Libraries: Book Collections or Perve Central?

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do you go to the library primarily to study? or to stalk? librarians: do you abuse your role as book lender, if a cutie-pie comes and borrows a book, do you check up on their personal details when you scan their library card?

― di, Saturday, 13 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'm absolutely conventional regarding libraries. I use them to borrow books. I love libraries. Loads of free books. They sell some off at ludicrous prices. They're great.

― Martin Skidmore, Saturday, 13 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

great to burn cds from

― kiwi, Saturday, 13 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

ssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhh - i'm trying to read.

― Queen G, Saturday, 13 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I used to spend half my time at university checking out the hott chicks in the libraray. Bear in mind, though, that a) I do that all the time anyway, and b) anything was better than 19th Century Italian Self-conscious Theatre. The plus with libraries is that in some way, no matter how small, your victim will either have a level of literacy of a desire, forced or otherwise, to LEARN. Which is kinda sexy.

I think it's probably clear which side of the fence I'm sitting on. Sigh.

― Mark C, Saturday, 13 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

if a cutie-pie comes and borrows a book, do you check up on their personal details when you scan their library card?

*whistles idly* Though most of the time I just talk to them if it's a slow enough desk hour.

― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 13 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

No one comes into the library where I work...I'd hate to think anyone was perving over Wound Management or Dermatology: An Illustrated Guide.

― jel --, Saturday, 13 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

There is a dirty old man I know who totally uses the library for perv central. First of all, in the cafe, he is always with one or two Asian girls (young enough to be his daughter/granddaughter) pretending to teach them French and his French is HORRIBLE. He was in the line-up yesterday next to a cute Asian girl. When her boyfriend came out of the bathroom and kissed her, he suddenly left. I saw him at the Library with a book on Japanese something or other. Then I saw he was seated next to a table of Japanese women. I debated on getting a book on Balthus and sitting across from him with a 'I know what you're up to' wink.

― Evangeline, Saturday, 13 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

At this point I should start a countdown for Suzy making a Momus joke.

― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 13 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Nobody cute has ever come into any of the libraries I have worked at (okay, this an exaggeration, but it has been pretty slim pickings).

I just get hit on by aging Bill Gates lookalikes, etc.

― Nicole, Saturday, 13 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Oh, and speaking of perv central, my favorite library perv was at the university library where I used to work. He would sneak up under private study desk where women would be reading/studying, pull off their shoe or sandal and start licking their feet. He got away with it for about a year before Campus safety could ever catch him.

― Nicole, Saturday, 13 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

...Must remember to ask my mother about any memorable library pervert stories...

― Dan Perry, Saturday, 13 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Okay...delurk...

We just had a meeting on what to do about 'security', which I had taken to mean potential terrorists sabotaging our precious stacks. No, most of the concern turned out to be about 'pervs' - odious flashers and kiddy porn 'researchers' and the like. Sorry, I don't feel insecure on account of this. If it makes you uncomfortable, can't you just tell them to zip it up? We're open to the general public - if they don't like it, they should just close the access. Come on, they all love it, really : it makes their jobs more interesting. I guess I'm too libertarian to give a shit. If no one gave a shit, wouldn't that take care of the 'problem' faster than anything?

I found the meeting entertaining, actually, but some didn't think it was funny. Apparently people have also been having sex in the stacks. Now, don't tell me that some employees haven't thought of this.

There was one security problem with a disgruntled former student worker sitting at a table and glaring menacingly at the staff. One sassy staff member took to bringing scissors with her into the stacks instead of reporting him to security. I guess he wasn't a perv so much as a stalker.

I can't tell who's checking out what since it's not my job. I suppose they do, but as a former cashier I can tell you that what people bring to you gets pretty boring after a while.

We get all sorts of 'high class' p*rn for our collection - with pictures of everything imaginable. However, when one of our vendors automatically sent us an x-rated video guide, you should have seen the way some librarians over-reacted - one put a note in it that said, 'please return, we are not a Blockbuster'. Damn right we're not.

― K.K., Saturday, 13 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Oh and the library at my alma mater (where I also worked), whose initials are N.U. has been listed as a popular gay cruising spot in some book, much to the horror of the lib administration. Little did they know that this status made the library an attractive workplace for some of the staff.

― KK, Saturday, 13 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i love public libraries, and worry about them: some of the early research for my book i did via books i tracked down through hackney library, which pretty much no longer exists thanx to "cutbacks" => however i cannot work in them as i get distracted, not by the cutie at the next desk, but by topics and volumes nothing to do with what i'm working on... when i was doing my last-push revising for finals as a student (long ago) i had to keep shifting to duller and dustier and more remote bits of the library, so as not to be distracted => i ended up in the latin/greek section, where most books were actually IN latin and greek and so not especially enticing, but even then i found about depictions of anal sex on greek vases

where my mum and dad live there is a travelling library eg a little van which has long wobbled round the lanes full of all kinds of books (well, joanna trollope and "miss read" mainly now): as a child i loved the smell of it, a mixture of books and plastic

i read all the orlando the marmalade cat books plus another picture book i loved and loved and cannot remember the name of or anything about it except that i loved it... like a dream you can't recapture when you wake

― mark s, Saturday, 13 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

(worry about them as in: they may not around much longer if hackney's attitude is anything to go by, and i think losing them would be terrible)

― mark s, Saturday, 13 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

at the uni library, i used to perve at lots of librarians, and i used to get my friends that were libarians to check up on some particularly delicious students details for me... not addresses or phone numbers, i just wanted to know what they were studying. but mostly i go to the library to study, the visual attrcations are merely a bonus/annoyance.

― di, Saturday, 13 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

ps i had a friend who was such a sifty librarian, she used to toss in the loos on her breaks!

― di, Saturday, 13 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Could you translate that last sentence for me please? Thank you.

― Lindsey B, Saturday, 13 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

she used to masturbate in the toilets on her lunch/afternoon tea/whatever breaks.

― di, Saturday, 13 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Surprisingly, I have a British Library card valid til 2005! It's really cool in there, there's a cafe, comfortable seats, lots to look at...though there were loadf of people with laptops who seemed to be permenantly camping out there...and me with my scribbled notes and can't be bothered to wait for books, shall we go to lunch now attitude.

― jel --, Sunday, 14 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I R not a membah of a library - if you take a look at Brixton library you might see why. I think I am still a member of Prestong library though. Sigh, that was a great place. I loved it and really want to join a new one, but if as I believe, you can only join a borough in yr library, I will have to hunt about to find a decent one in Lambeth seeing as the Peckham one will be in Southwark... bah.

― Sarah, Monday, 15 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I belong to: The North Shore Public Libraries (comprising about eight libraries, of which I've borrowed books from Glenfield, Takapuna, Devonport, Browns Bay, and Birkenhead), Auckland City Libaries (where I've borrowed books from Auckland Central, Grey Lynn, and Parnell), Hibiscus Coast Public Libraries (borrowed from Whangaparaoa and Orewa), Dunedin Public Libraries, The University of Otago Library, The University of Auckland Library, Timaru Public Library and Massey University Library. I've borrowed books from all these libraries in person, except Massey, from which I borrow by mail, and all my memberships are current. I'm not talking interloans here, or borrowing books on other people's cards, which would be just fatuous. Can anybody top this simultaneous library membership and borrowing accomplishment?

― maryann, Monday, 15 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I think you meant you can only join a Library in your borough Sarah that just ain't true. It can depend on the borough but I've not come across one which doesn't let you do it (though Westminster might be snarky - they are about everything else). I am current a member in Camden, Barnet, Harringey and Islington - which went towards the Hackney route but appear to have pulled back and are now going through a rather impressive book buying stage.

I too have very fond memories of thge mobile library which used to park outside the Greengrocers when I was a kid. Oddly the limited selection of books was a boon to me at age eight - competitve strak saw me trying to read the entire library (hence making reading choices more eclectic).

― Pete, Monday, 15 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Mm. From either side of the desk libraries are SEETHING HOTBEDS of sexual tension. While working at the public library I didn't check out personal details, but I did note what books any tempting proposition was borrowing, and comment on them. (As long as there wasn't a queue of elderly Cookson-heads impatiently slavering behind them.) And as a library user: the opportunites for stalking/peering through the gaps in the stacks etc are too good to pass up.

― Archel, Monday, 15 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

right, I'm off to the library....

― chris, Monday, 15 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

one year passes...

Librarian girl...
You came and you changed my world
A love so brand new
Librarian girl...
You came and you changed me girl
A feeling so true

Librarian girl
You know that you came
And you changed my world,
Just like in the movies,
With two lovers in a scene
And she says...
"Do you love me"
And he says so endlessly...
"I love you, Librarian girl"

(Naku penda piya-naku taka piya-mpenziwe)
(I love you too-I want you too-my love)

Librarian girl...
More precious than any pearl
Your love so complete
Librarian girl...
You kiss me then,
Ooh, the world
You do this to me

Librarian girl
You know that you came
And you changed my world,
Just like in the movies,
With two lovers in a scene
And she says,
"Do you love me"
And he says so endlessly
"I love you, Librarian girl"
(Naku penda piya-naku taka piya-mpenziwe)
(I love you too-I want you too-my love)

Librarian girl
You know that you came
And you changed my world,
I wait for the day,
When you have to say
"I do,"
And I'll smile and say it too,
And forever we'll be true
I love you, Librarian girl, all the time

(Girl)
I love you Librarian girl, all the time
(Girl)
I love you Librarian girl, all the time
(Girl)
I love you Librarian girl, all the time
(Girl)
I love you
I love you baby
(Girl)
I want you
I love you baby
(Girl)
Ooh! I love you baby, I want you baby, ooh!
(Girl)

― di smith (lucylurex), Thursday, 19 June 2003 22:15 (twenty-two years ago)

hackney library totally reopened since my post!!

― mark s (mark s), Thursday, 19 June 2003 22:19 (twenty-two years ago)

On some other thread I told you about the foot fetishist I once encountered in a library.

― j.lu (j.lu), Friday, 20 June 2003 01:56 (twenty-two years ago)

is that a real song? if so, information pls

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, 20 June 2003 02:28 (twenty-two years ago)

http://insilico.diaryland.com/images/birchers.jpg

― donut bitch (donut), Friday, 20 June 2003 02:33 (twenty-two years ago)

a college friend of mine decided to do a "women of rutgers" to make some money while undergrad. he and the models went to the library when it opened, the models stripped, he took pictures and made his calendar. he went on to Wall Street and now owns his own investment corp.

another college friend found out that another section of the Rutgers library was a notorious cruising spot for college gays ... he wasn't amused.

― Tad (llamasfur), Friday, 20 June 2003 02:39 (twenty-two years ago)

what the fuck?
is that real?
surely not some sort of ultra conservative element of america trying to suggest cutting public spending on libraries?

― robin (robin), Friday, 20 June 2003 02:43 (twenty-two years ago)

surely not some sort of ultra conservative element of america trying to suggest cutting public spending on libraries?

yup. see the bush administration.

sometimes i don't feel bad joking about flyover land.

― Tad (llamasfur), Friday, 20 June 2003 02:45 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't see why libraries can't be both book collections AND perve central. I mean, isn't multi-tasking what it is all about these days? If libraries do come to be known as offering both services then they might be awarded some sort of IS0 12001 award or something. And with that award comes prestige and more money, which means more books AND more opportunities for the pervs to express themselves. Maybe the library could offer special perv sections - and "how-to be a perv" classes in addition to the "how-to use our search engine" lessons.

― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Friday, 20 June 2003 18:24 (twenty-two years ago)

isn't one section of any given uni library notorious for cruising? for mine it was the 3rd floor bathroom.

― teeny (teeny), Friday, 20 June 2003 18:33 (twenty-two years ago)

A couple months back Cleveland residents voted to increase their taxes in order to upgrade library services. I couldn't believe it.

Anyway, I definitely "check out" (haha) the librarians when I'm book hunting. It's the only way to fly.

― lawrence kansas (lawrence kansas), Friday, 20 June 2003 18:38 (twenty-two years ago)

"how-to be a perv" classes in addition to the "how-to use our search engine" lessons.

There's a difference?

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Saturday, 21 June 2003 15:25 (twenty-two years ago)

gabbneb: it is a real song by michael jackson, but its actually called "liberian girl".

― di smith (lucylurex), Sunday, 22 June 2003 00:59 (twenty-two years ago)

Good point, Martin - I obviously didn't think through the proposal with enough attention paid to the details. Do you want to co-teach the courses with me?

― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Monday, 23 June 2003 00:49 (twenty-two years ago)

i want to sign up for this course!

― di smith (lucylurex), Monday, 23 June 2003 00:52 (twenty-two years ago)

*grin* You're the first one on the list, di. Any suggestions for textbooks?

― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Monday, 23 June 2003 01:31 (twenty-two years ago)

pat califia!!

― di smith (lucylurex), Monday, 23 June 2003 01:35 (twenty-two years ago)

i've had this problem for years 'cause every time i'm in the library there's someone right next to the books i wanna look at so i don't wanna go stand near em cause what if they think i'm scopin em out (i never am)...so i stand there lookin at some stuff a bit further away waiting for them to go away & then i think, yeah they'll see me lookin at em & misinterpret my intentions...etc...i know i shouldn't sweat this shit but i still do...people make me fucking nervous

― duane, Monday, 23 June 2003 02:09 (twenty-two years ago)

hey are you at the library still?

― di smith (lucylurex), Monday, 23 June 2003 02:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Heh. Thanks to my visit I can envision the library location and Duane at one table surrounded by intense undergrads nervously typing papers...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 23 June 2003 02:42 (twenty-two years ago)

no i went home

― duane, Monday, 23 June 2003 02:56 (twenty-two years ago)

― di smith (lucylurex), Monday, 23 June 2003 03:01 (twenty-two years ago)

Pat Califia it is! Anyone else?

― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Monday, 23 June 2003 03:47 (twenty-two years ago)

It's funny how you said 'No I went home' after what Ned said Duane as if to say 'It is true, but then I went home'

― maryann (maryann), Monday, 23 June 2003 05:11 (twenty-two years ago)

I have verbally chastised pervs on numerous occasions for checking out porn on the youth computers.

Even more frightening is the number of parents that use the library as a baby-sitting service.

Personally, I haven't checked up on anyone's personal details - but then again, I'm not such a big fan of people. Come to think of it, more creeps stalk me. We've received lots of memos citing staff abuse of personal info as a significant problem at other branches, however.

― Kate Orsini, Monday, 23 June 2003 06:27 (twenty-two years ago)

two years pass...

Sometimes I check for where someone lives if they are a particular asshole. I'm not sure what this will prove. "You reside on Morningside Lane--of course you are obnoxious."

― Mary (Mary), Monday, 25 July 2005 01:46 (twenty years ago)

i never really check up on people's personal stuff (i usually have better things to do) but newcomers are required to fill out a sheet with their names, address, e-mail, etc. which is later inserted in a database, so the personal info is there at least. with so many attractive grad students coming in, it can be kinda tempting, admittedly.

i like mary's idea, though! (have you worked at b0b$t ever, mary? couldn't help noticing yr e-mail addy)

― joseph (joseph), Monday, 25 July 2005 04:28 (twenty years ago)

one year passes...

I've been somewhat astonished to learn that pens are banned in the British Library reading rooms. I had thought they might be a good place to go and work, but I guess not.

― toby, Sunday, 25 February 2007 18:31 (nineteen years ago)

Boy, that sentence was easy to misread given the thread title.

― Abbott, Sunday, 25 February 2007 18:32 (nineteen years ago)

Librarians be frowning on people writing on the incunabula, dude.

― Noodle Vague, Sunday, 25 February 2007 18:32 (nineteen years ago)

Librarians be frowning on people writing on the incunabula, dude

Yep. Exactly. We also hate razor blades. Don't steal our maps.

― molly mummenschanz, Monday, 26 February 2007 21:54 (nineteen years ago)

Instead, steal other libraries' maps.

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 26 February 2007 21:55 (nineteen years ago)

I miss Martin Skidmore. :(

― Ms Misery, Monday, 26 February 2007 21:56 (nineteen years ago)

We will hunt you down and send your ass to jail.

― molly mummenschanz, Monday, 26 February 2007 21:57 (nineteen years ago)

Forget jail, I will just choke a bitch.

― Nicole, Monday, 26 February 2007 21:59 (nineteen years ago)

I would cut them with their own razor blades.

― molly mummenschanz, Monday, 26 February 2007 22:15 (nineteen years ago)

Only if they were especially rusty.

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 26 February 2007 22:17 (nineteen years ago)

And then I would stab them with their own pens, after cutting them with the rusty razor blades.

― molly mummenschanz, Monday, 26 February 2007 22:21 (nineteen years ago)

Ned, Molly, and Nicole = the librarians I would most want with me if I had to venture into a dark alley.

― Sara R-C, Monday, 26 February 2007 23:57 (nineteen years ago)

i definitely see people looking at porn in the NYPL computer area from time to time

― impudent harlot, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 03:03 (nineteen years ago)

so i guess that makes my answer to the thread question "yes."

― impudent harlot, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 03:05 (nineteen years ago)

I definitely agree that people who vandalise/steal books deserve punishment - it's just that I've never come across a library banning pens from all rooms containing books before (and I use a lot of university libraries, for instance).

― toby, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 07:18 (nineteen years ago)

re: sharp objects in libraries, last week we had a patron pull a knife on another patron for talking too loudly on his cellphone!
http://www.dundeecity.gov.uk/centlib/150years/images/silence.jpg

― etc, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 05:47 (nineteen years ago)

you can use a pencil i believe toby.

― Archel, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 08:52 (nineteen years ago)

Do hot girls still go to libraries? Or is it only students these days? (I always buy books from charity shops so never go to the library at all)

Hott girls of ILE to thread. Please.

― The Wayward Johnny B, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 10:53 (nineteen years ago)

[floorplan_of_library.txt]

amirite?

― g-kit, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 11:36 (nineteen years ago)

Students can't be hot girls?

― Tuomas, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 12:53 (nineteen years ago)

I often see interesting girls in the university libraries. But since libraries don't feel like a place to start chatting up with someone, I do nothing.

― Tuomas, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 12:54 (nineteen years ago)

One time this girl clearly tried to flirt with me while she was waiting for her turn at the copier. But she was on the same course as me at that time, and I thought she was kinda scary, so I took the copies as quick as possible and scrambled.

― Tuomas, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 12:58 (nineteen years ago)

Students can't be hot girls?

I don't know why, but weirdly, no. I think that's more to do with me than them (well, maybe a little bit them. . . . ) but there you go, viva la difference.

― The Wayward Johnny B, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 13:17 (nineteen years ago)

toby, that is sort of odd that ALL pens had been banned. But, it's possible that that library had problems with patrons writing in books, on tables, etc.

archel, really!? that's intense! we only get students stealing each others' laptops, or old men who have wandered in and are lost.

― molly mummenschanz, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 14:51 (nineteen years ago)

The British Library, and the other British deposit libraries only keep one copy of each edition of a book (which they are entitled to for free from the publisher) in order to keep an archive of the country's printed output. Letting your only copy of a long out of print book get irreparably damaged by some idiot with a pen is not the kind of thing they're going to allow.

― treefell, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 15:01 (nineteen years ago)

Well, I agree - I'm just a little surprised that the British Library goes as far as keeping pens out altogether. I've used Cambridge UL quite a lot over the years, and they don't have a pen ban; according to their rules,

"The marking of any Library materials is forbidden; readers may be prohibited from using ink and may be asked to use pencils instead while consulting certain volumes in any of the reading rooms."

which isn't quite the same thing. And actually it looks like the British Library rule is relatively new:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4547206.stm

Time to find a pencil, I guess, anyway.

― toby, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 18:06 (nineteen years ago)

I miss Martin Skidmore. :(

I forget that he doesn't post on ILX anymore since I read him all the time on the Stylus Singles Jukebox.

― jaymc, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 18:08 (nineteen years ago)

At the Chicago Public Library you get a great deal of porn watching on the public use computers. They put of screens, but you still see a lot of black cock going into various white orifices.

― Jesse, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 18:12 (nineteen years ago)

The porn computers at the main Buffalo Public Library have recessed monitors, so no one be lookin' at your porn. Not speaking from experience here. Ahem.

― molly mummenschanz, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 19:20 (nineteen years ago)

three years pass...

i was in my library the other day. theyve converted it to be more of an information centre or whatever the fuck these gullible idiots at the council think they were trying to make it (as if anything was wrong with just having a standard library). anyway this poor old guy kept trying to tell the kids to shut up, and they didnt listen, the staff were useless. i felt a bit sorry for him. but anyway i hate his new model for libraries in certain parts of london (or the uk?). its not really conducive to what a library is/was meant to be about. and theyre overrun by bloody teenagers vaguely attempting to study.

― truffle-flavoured french fry (titchyschneiderMk2), Tuesday, 8 June 2010 11:06 (fifteen years ago)

this might be the wrong thread for a moan.

― truffle-flavoured french fry (titchyschneiderMk2), Tuesday, 8 June 2010 11:06 (fifteen years ago)

ooooh man this is THE thread for me to tell the following story. when I was working pretty heavily in the stacks at my uni library, I would always see this old man dressed in a dress shirt and khakis using the public computer terminal in the stacks. sometimes it would be the 4th floor, sometimes the 5th. the stacks were usually pretty empty so he wouldn't be interrupted by too many people. by his posture you could tell he was up to no good - hunched over in the chair, completely still, only the right forearm moving to control the mouse. his personal space perception was a little too finely honed - if you even got within a 15 foot radius of the guy he would notice and some rapid clicking would ensue.

also there was a library worker who was always dressed in the same outfit of old jeans and plaid button up who would always use those public computer terminals too. one time I looked over his shoulder and saw that he was looking at star trek memorabilia on eBay.

― fruiting bodies of minds in agony (dyao), Tuesday, 8 June 2010 11:11 (fifteen years ago)

Oh dear, Titchy, I experienced exactly this a few weeks ago. My local library is an 'Idea Store', I assumed they couldn't call it a library under the trades descriptions as there are about seven books in all four floors. This old fella was doing a bit of reading and next to him was a guy talking loudly on the phone for ages. The guy asked him to be a bit more quiet "As this is a library!' and all he got was "erm, but is it?" and some shrugs from the staff. I came armed with an iPod loaded with Gas' Nah Und Fern to play at low levels to distract from the chat. On the original note I did see some casual flirting between the staff.

― mmmm, Tuesday, 8 June 2010 11:22 (fifteen years ago)

I also remember hearing a story about the UC library system. apparently there was an some guy who went around jerking off into the hair of female students who had fallen asleep. never caught, apparently.

― fruiting bodies of minds in agony (dyao), Tuesday, 8 June 2010 11:30 (fifteen years ago)

mine has about 3-4 staff max. no check out desks anymore either. just two self service digital scanning machines (like self service tills at supermarkets). if you reserve something you dont even have to ask anyone for it, its just on a shelf ready to collect. its shite. im not even sure what the point of the staff is anymore. i cant even be that annoyed at people who just chat shit all the time in there as there are no signs for silence, and well the environment just isnt catered to that anymore.

― truffle-flavoured french fry (titchyschneiderMk2), Tuesday, 8 June 2010 11:30 (fifteen years ago)

That sounds worse. I was studying over five or six weeks everyday and this was the only incident I noticed. The teenagers were pretty good and kept the levels low without being asked. I blame the council for rebranding, as you're right there is nothing wrong with calling a library a library. They should have at least designated quiet areas. All it needed was a few unruly ones to tip the balance. Plenty of staff milling about in my local, sorting the few books they have.

― mmmm, Tuesday, 8 June 2010 11:41 (fifteen years ago)

at my uni library i have witnessed two vaguely homeless looking dudes sharing earbuds while shamelessly watching hardcore porn together on the same computer. i guess they were gathering material for the spank bank. i was about twenty feet behind them studying at a table, so people would walk behind them staring at the monitor and then look at me like O_O "are you seein this?!"

― karl...arlk...rlka...lkar..., Tuesday, 8 June 2010 15:18 (fifteen years ago)

its not really conducive to what a library is/was meant to be about. and theyre overrun by bloody teenagers vaguely attempting to study.

This kind of thing is always a problem whenever I go to use the wifi at my local library.

However, Dublin's Central Library runs a Science Fiction book club, so I wuv them.

― The New Dirty Vicar, Tuesday, 8 June 2010 17:23 (fifteen years ago)

is it a trend everywhere that old men who watch porn in libraries bring a two liter bottle of soda in with them

― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Tuesday, 8 June 2010 17:53 (fifteen years ago)

because when I shelved books in a library all the old dudes who came in and watched porn all fuckin brought mr. pibb and mtn dew in for some reason

― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Tuesday, 8 June 2010 17:53 (fifteen years ago)

dew collection

― ⚖ on my truck (dyao), Tuesday, 8 June 2010 20:26 (fifteen years ago)

mountain dewey decimal system

― harbl, Tuesday, 8 June 2010 20:48 (fifteen years ago)

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