocal card program in 1974 to allow residents to access materials at libraries across the state. But as easy as it was for me to get another county’s library card, it used to be — at least briefly — even easier.

In 2005, state residents were able to apply for the so-called MPower Card, which connected them to every library in Maryland. Funding for the MPower program ran out after about a year, according to Lehr, so now residents must apply for cards at each system individually.

Though you typically need to go in person to collect these cards, the payoff is substantial.

“Most public library collections have a few hundreds of thousands of books, but because of this reciprocal borrowing, no matter where you live, regardless of your geography, you can access over 18 million books and digital resources, which is pretty fantastic,” Lehr said.

I also visited a Maryland library — one of my favorites — outside of the county system. The Takoma Park Maryland Library operates independently under Takoma Park’s city government. Its one branch is open to all residents of Montgomery County and people who work or go to school on the Maryland side of Takoma Park.

The library can’t afford a full digital e-book collection. Libby and Hoopla, popular digital library platforms, are expensive for libraries, which have to pay licensing fees for every book. Some libraries carry fewer digital copies of a popular title than others.

But the Takoma Park Maryland Library has other strengths, including collections that are hard to find in neighboring libraries. Its poetry, graphic novel and Spanish-language collections, funded through a grant, are particularly robust.

“We’ve actually worked very closely with some booksellers and nonprofits in Puerto Rico and Argentina to get a lot of books you can’t find anywhere else in the DMV,” said Jessica Jones, the library’s director.

Another hidden gem of the Maryland system is the Maryland Deaf Culture Digital Library. With free online registration, this digital-only library includes e-books written by Deaf authors and an extensive collection of resources about Deaf culture and history.

Washington, D.C.

One of the first library cards I picked up after moving to Montgomery County was for the District of Columbia Public Library system. With 26 locations, D.C.’s mammoth system helped me get off the waitlist for popular audiobooks surprisingly fast. You must pick up your card in person but can pre-apply online.

Maryland residents should also remember that they don’t live far from the largest library in the world, the Library of Congress.

Anyone 16 and older can get a card. The library recommends that readers pre-register online and pick up their cards in person.

While it’s not a lending library, readers can access its massive digital research collections from anywhere.

Virginia

What impressed me most about my visit to the tiny Courthouse Library, a branch of the Arlington County Public Library, was its unusual collection of non-books.

From its extensive Library of Things, cardholders can check out, among other offerings, American Girl dolls, fantasy board games, jigsaw puzzles, gardening tools and power tools.

One nice touch at this branch: you can pick the color of your library card. Indecisive, I went with rainbow.

A 10-minute drive from the Courthouse Library gets you to the Ellen Coolidge Burke Branch Library, part of the Alexandria Public Library system. About 17% of the system’s cardholders live in other jurisdictions.

The system offers an array of programming that, at the moment, includes classes in embroidery, increasing your protein intake and making your own time capsule.

And you can apply by appointment for a new passport at Beatley Central Library and Barrett Branch Library.

Less than a half-hour drive away is the City of Fairfax Regional Library, part of the 23-location Fairfax County Public Library system, the largest in Virginia.

Beyond the sheer size of the system’s book collection, Fairfax also offers a garden seed library and a drop-in tech-help clinic, among other services.

At the end of the day, I had library cards connected to millions more books than I had when I woke up — all accessible without having to leave my Montgomery County couch.

But now that I’ve seen more libraries, I want to go to more libraries.

“People said, ‘Oh, the internet’s here. We’re not going to need those libraries anymore,’” said Chris Bartholomew of Fairfax’s circulation services. “But we still need libraries, and people still use them.”

And as sociologists and psychologists warn of the decline of so-called “third places” — social spaces that are neither home nor work — libraries stand out for their ubiquity and lack of an entry fee.

“One of my favorite things about libraries in general is that loitering is allowed,” Hollerbach said. “You can come and you can stay as long as you want, and we will be able to find something for you.”