What's wrong with these people who don't know how to use a library?

:-(

*hastens to student office to convert her masters to 'Advanced Google: Theory and Practice'*

Oh, wait...

Has anyone noticed the HILARIOUS trend in 'hey let's save some $$$ bcz lol debt & the economy' articles wherein they spend a paragraph telling people abt the LIBRARY? "You don't need to spend $20 on a book! There's this curious building where you can go and they'll let you borrow a book for weeks! They also have movies and CDs – bye-bye Blockbuster, hello library!"

And I do meet people for whom this is a mind-blowing concept. ??!??!!

"They actually have books on ___________ at the library. Can you believe it???"

people are dumb but hey this is great for libraries so go for it, morning network news shows

yeah, borrow.

Incidentally, I thought a choad was a penis wider than it is long.

Of course the hilarity is not always accompanied by 'due to budget cuts...'

n/a I agree; I gu8ess I shld not be so smug

I grew up in libraries (mom's a children's librarian) but I haven't used one as an adult at all. Mostly because I always want weird things that libraries tend to not have on-hand, if they have them at all. Like, what do you mean you don't have a copy of that bio of the founders of the Process Church of the Final Judgment?!

With ILL I can get anything I'm looking for in a week or less, which is usually what it would take to order it from Amazon anyway.

x-post -- I might not be asking the children's desk for that one.

yea interlibrary loan is pretty awesome

An Aggie was dating a rich chick. He rings the doorbell and the butler answers. Aggie asks the butler if he can see his girlfriend. Butler replies, yes, she's in the library.

So the Aggie runs all the way downtown.

I'm pissed at my local library, though I know they're just having the same $$$ problems everyone else is having. It's part of a 15-library regional system, and the last book I requested from them was available at one of the others within the system. Six weeks later, it still hadn't arrived, so I checked with them -- apparently they can't afford to mail books back and forth, and nobody had made the drive around to the various branches with requests. So I cancelled and bought the fuckin' thing next time I was at B&N even though it was a $30 hardcover.

books from the library have cooties

But I have crossies!

's part of a 15-library regional system, and the last book I requested from them was available at one of the others within the system. Six weeks later, it still hadn't arrived, so I checked with them -- apparently they can't afford to mail books back and forth, and nobody had made the drive around to the various branches with requests. So I cancelled and bought the fuckin' thing next time I was at B&N even though it was a $30 hardcover.

That is just very poor customer service -- they should have at least notified you that they weren't able to mail the book. But then my local public library is the same way, which is why I have bypassed them and just order all of the stuff I'm looking for through my work library.

That is just very poor customer service

It's their specialty.

I could go on and on about what the university and local public library have meant to me. One of the more depressing consequences of the Internet boom is how no one reads hard copies of magazines and newspapers anymore. The bound collection at the uni library, for example, takes up a whole floor, and NO ONE's there except students taking advantage of the tranquility. I may have been the first person in ten years to thumb through bound collection of Vanity Fairs from the eighties.

Similarly we have the lowest floor dedicated to bound journals, however we do see fairly regular use there if only because so many of them are academic titles not yet fully licensed online or only licensed so far. Given the budget crunch, that may prove quite important down the line.

I got the "Female Trouble" DVD via ILL; best. checkout. ever.

I suppose I'm going to be the one that gets attacked, but if you're not looking for academic or obscure texts, and you have some disposable income, why would you go to a library? Given that novels are only $10-15 (not much to pay of you read a book weekly), and most academic books can be ordered via Amazon from $0.01, why would anyone bother?

I go to a library because not only don't I have enough space at home to store all the books I want, but I don't necessarily want to own every book I read.

exactly

OK. For me I'd rather buy a book and pass it on (and maybe ditch it) than spend time in a library. Some are great and architecturally inspiring; most are 60s style consensus-design hell.

I've only ever gone to one library where the building was more important than the contents.

And that's just because I was on vacation and couldn't check anything out. (Seattle, of course.)

dude libraries are cool, also why spend money if it's free and legal?

The advantage of browsing in libraries over bookstores is the availability of out of print books. I can't tell you how many pleasant surprises I've found in my local public library.

Free cheap and easy. Safe and Anonymous.

pleasant surprises I've found in my local public library.

hobo smell?

I guess it's just priorities: not to make myself out as dickish working man, but if i work from 10-7 each day, i typically don't get home before they close. That leaves weekends. There are many fine things to do on weekends: sleeping in, green markets, sports in the park, friends, and other lesser things (laundry etc). One of the reasons that libraries are the domain of the elderly, homeless and kids is for this reason. And, like I say, books are unnaturally cheap in the US. Where I grew up (in NZ), they weren't, but free and $15 doesn't feel too different to me. Also, since my job gives me digital access to all academic journals, I don't feel I'm lacking for out of print. Maybe I've just painted myself as an obscure demographic?

Also, as much as they're one of the great ideas of 19th century civic uplift, they carry (for many) the stigma of that same stench: Europe-stretching, monolingual, research (vs emotion) oriented places of order.

Well, putting $10-$15/wk into savings is a nice thing to do, and sometimes the library gives you the opportunity to stumble across things. And, seriously, you avoid it because they're not pretty to look at?

I avoid it because I avoid depressing civic spaces; for me, reading properly is serious and beautiful, and doesn't take place in civic chambers.

here are many fine things to do on weekends: sleeping in, green markets, sports in the park, friends, and other lesser things (laundry etc). One of the reasons that libraries are the domain of the elderly, homeless and kids is for this reason.

uhhh I do all these things and go to the library too. This isn't too hard to understand. If you like something, you'll find time for it.

But reading is a very, very common thing. And you're supposed to check the books out and then read them. What do you find depressing about them?

And acting like books are read in a vacuum is like acting like we view museum objects without walls, lighting, spatial dimensions and emotional choreography.

I avoid it because I avoid depressing civic spaces; for me, reading properly is serious and beautiful, and doesn't take place in civic chambers.

― paulhw, Tuesday, July 28, 2009 11:12 PM (1 minute ago)

oh come on dude come off that horse a little, also it is a great place to meet/hang with chix

this boils down to being frugal vs not caring about paying for a book/mag/video that you are interested in

Although libraries as spaces do differ wildly. I've been in some awesome libraries and some awful ones. I bet yours have linoleum flooring instead of carpet.

Again, for me, I've created a place (home) that supports some kind of context. For those who don't have that, libraries are a great service. My entire point was that, for a lot of people (the kind of strawmen targeted by look-libraries! journalism), libraries don't save enough money, or provide enough of an atmosphere for any uptick in use.

I kinda really like awful libraries that exemplify 60s style consensus-design hell - it's like stepping into a time machine! The undergrad library at my university was one before they renovated it into modern B&N style dreck.

i think its rad that libraries exist and i think they provide a really impt service but i only ever used one in college and dont no any1 that uses them ~~~~ tbh i mostly think of them as places for the homeless to hang

but i guess i could probably figure out how to work one if i needed to

Again, for me, I've created a place (home) that supports some kind of context.

You sound like ArtForum designed and approved your own private context.

And acting like books are read in a vacuum is like acting like we view museum objects without walls, lighting, spatial dimensions and emotional choreography.

― paulhw, Tuesday, July 28, 2009 11:14 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark

I don't really get this - so you're saying your reading of, say, The Good Soldier is going to differ radically from mine cause you read it in the serious and beautiful space of your home and I read it in a depressing civic space?

Right, everyone agrees that they're a nice idea, but they're a centralized 19th century idea that plays catch up. At least museums have unique objects. Redistribute taxes towards subsidised internet for all? Lessens the socio-cultural gap that stops most from visiting libraries...

Living a block from central Brooklyn library - no, not good for chicks. Exterior is beautiful, interior is awful. My gf and I aren't stupid or oblivious to $: if it made sense, we'd do it. Maybe this is locally specific?

eh maybe that doesnt work for everyone...i'm in college

And yes, I totally associate reading with place. And I'm not aiming for some ArtForum idea of home, although (above) I can see how that came across. Not the intention.

Erm, if you;re in college, there are very few journals for which you won't have digital access. Books less so, but getting there...

Why doesn't paultrollhw take out books from these depressing civic spaces and read them in his beautiful space? Do they carry the stigma of the places they've been?

I read everywhere. Books just draw me in; I get lost in them and space becomes irrelevant.

What I'm not getting, paulhw, is your objection to a place that, should you wish, you only have to visit briefly to search for a book, then leave with it, if you so choose.

if you're in college, there are very few journals for which you won't have digital access

Hahahaha. No.

Also, as much as they're one of the great ideas of 19th century civic uplift, they carry (for many) the stigma of that same stench: Europe-stretching, monolingual, research (vs emotion) oriented places of order.

Dude, sorry, but this is just fucking stupid.

Erm, yes. Academic research is more pragmatic as perfect, despite librarians' ideas...

You live in NY, right? Awesome, so do I. We have many beautiful library buildings. We also have many, many, many non-English sections. The public library down the block from my apartment is primarily Spanish. The University library I live near has the second biggest Hebrew library in the city (including some amazing rare books). The college I attend is so packed with books in non-English that I often have to be careful that I've found the translation in the search engine and not the original, otherwise I end up on the wrong floor with a book I can't read. Where I used to live in Brooklyn had a library with almost only Russian books. WTH is wrong with you? Are you Vision in disguise?

I dunno paul, I don't think you're full-out trolling but your argument went from "why would anybody use a library" to "why would any well-educated and well-off New Yorker who has a nicely and artfully furnished apartment and habitually reads magazines of intellectual repute ever even think to entertain the idea of using those awful cesspools frequented by the unwashed canaille"

Okay I embellished it towards the end, but that's the idea isn't it?

What's wrong with these people who don't like to use a library?

Also, did you know that many university libraries offer complete access to their stacks for a nominal monthly or yearly fee, and sometimes they carry books in other languages!

I'll tell you a great reason to use a library. Free. Magazines. And magazine archives. Sometimes it is the most quiet place to read and I can read history or cooking magazines that I wouldn't otherwise buy.

http://www.ib.hu-berlin.de/~libreas/libreas_neu/ausgabe13/bilder/due_date.jpg

Also, I don't know what academic texts paulhw is using that he can get them for .01 online. I'd say the vast majority of books I need are way too expensive to buy.

if you're in college, there are very few journals for which you won't have digital access

I don't know where you're getting this information from. Either you did extremely light surface research in college, or you're making blind and inaccurate assumptions. Believe me, there are many many journals not online.

ArtForum International for one, as a matter of fact.

The thousand of issues of journal that are now online from like 2000-2006, 2006-Present but not 1850-1999.

I could go on and on about what the university and local public library have meant to me

^^^^

i am too sleepy to get all comprehensive but the coalescence of a million different things makes libraries inviting. even if you're solely viewing them as a means to get hold of texts you want to get hold of, they're such a bountiful place to do so in. it's like why record shopping is fundamentally different to picking the thing you want online and ordering it; aimless library explorations, walking into rooms where ink isn't allowed and you have to wear little mickey mouse white gloves, tracing through what's available and picking things that only might interest you. i can't think of bookstores that, by necessity, offer such a range, not the kind of range of having every-author-you-can-name but in having things that were once requested, once popular enough to order, things for the fiction reading demographic as well as for those who want to learn about diabetes or land zoning or whatever. none of these touch on the wider social benefits and philanthropism of libraries, but to concentrate on just getting books, when i discovered my library it was like learning to shoplift or something; coming out five times a week with art books i wouldn't have even had an opportunity to flick through before; frivolously flicking through and half-finishing five books at once because they were all there.

At least museums have unique objects. Redistribute taxes towards subsidised internet for all? Lessens the socio-cultural gap that stops most from visiting libraries...

i was on the third floor of mid-manhattan recently picking up poetry books; i think i'd spent the day on some book design cover blog and it was like realising that you can freely stumble into museums for this kind of thing. that something isn't, factually, unique; that there are likely similar editions elsewhere does not diminish its appeal. and fuck!, you live next to brooklyn library, have you seen their collection? black sparrow press poetry books, reference-only stuff that cavalier librarians are peeling the stickers off to get back into the community. if you're single minded and methodical in your reading then maybe there's no point visiting, but as a portal libraries are something else entirely. it's like walking into a greengrocer to buy tomatoes but finding out that they have those delicious yellow tomatoes on offer for cheaper and you just ignore them.

xp that t-shirt's lovely

At least museums have unique objects. Redistribute taxes towards subsidised internet for all? Lessens the socio-cultural gap that stops most from visiting libraries...

You know what's even worse? Dude lives in NY, and I've been to many, many museum-style exhibits at NY libraries. So seriously, just WTF.

Omgz http://www.nypl.org/calendar/index.cfm

also SERIOUSLY i know you're being over the top but since it creeps into derogating the purpose of libraries rather than just saying you can do without them - 'subsidising internet for all' as an alternative to libraries ignores the vast social & cultural benefit they offer; as a meeting place, as a classroom, as a museum, as a cinema, as a forum, as the one part of a shitty city centre dedicated to academia and self-betterment

ppl who are caring ~~~ isnt it better that ppl who have the means to do so just buy books instead of getting them @ the library???? wouldnt u just have to wait more time for the things u want if i started going there?

Before I go off to bed, I just gotta add:

-I have to think that public libraries were almost solely responsible for my intellectual growth and development as a kid - growing up in an immigrant household, libraries were sort of my only interface with the English language outside of television. If my parents had bought me every single one of the books that I'd borrowed from the library, I'm fairly certain we would have been living on the streets by the time I was 10.

-Alfred OTM about libraries being great for OOP books. Take, for example, photography, where books are often printed in limited qualities due to high cost and low demand - I don't know how you'd ever even get access to them were it not for libraries.

In my experience the books I need don't tend to have a long waiting list. But I don't care if I don't have to share my library with paul. He can go buy his copy of the new brilliant Malcolm Gladwell book at the local train bookstore, or online for .01 cent and avoid running into the disgusting public elements.

love books as much as y'all but public libraries these days seem to be mostly about computer access/free wifi. i remember the neighborhood branch library of my youth having tons of books, now i'm stunned at how the average branch has a relatively puny collection. central/main branches still deliver the goods tho

Haven't been inside a library since uni tbh.

my least fond memory of a library was in high school when this guy jacked off into a copy of the Merchant of Venice for a dare O_o

pound of flesh >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 10cc of jizz

Hath not a Jew...well, anyway.

it droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven

Also, did you know that many university libraries offer complete access to their stacks for a nominal monthly or yearly fee, and sometimes they carry books in other languages!

Yeah, I've recently rejoined my old uni library (not having used a library in about 10 years), and I'm borrowing piles of out-of-print stuff I'd been looking for in those intervening years, much of which would have cost big $$$ via ABE.

Sure knew how to use a library:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/south_of_scotland/8172355.stm

hey anyway while I'm here, what's the deal with binding journals? It makes slim volumes that were once easy to browse and search into monstrosities that are too thick to keep open / photocopy and impossible to find things in if the journal edition isn't printed on every page. And they look worse.

I didn't mean for that to be the worst Seinfeld bit conceivable.

even an ugly 60s-style library is great to me, even if i could afford to spend $15 every time i wanted to read a book. and why does it matter if it's mostly homeless people? i think it's great they have someplace they can just sit in the a/c and can't get kicked out. i've also found a lot of stuff i wouldn't have known about at all just walking around in them

... Paul was trolling, right?

He's actually a homeless guy at the library experimenting with the internet.

xp i hope so

I don't think he was trolling. My mother has a similar attitude (minus the Art Forum bits). Hey, as an author I'm glad people are buying books, and that libraries are still being used too.

srsly:

I avoid it because I avoid depressing civic spaces; for me, reading properly is serious and beautiful, and doesn't take place in civic chambers.

― paulhw, Tuesday, July 28, 2009 11:12 PM (1 minute ago)

Right, everyone agrees that they're a nice idea, but they're a centralized 19th century idea that plays catch up.

Also, as much as they're one of the great ideas of 19th century civic uplift, they carry (for many) the stigma of that same stench: Europe-stretching, monolingual, research (vs emotion) oriented places of order.

i don't like being a dick to posters, but fuck this dude imho

'reading properly is serious and beautiful'

stfu imo

i like reading on ferris wheels

and schlump, fuck yes! ur posts were awesome and sum up so well all the reasons that i love libraries & why they're so important & valuable for anyone who isn't paulhw

I would hope so, yet I'm afraid that he wasn't.

What in the hell. If you don't care to read in the library, take yr book to the park. Or wherever. Free books, dude.

(Alternately: Ned OTM, a number of posts up)

That's the part that doesn't make any sense! "I can't bear to read in libraries"; well then take the books home! It's only ultrarare things, core research materials like dictionaries and encyclopedias, and easily-damaged things like magazines and comic books that you can't check out. (These were the rules at the library where my mom worked, anyway, and if you want copies of those things in your house it's probably for the best that you own them.)

It's like he doesn't actually understand how libraries work so he's decided they are grim little book gulags replete with work details and floggings or something similarly crazy.

but u don't understand, he just can't bear the despondency of entering a depressing civic space

That's what Paxil is for!

lolelitistclassism

Seriously Dan, that could be used as the answer to most controversial ilx posts. xp

You should program it as an autoresponse when people troll.

i don't use my local library as much as i would like, but still -- why would you buy a new book at full price if you don't even know you'll want to keep it when you're done? i can always buy it later if i know i'll want to revisit it.

used bookstores are great for browsing old / weird / out of print stuff, too -- this is where i've been picking up most of my summer reading for way cheap.

paul you should accept the ilx challenge and go spend an aimless hour at brooklyn library, & see what you come out with

Based on various past threads on sociopolitics, Paul is not trolling.

lols @ paxil

As someone who has had a few legit panic attacks in civic and other formal or officious settings, I find the library one of the least threatening or oppressive places to go. "These are free because we encourage literacy. Good job! You're great." That's the vibe I get at the library.

I am a college student with 76 books checked out from my uni library at the moment, so yeah, fuck library haters

woah. that should be like the poll about how much of your inbox you're using, only one i would participate in.

A few weeks ago I spent hours in the sheet music section of the Indianapolis main library - it takes up 1/2 of a floor, the other 1/2 is books about music, artists, other performing arts. It was overwhelming to have all that in one place, for me to pick up and browse through whatever caught my eye.

For all my complaints about the main Seattle library (it's come down to the colors, and the really low ceilings in the stacks), I love it and would work there every day if I were still working from home. All those books, thousands of issues of old magazines and newspapers, comfortable chairs, free wifi, music practice rooms, and the fact that it's there for anyone and everyone.

A few weeks ago I spent hours in the sheet music section of the Indianapolis main library - it takes up 1/2 of a floor, the other 1/2 is books about music, artists, other performing arts

wow that would be heaven

It was, I couldn't believe all the stuff they had. Everything, including decades of old community band and symphony programs. Walls of stuff. It made me think for a moment that I wouldn't mind living back there again.

lol @ paulhw living out america's public vs. private space debate for all to see. i would give him credit for saying the shit that a lot of this country subconsciously thinks if it weren't for

I avoid it because I avoid depressing civic spaces; for me, reading properly is serious and beautiful, and doesn't take place in civic chambers.

which is just fucken retarded.

My wife and I are at the Cleveland Public Library just about every other weekend! It's a great place to spend a few hours, and it combines its beautiful main building, built in 1925, with a newer tower built in 1997, with an underground hallway connecting the two. At street level, there's a nice little garden with chairs and benches in between the two buildings. It's about four blocks from my office, so during the summer I go there to eat lunch.

http://www.cpl.org/files/images/branches/main.jpg

http://img2.allposters.com/images/APPOD/AP050401016527-FB.jpg

http://www.cpl.org/files/images/features/garden-party.jpg

My wife is a web marketer, writer and blogger for a major US crafts retailer, and she'll bring home 20-30 books at a time on various topics she's writing about. I don't know what paulhw's budget is like, but that's kinda cost-prohibitive. They also have a great audio-video section, including Blu-Rays, so I was even able to cancel my Netflix subscription.

Re: bound journals, I once worked a summer at a book bindery for which this was their primary business. I had to operate a couple of big pneumatic machines that cut the spines off the issues, and/or pulled out the huge staples, to prep them for binding. Backbreaking work.

I wish the USA had MORE public spaces. We're kinda stunted in terms of creating public spaces. (A friend of mine actually wrote a diss. on how Central Park could possibly exist in a country that devalues public spaces, and the explanation was a lot of coincidences, good luck, and historical contingencies.)

The Toronto Public Library is amazing -- free reservations, deliveries, etc. Late opening hours. You can track your holds (and your place in the queue) on the web. It's the best. When I move back to London, it's going to be quite the comedown.

I guess, then -- someone help me find a good lending library in London.

the next FAP will take place at your neighborhood library. Pick the most attracitve branch.

My library often has a better context than my house :/
Better views, for sure.

I'm tempted to anonymize my posts a little bit, print this thread out, and mail it to my local library with "SEE WHAT A FUCKIN' DISAPPOINTMENT YOU ARE COMPARED TO THE REST OF THE USA" scrawled at the top of page 1. I envy all of you with real libraries.

I guess, then -- someone help me find a good lending library in London.

The state of libraries in this country is a bit rubbish. Quite a lot of them going to the wall, or so I understand, because of budget cuts. Yes, cut the 'free books for people who can't afford to buy them, so they can have some level of intellectual self-empowerment and free entertainment' budget why don't you.

Also, they seem to be less about books than before. I know that the internet stations and creches are good and useful things, especially public access to the internet, and but one of the reasons I like libraries when I was young was because it was a quiet place with loads and loads of books, and you could find a secluded desk or chair, and just read and think, and that space seems to be more and more encroached on by one-stop-shops and community sections (again, no doubt good things).

The budget for books nowadays seems to go mainly on airport blockbusters and mind and spirit stuff (in the philosophy section) at the expense of much else. I know that people want to read those, but again, I grew up loving libraries were for the recondite and the out of print, and the unaffordable.

I remember quite liking Chalk Farm public library, back when I used them a load because I was skint and jobless. Nothing as lovely looking as that Cleveland Library in London though, as far as I know.

is paulhw momus or something

one of the craziest things about paulhw's posts is that he lives in a major metropolitan area -- urban public libraries are awesome, esp. in nyc! i'm not even talking about the main NYPL, (which is probably one of the most amazing places i've ever been to), but even the branch libraries are great. lot of them have yea drab 60s architecture but how they function as community spaces for such huge and diverse populations is incredible. this function that way even in spite of lack of funding

yeah all true, tho imo boston public kinda sucks despite having some nice spaces. chicago public is UNREAL.

reading properly is serious and beautiful
reading seriously is beautiful and proper
reading beautifully is proper and serious

blog guy aims to visit all brooklyn library branches

I don't know, I'm sort of convinced paul was trolling. He must have been, right?

booty-reading is in the pooper, seriously

Reading, properly, is serious and beautiful.

http://www.family-images.com/pa/misc/PA%20Reading%20Public%20Library%201912.jpg

The "free and $15 doesn't feel too different to me" sentiment is the most telling, far beyond the posture of disdain for civic architecture & "research (vs. emotion) oriented places of order"

like, how many dollars does it take until it feels different than free

for me, about 0.5. So wahey libraries.

I am a college student with 76 books checked out from my uni library at the moment, so yeah, fuck library haters

woah what, my university library only lets me take out 18 at a time, even as a postgrad student. I've taken out about 100 books this academic year, though, which I am not entirely convinced I could afford with my £45 a week expendible.

and I was serious about the journal binding question, I really don't understand why it's done other than to besmirch their individual beauty. I mean they're already gonna be next to each other on the shelves.

because it's an archive, not a "collection"?

At my library it was 100 for the students, 150 for grad students (I think), and 250 for faculty. I worked circ desk - it was always funny to see people try to check more books out when their limits were maxed - "Well, hrm, if I return this, then I can check this out, but then I'll need that...hrmmm...ahhh..hummm..."

Happens all the time here, though not with students much (the checkout limits are much higher). Non-UCI users have stricter limits, so that's where such tradeoffs occur.

I hate having so many books out. Three's my limit.

Growing up, I used to go to check out entire fiction shelves at a time. I probably would not have been able to get away with it if it wasn't at my mom's library and I wasn't a blindingly-fast reader, like to the point of being able to burn through 20-30 books in a week.

sometimes i would check out the whole library, good thing i can read an entire book by holding it against my forehead for 10 seconds

I'm envious.

n/a it was people like you who made my stints at the return desk hell

do you have any idea how long it takes to process 14 million books

Can't you just process the books by touching them to your forehead?

no, only level 4 supervisors were capable of that

i think n/a is lying

totally, you gotta hold the book to your forehead for at least 20 seconds

Yeah and duh you gotta use yr third eye.

look-libraries! journalism

hahaha you have just made up a new term that I will employ

Does anyone remember the Bat-villain whose super power was the ability to read a book just by TOUCHING it – the BOOKWORM?

http://www.waswatching.com/archives/bookworm-thumb.jpg

"My brain-drenched mind has done it again!"

http://www.geocities.com/marvel_oops/bookworm/sleep04.jpg

Seeing this episode at age five inspired some intensely geeky childhood fantasies of what I could do with that superpower.

HE'S LONELY!

HE'S LITERATE!!

HE'S LETHAL!!!

why does he have a headlamp and a magnifying glass if he doesnt even need to see the words?

lmao, we should get this dude to post here

Laredo, Texas - Libraries were once a sacred secular space of silence and reverence – a place where one automatically lowered one's voice. As a direct heir to the Enlightenment, the establishment of libraries was a testament to the self-evident integrity of mankind, the belief that we all desire to find the truth through knowledge.

Librarians once framed our mission in those terms – before libraries became the noisy computer labs they now are, with their jingle of ringtones, clattering keyboards, and unquenchable printers. And we reference librarians had a higher, more dignified calling than merely changing the printer paper.

In some libraries today it is actually impossible to find any place quiet enough to simply read and study undisturbed. What I call the postmodern library – the library plus technology – deconstructs itself.

Modern librarians who prioritize information over knowledge perpetuate a distraction from the real purpose of a library. A library facilitates the patient gathering of knowledge – whose acquisition is superior to almost every other endeavor. Religions have adapted to technology for the most part without being destroyed by it, so why can't libraries? It might not be too late.

Information on the Internet may come across as authoritative, but much of it is one giant Ponzi scheme, especially in the hands of the young, where it can become a counterfeit for the reading and memorization that true learning requires. Scholars are made through the quiet study of one chapter at a time. For that we need silence. We need to restore an appreciation for the close study of words.

Without that we are putting ourselves out of business. It should disturb us that fewer people are browsing the stacks, asking reference questions, or reading.

I went to my own public library the other day with my 11-year-old daughter and was horrified to see a television monitor running videos in the children's section – not a kid in the stacks and all the rest lined up to play games at the computers. It was a library that had gotten everything exactly wrong.

My once gentle profession has prostituted itself, aided by library schools, which, embarrassed even to call their graduates "librarians," now opt for the sexier term "information scientists."

It is a bid for status that doesn't work – from our patrons' point of view we are still people who change the printer paper and reboot the computer when it goes haywire. We're not scholars, of course, never that. A librarian is someone who just might be able to quote the Prologue to "The Canterbury Tales" in Middle English.

Once the captains of the information superhighway, librarians are now thumbing a ride into history.

Libraries are currently popular only because everything's free. And yet library budgets are shrinking (a litmus test of viability and patron support) and branch libraries are closing.

In focusing on access in all its forms and hoping for the best librarians have slowly stepped away from being readers or scholars, like their forebears in the Middle Ages who could recite whole books from memory. You cannot defend what you do not know. And you cannot know what you do not love.

As it happens, there may be some hope for libraries. There are reports of unique attempts to restore the inherent dignity of the library. At the community college library where I work, we do it one cup of coffee at a time.

Nearly three years ago I established Coffee Mondays, a new library service offering a cup of coffee free of charge to any student or professor who wanted one. It turned out to be work, but it was well worth it.

We take a humorous tone at Coffee Mondays – the coffee center is decorated with posters detailing interviews of me with Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt (fictitious, of course). The humor is human, and the result is humane. The library has been "personalized," as it is with the exhibits I help organize with our art department here, exhibits famous for being constructed on a shoestring budget.

Young people are drawn to these imaginative approaches. It is through that humane, humorous connection that we are trying to win back hearts and young minds to the library. At the coffee center, I am able to meet and talk with students about, oh, maybe Plato or Japanese Noh theater or the paintings of Jasper Johns. And that is exactly one of the blessings of a library.

Before librarians put themselves out of business one printout at a time, libraries must explore similar creative ways to engage the community without dumbing down their mission.

There is a way for libraries to uphold their noble purpose. They must carefully balance wants and needs of the community – they must stop being one-stop shopping centers.

William H. Wisner has been a librarian for 22 years. He is the author of "Whither the Postmodern Library?"

...this wasn't from The Onion?

And that last bit isn't 'drummer from Gay Dad' level but comes awfully close.

nope, actually not a parody
from the christian science monitor

Whither indeed? WHITHER I ASK YOU

whither the drummer from gay dad?

That guy is the type of librarian I would like to see punched in the throat.

Modern librarians who prioritize information over knowledge perpetuate a distraction from the real purpose of a library. A library facilitates the patient gathering of knowledge – whose acquisition is superior to almost every other endeavor.

SHUT THE FUCK UP

whither your calm?

went to my own public library the other day with my 11-year-old daughter and was horrified to see a television monitor running videos in the children's section

http://www.premiere.com/var/ezflow_site/storage/images/list/the-100-greatest-movie-lines/66.-the-horror-the-horror/532799-2-eng-US/66.-The-horror-the-horror_imagelarge.jpg

Mr. Wisner's on my bad side for using "prioritize" in a sentence, and just three words away from "perpetuate."

Mr. Wisner's on my bad side for being a pretentious cock.

You're not facilitating the efficient gathering of opinion. You're perpetuating the wrong priorities.

libraries with computers are evil but libraries with free coffee and old dudes quoting chaucer (in middle english!) and scamming on coeds w/pretentious talk are good

that's a TV show.

You're not facilitating the efficient gathering of opinion. You're perpetuating the wrong priorities.

Perhaps I should be leveraging my synergies to build an enterprise-wide value-add while I'm at it???

I need you to be proactive about realizing your end-goals.

haha what are "unquenchable printers?"

We take a humorous tone at Coffee Mondays – the coffee center is decorated with posters detailing interviews of me with Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt (fictitious, of course)

this thread

My once gentle profession has prostituted itself, aided by library schools, which, embarrassed even to call their graduates "librarians," now opt for the sexier term "information scientists."

It is a bid for status that doesn't work – from our patrons' point of view we are still people who change the printer paper and reboot the computer when it goes haywire.

god forbid, someone who can recite the prologue to the Canterbury Tales change a printer cartridge

libraries are without fail pretty awesome. i go to the LAPL with a list of books, find 'em, and i'm outta there in 30 min with a stack of half a dozen to read. considering how many books i want to read are seemingly impossible to find new or used, there's really no other option.

Once the captains of the information superhighway, librarians are now thumbing a ride into history.

maybe if i spend more time acquiring knowledge i'll be able to come up with lines like this.

re: unquenchable printers – Maybe that is why my sister poured a half-gallon of grapefruit juice onto the family printer when she was seven, for seemingly no reason.

I kinda see this guy's point. I remember pleading with a librarian to get better nerd periodicals than "Star Trek Communicator," and her argument was like, "Star Trek Communicator is what everyone wants."

fwiw, ned actually is a prostitute

curious abt this guy's "humorous tone"

I love the hypocrisy of talking about how modern libraries have prostituted themselves to the internet followed swiftly by his own weekly thing, which prostitutes itself to Starbucks culture and the entertainment industry.

Although I guess if his library has everburning printers he's got bigger issues to worry about than consistency.

fwiw, ned actually is a prostitute

Ah well.

shut it you whore

Oh man, this makes me remember, the local library wants the Las Cruces knitting crew to go and do a 'demonstration,' which I guess means sit around and do what we normally do, as a library tableaux? Do you guys think this wld enrich the library y/n

I kinda see this guy's point. I remember pleading with a librarian to get better nerd periodicals than "Star Trek Communicator," and her argument was like, "Star Trek Communicator is what everyone wants."

― Philip Nunez, Wednesday, July 29, 2009 12:32 PM (52 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

this shit is complicated because two of libraries' main goals are to serve the users and basically give the people what they want, while also providing "moral uplift" and serving the public good, which can obviously conflict a lot of times. it's basically an ongoing argument of do you give the people what they want or do you give them what they need, and the answer is usually "some of each"

There are reports of unique attempts to restore the inherent dignity of the library. At the community college library where I work, we do it one cup of coffee at a time.

Nearly three years ago I established Coffee Mondays, a new library service offering a cup of coffee free of charge to any student or professor who wanted one. It turned out to be work, but it was well worth it.

We take a humorous tone at Coffee Mondays – the coffee center is decorated with posters detailing interviews of me with Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt (fictitious, of course). The humor is human, and the result is humane. The library has been "personalized," as it is with the exhibits I help organize with our art department here, exhibits famous for being constructed on a shoestring budget.

OMG this guy. I have such feelings of fontrum right now.

"libraries are going bankrupt one printout at a time, so I decided to give away free coffee"

shut it you whore

That's not what you said the other day.

i like how this guy is surprised that keeping fresh coffee on hand is not an effort-free endeavor.

I have mixed opinions on 'Santa Fe' style but I think the local library here looks fucking BITCHING and WEIRD:

http://www.librarytechnology.org/photos-libraries/269.jpg

The humor is human, and the result is humane

People have had their heads put on pikes for offenses lesser than this.

Seriously.

we need to send an agent to Laredo to get a picture of these humourous posters with Brad Pitt + this Librarian Asshole

At the coffee center, I am able to meet and talk with students about, oh, maybe Plato or Japanese Noh theater or the paintings of Jasper Johns.
(fictitious, of course)

hey dan mind if my username follows you around for the next, oh i dont know, month or two

Oh man, this makes me remember, the local library wants the Las Cruces knitting crew to go and do a 'demonstration,' which I guess means sit around and do what we normally do, as a library tableaux? Do you guys think this wld enrich the library y/n

― bad-boy (sic) cartographer (actually a girl) (called) (not named) (Abbott), Wednesday, July 29, 2009 1:35 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Abbott, check it

http://www.cpl.org/?q=node/12159

lol John

brownie that is badass but the whole Worldwide Knit in Public Day cracks me up, like Harvey Milk asked us to make sure everyone knows a knitter

http://www.laredo.edu/calendar/Year%202008/NEWS/Sep/week3/news_installation.htm

The first pic here (which I haven't linked for referral reasons) is one of this dude's art pieces.

good job HI DERE. also, LOL at #3 there, mushroom cloud octopus

#3 is pretty fucking entertaining, yeah

"The use of the now-defunct paper card catalog as an object of contempt is a metaphor for the destruction of the world–a process now occurring in nature, and socially, in our disintegrating technological civilization," Wisner said about the idea conveyed in his installation.

THANKS, GRANDPA

"The use of the now-de3unct paper c@rd c@t@log as an object of contempt is a metaphor for the destruction of the world–a process now occurring in nature, and socially, in our disintegrating technological civilization," Wisn3r said about the idea conveyed in his installation.

WTF xpost

hi fives

this guy hates internet, why the obfuscation to protect against his finding out?

including periodicals clerk H4nn4h M4rie H1gg1ns and reference librarian B1ll W1sn3r; and a local photographer, who wishes to be referred under the pseudonym of Kronos.

wtf kronos???

hahah I bet he talks in the third person too

TRU KULT BLACK METAL LIBRARY PHOTOGRAPHWER

Nightly battles with Kairos in the stacks.

'Dewey Decimal section 115 is truly MINE.' 'Not TONIGHT, Kairos!'

is w1sn3r like the dumbest smart guy ever?

I'm sorry but "Mr. Wisner" is never going to be anyone other than my 9th-grade bio teacher

Did he have Coffee Mondays?

Did he decorate his classroom w/'shops of him in Central Perk?

Did he make you dissect unquenchable printers?

Did he compare the splitting of daughter chromatids in meosis to the rending in two of perfectly practical card catalogs into non-viable gametes that spilled like Onan's seed on a retarded, internet-loving, noisy public?

I'm going to make posters of me interviewing Jeff Goldblum and rescuing a gibbon from a basketball, that will add real culture to the library. The humor is human, and the result is humane.

The central Broolyn Public Library is beautiful and recently renovated. I think they now even have a sidewalk cafe.
It puts Queens Central to shame, though the Flushing Library is pretty attractive.

Checking out stuff from libraries is fun! Yesterday I got 4 Chaplin films I've never seen from the aforementioned Flushing library. I wouldn't check out half as many books and DVDs as I do if I wasn't fine-exempt though.

^^ not gonna lie, that is a pretty sweet brag

Also, as much as they're one of the great ideas of 19th century civic uplift, they carry (for many) the stigma of that same stench: Europe-stretching, monolingual, research (vs emotion) oriented places of order.

this sentence does not make a lick of sense.

"europe-stretching" vs "the stigma of that same stench"

seriously what does "europe-stretching" mean it's kind of driving me crazy.

maybe he meant "europe, stretching"?

u guyz would Get It if u were in a more pleasant environment

I wouldn't check out half as many books and DVDs as I do if I wasn't fine-exempt though.

taking sides: fine exempt versus can borrow reference only materials

he means "popularizing the European sensibility" which is valid except that any collection does not contain every work ever (ie all of them) is going to be (and should be) expressing some kind of perspective

p.s. the chicago public libraries are not monolingual, and I seriously doubt the NYC libraries are either

FINE EXEMPT

I have paid enough library fees in my life that the Idaho Falls Public Library (where I grew up) should have a wing named after me.

xp

I swear to God, all twenty volumes of the OED were there when I left the house

yeah i read "europe-stretching" as "eurocentric" but i think the second, less common definition is "masturbating over a bidet"

ChiPubLib fines are ridiculously cheap; I think the max for a book (unless you lose it) is like $3, and for that it has to be like a month overdue?

as in, "i had a great trip in paris, i europe-stretched in every bathroom"

I always thought it was nice & polite that Dewey Dec books in Japanese have call# starting w/JPN and not JAP (which wld follow the GER, FRA, etc. language-denoting system).

I think the answer to schlump's question hinges on whether or not you can renew your books online

I haven't interfaced w/a library that doesn't do online renewals in at least 8 years.

"Borrow reference only materials" no doubt. I end up paying a lot of fines but they're a pittance really, whereas not being able to take home the Cambridge Ancient History is a severe pain.

online renewal is a godsend, but it makes me guilty; right now i'm hoarding a few books i've finished, safe in the knowledge that i'm able to renew them rather than schlep them back to the library.

If you come to my desk, most likely I will let you check out a reference-only book. (sshhh)

Um, which branch?

i'm posting from a library right now! there is no europe-stretching to be seen

that is way cool
i mentioned it upthread but i know bpl is trying to free up a lot of the collection and put it back into circulation. it's a fine balance; the presence of like 'staple' ref-only copies of in-print novels etc confuses me somewhat.

QBPL. We have a ton of obscure-ish stuff in ref, but in my opinion, is better served being checked out and used by one person, then getting lost in the basement and not being used by anyone.

ChiPubLib fines are ridiculously cheap; I think the max for a book (unless you lose it) is like $3, and for that it has to be like a month overdue?

― congratulations (n/a), Wednesday, July 29, 2009 3:43 PM (25 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

What if you lose it?

Never mind, it's probably the cost of the book, right?

A few weeks ago I spent hours in the sheet music section of the Indianapolis main library

Those moments are fantastic!

http://consumerist.com/5328571/the-book-one-of-many-money+wasting-traps-to-avoid

thx the Consumerist. Is Best Buy still evil?

Current Location  	Shelf Location  	Material  	Call Number  	Status
Jackson Heights 	Computers 	Adult Trade Paperback 	005.262 E 	Due Date: 9-13-2003 23:59

has anyone mentioned that the new NYPL online catalog is absolutely incomprehensible?

I've been holding my tongue. It definitely seems to be a lot harder to use than the old system. There was a little jubilation over the fact that at the changeover books that would have been near the end of their renewal cycle got a new lease on borrowed life.

Did you do the questionnaire on which terminology was most clear and preferable, Morbius?

no.

I do searches for, say, "Lang, Fritz" and it gives me a whole bunch of unrelated shit!

You mean your not interested in
BOOK/TEXT

Festival Strings Lucerne : Rudolf Baumgartner
[Luzern] : Festival Strings Lucerne,
1986
?

Even for the stuff that is relevant it seems like there is a lot more extraneous info for each item so it takes up much more eyespace. Searching only Available, Circulating obviously cuts out a few items but it is still too bloviated.

how the hell can they not let you do searches by Name, Title or Subject?

Oops, I made the "your" instead" of "you're" mistake again. Maybe I'd better check out a book on the English language.

You can do that. Click on Advanced Search on the left.

how advanced is a name search?

I think I posted something that got eaten.

You could do a name search in the default search by a(lang,fritz). Or s(lang,fritz). Or try Quick Search was seems more like what one might expect or had grown accustomed to.

So now three ways to search: Regular(Classic?), Advanced and Quick.

Was sad about missing my QBPL branch library Sunday service, but now am happy about the crazy new late hours of the NYPL http://nypl.org/press/releases/?article_id=334

Waow...that's cool. New York New York, it's a wonderful town, &c.

Was bemoaning the 5pm closing time for the Sac public library. I remember as a kid the library used to stay open til 10pm on Friday nights!

Finally getting the hang of new NYPL search system. Liking new version of "list" feature.

The central Broolyn Public Library is beautiful and recently renovated. I think they now even have a sidewalk cafe.
It puts Queens Central to shame, though the Flushing Library is pretty attractive.

Suffering right now from the one annoying glitch in the QBPL. Returned a book and it wasn't scanned properly, so system is marking it overdue. Hopefully it will be successfully rescanned at the other end in a day or two and I'll get off easy with an unjustified 50 cent fee. Hopefully I won't have to go and find it on the shelves myself and turn it in again, as I've had to do a few times. Hopefully some rogue librarian hasn't made off with it for their own nefarious purposes.

I've had that happen with DVDs and I always protest because I don't want to pay a $1 a day late fee!

That happened to me last week with a book on course reserves at the university library - I put it in the course reserves drop box because nobody was available at the desk, figuring that since reserves are due within three hours it has to be checked more frequently than every three hours. Nope. I returned the book at 11, it was checked in at 5 PM. In future I will bug librarians, even if I have to ring the stupid bell or interrupt their conversations.

(i don't mean to say librarians shouldn't talk at work, btw, realize that that came off kind of dickish. i just feel really bad about interrupting conversations of people on the job to ask for help, so i try to avoid it when i can, but it can be really hard to avoid at the library!)

Well speaking as a course reserves person...

More seriously, that's a much different setup that at my workplace, where reserve books are to be specifically returned to staff members for immediate checkin -- we always tell people that, and to never use the dropbox unless the library is closed!

we have a "please ring the bell" sign on the circ. desk if no one is immediately there, and i never mind when people ring it. worse is when people just stand there waiting for you to come - it's tough b/c i can't see the circ desk from my office so i really need them to ring the bell!

tho we usually do have student employees at the circ. desk

Returned a book and it wasn't scanned properly

really hate this - I always try to hand-deliver my books and make sure they scan them in before I go

I can't remember how we used to handle 3-hour reserve books - I think we asked them to leave some sort of identification so that they would be forced to return it to us at the desk?

What's wrong with these architects who design million£ library refurbs and don't put any individual quiet study spaces in them?

worse is when people just stand there waiting for you to come

They always manage to look like extras from Dawn of the Dead. I can't see everyone at the circ counter from where my office is, so this annoys.

What's wrong with these architects who design million£ library refurbs and don't put any individual quiet study spaces in them?

This^^^

Brighton's jubilee library's a fucking nightmare in this respect. I'm all for encouraging kids to use them, but the FIRST thing you teach the little squawks is that libraries are places where you stfu.

worse is when people just stand there waiting for you to come

OMG i do this! i figure if they're not there they're probably busy with something else and ringing the bell would be annoying because whatever they're doing might be, you know, more important.

haha no the bell is there b/c otherwise we have no idea that you're there!

(btw i'm at work and someone just rang the bell)

Also, bells have been spoiled by movies and jerks who DING DING DING DING them peremptorily.

Maybe if librarians stopped giving me dirty looks whenever I rang the bell for assistance I'd be more inclined to ring it when I needed help.

OK, book didn't get scanned at the other end, so I went to the branch librarian told her my story. She looked at me intently for a few seconds, hit a button and said "Boom! We're taking you're word for it, your not being charged for it and Boom! it's off your record." Amazing.

Man I work at the archives/special collections at my university library and about half of the people who come in to get a book from the special collections are informed that a copy of it is on the circulating stacks. I don't understand how someone can search for a book but miss in the location list the location that doesn't make them go across campus and up four floors for a copy of the book they have to sit in a special room to read.

i've done that. made an interlibrary request because the book doesn't appear to be in my branch and then find the same book while browsing. i don't know how it happens but it does!

Maybe it is some kind of weird approach/avoid procrastination hair shirt- hey, I haven't written the paper yet, but I went all the way across campus and had to worm my way into the sanctum sanctorum to read the book!

(xp)

my students to thread.

they will do ANYTHING to avoid actually physically going to a library. "i only found the entry for the book; the book wasn't actually online. what do i do?"

and when they DO go the library, they are full of strange and wonderful tales like, "they have SO MANY BOOKS. and they have SHELVES THAT MOVE WHEN YOU PRESS A BUTTON."

this reminds me: i had a class in undergrad and one of the projects required taking books out of the library. i knew how to use it so it wasn't a big deal. but i ran into one of my classmates who had *no idea* how to find a book using the LOC system so i helped her and on the way up the stairs she said, "i'm a film major so i've never had to use the library for anything haha." WTF????

might be one of the 10 dumbest statements i've ever heard in real life

especially since one way to use the library can be: "can u help me find this book, reference librarian?"

Don't get me started on how to wean my students off Wikipedia.

"...and they have SHELVES THAT MOVE WHEN YOU PRESS A BUTTON."

we have these at my school's library, shit is like hogwarts, so cool

yeah those are SO DOPE

dude, I've only ever seen mechanized compact shelving once (I think it was at Duke) -- that shit is next level

We have a ton of such shelving in our library basement. Handy stuff.

someone really needs to use those in a horror film.

i used to work in a library stacking the shelves part time when I was younger and we had those. I am claustrophobic and clueless students tried to shut them on me so many times. Learned not to be freaked out by just extending my foot to the base of one side of the shelves immediately and they would stop closing and open up.

I came to this library because I had been told that my father, a man screennamed Pedro Paramore, shelved here.

someone really needs to use those in a horror film.

I do see a lot of horror potential there.

http://www.nerf-herders-anonymous.net/TrashCompactorANHComp.jpg

^^so weird that i completely forgot that that scene even existed in that movie

Haha, after all that tomfoolery I forgot to renew some other books and new I owe them 50 cents. But at this point that's a 50 cents I feel good about paying.

SHELVES THAT MOVE WHEN YOU PRESS A BUTTON

yea i saw these in my undergrad years, have worked in 3 different libraries, and am now in library school and i still think the moving shelves are awesome

by just extending my foot to the base of one side of the shelves immediately and they would stop closing and open up.

roffle

Thanks. That was aimed right at you, Raggett.

Now there's even automated shelves that will pull the book off of the shelf for you. They are kind of neat/scary to see in person.

Dang, NYPL changed their website yet again.

But I guess maybe they just added some rainbow colors, like fiddling with the New Answers preferences over here.

Is this another thread where everyone did the 'I was reading when I was two' brag thing?

Oh man already I am breaking my New Yrs Rez to stfu.

Abbott, u weren't so precocious?

Um, no, Abbott, this is another thread where we are on the intranetz looking in the library catalog and talking about how to use said catalog instead of actually reading any of the books thus procured- meta-procrastination.

haha abbott i hate that and i feel like half the people i know irl do it too! i am afraid next time i will not be able to stop myself saying something like "yeah, you had so much potential...."

Abbott, pls never to stfu.

btw I was reading when I was 2, thanking u Electric Comapny

^^^moi aussi. also thanking you Grover, Big Bird, etc.

My kindergarten teacher made my mother take home some of those "See Jill run" pamphlets over the summer because I needed more practice. She thought I wouldn't be prepared for 1st grade otherwise. I was a late reader, apparently.

no doubt, big ups to my man MR HOOPER

RIP, you taught me how to be a crazy reader

easy reader, that's your name

uh-uh-uh

My kindergarten teacher made my mother take home some of those "See Jill run" pamphlets over the summer because I needed more practice.

thought this said "see Lil Jon" somehow

^^ An even later reader

Guys, guys, go start your own thread about this.

Is this another thread where everyone did the 'I was reading when I was two' brag thing?

― girl moves (Abbott), Tuesday, January 5, 2010 11:36 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

self-fulfilling prophecy

typical librarian always obsessed with categorising everything.

xpost

i learned to read when LJ was 2

and let me tell you its been a wild 14 year ride

My sister could read when she was two, but I was dumb by comparison.

i was a librarian when i was 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVCdGXWSCvc&feature=related

skip to 2:42 for a touching rendition of John's struggles

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2242/2399544737_89a4b35a5a.jpg

this is of course me with some lighter trash summer fare

btw the plot of "Babys First Book" is trite and uninspired

i had poppage when i was 2

actually ugh i just sb'ed myself

*trying to force some kind of pop-up book joke, failing*

Don't worry, HI DERE is on thread to help, and to demonstrate what all that early reading leads to.

Early Readers=Winners at Life

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/22/books/22library.html

Don't quite believe in the one day turnaround.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/04/22/books/22library-3/22library-3-popup.jpg

I believe the British Museum also has a big system like that for its library/collection of items you can handle.
Pretty amazing! I really want to work in a giant old library.

I'm assuming Ned posted the image from the article because he found it amusing that the guy was looking straight out at the camera with a blank expression instead of gazing lovingly at the workings of his machinery.

http://www.arts.ac.uk/newsevents/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/soylentgreen.jpg

Coming reduction in hours is a little grim, grim for librarians, grim for library users. But the, um, silver lining for serial overborrowers is that now the NYPL will let you renew an item up to ten times.

that sorting apparatus is kind of awesome.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v296/WilliamCrump63/libraryken.jpg

A+

no fucking clue how to use the dewey decimal system. i don't even really browse the library for anything... i go online and place a hold, get a notification via email when i get that hold, and come in to pick up what i wanted. browsing for books that might not even be there alphabetically is for shmucks.

Dude they taught the DDS when I was in like, grade 4. Do they not do this anymore.

you know what, they did when i was elementary (im in university at this point)....never, ever, ever have had a use for it.

I really want to work in a giant old library

(after 20+ years of people saying "you know, we should really barcode all our books", our management has only just gone "ok, you guys, barcode all our books! In six months, even though we should've started 20+ years ago." We have all these crumbling things* in the stack which were never catalogued and are now too fragile to touch and now we're supposed to catalogue their unreadable contents and stick things on the decaying bindings)

*inc. stuff which is several centuries old, but the late C19th material is the worst, because of the switch from linen paper to woodpulp - RIP my C20th book collection, you are not going to last the centuries like I once dreamed

A+

― by another name (amateurist), Monday, September 6, 2010 11:58 PM (Yesterday)

Meant to say that that was the handiwork of WmC.

new QBPL system still doesn't have the kinks worked out

"Well, I'll be glad to help - on one condition. Give me a chance to show you that the library isn't some kind of prison or torture chamber."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35pSI-HOirM