If you need to learn the law before taking the state driving test any time soon, you better have an Internet connection or a few hours to spend at the local library.
The free Arizona Driver License Manual is no longer available at Motor Vehicle Division offices. For now, the only places to find it are online at the MVD Web site or at four of the county's 27 library branches, where it's available to look at, but not to check out.
That leaves someone like Lil Masterson - a 70-year-old who wants a copy of the free booklet but is self-proclaimed "computer illiterate" - with two options.
• She could make her way the four miles to the library nearest her Rita Ranch home, get someone to help her with the computer and print out the 70-page manual at 10 cents a page - $7 for a free state pamphlet.
• Or she could travel the eight miles to the nearest library that has a copy and sit there for as long as it takes to be comfortable with all of the material.
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The state has run out of the booklet, while it is being updated to include new traffic laws, said Linda Ritter, spokeswoman for the Arizona Department of Transportation. The department recently closed several Motor Vehicle Division offices to save money, and the location information must also be updated, she said.
The state expects the new copies to be available in a few weeks, but no more specific target date was available. Nor did Ritter say how long they had been gone.
Masterson said she was surprised when she showed up at an MVD office and couldn't get one. She said she was told the manuals were not being reprinted because of the state's money troubles.
"The state needs money; they should at least try to sell you one," Masterson said.
The Pima County Public Library catalog shows five copies are available at each of four library branch locations. The copies date from 2004 to 2008.
Masterson already has a license and has been driving cars, pickup trucks and tractors since she was 10, she said.
"They haven't said I need to take the test, but I want to be prepared when I go in there. I don't want to be told then that I have to get the book and then go back. By then my license would expire," she said.
While Masterson would be OK with going to the library to use the Internet, she said she is worried it would be time-consuming for her and a librarian helping her.
All Pima County libraries have publicly accessible computers with Internet. The time limits for how long you can occupy a computer vary for each branch, depending on the demand and number of computers, said Mary Sanchez, a librarian at the Joel D. Valdez Main Library downtown.
At the Miller-Golf Links Branch Library, the closest one to Masterson's house, the time limit is an hour a day, or up to an hour and a half if no one else is waiting, said librarian Beth Petrucci.
The manual is 70 pages, including the cover and index pages. Library patrons must pay 10 cents per black-and-white page printed, and can print in batches of up to 30 pages, Petrucci said, which means setting up the computer for three print jobs to get the whole thing. The number of 30-page batches is unlimited, she said.
Go online
Go online to www.azdot.gov/mvd/ custsvcguide.asp to download a PDF copy of the Driver License Manual and Customer Service Guide in English or Spanish.
Contact reporter Andrea Kelly at akelly@azstarnet.com or 807-7790.
