[lbo-talk] Green Capitalism not in libraries!

shag carpet bomb shag at cleandraws.com
Mon Aug 24 19:54:51 PDT 2009


At 04:37 PM 8/23/2009, Bill Quimby wrote:
>I assume that you are talking about a public library? If so the rotten
>attitude may
>be because you are a serious reader. Most public libraries (I'm speaking in
>generalities, of course - there may be some that
>are super) have a difficult time with "serious" readers. First - if they
>are not in some some of consortium than any books that you request through
>Interlibrary Loan cost them lots of money in staff time and fees - $5 to $10
>per request. They'll frown if you request that they buy something "serious"
>because they know that you may be the only person to read it. (R must have
>charmed someone!) And attitude? - almost all pub libs depend solely on public
>money and so are now suffering from very large budget cuts and layoffs.

I'd buy that if it weren't for the fact that I'm a long time patron and power user of libraries -- as I mentioned. I couldn't go to college, so I decided that I would start teaching myself, beginning at the religion/phil end of the dewey decimal system. I've used libraries in small towns, medium-sized cities, in suburban areas, in urban centers in four different states.

I have never had anyone treat me rudely or behave as if it were a problem to take out library books. I also spent the first 6 monthshere, using the library and only checking out books on the shelf. I didn't even ask to have books delivered in from outlying branches. Even then, if my partner and I checked out books, be it one or two dozen, we constantly felt as if we were taxing their patience. I am, moreover, a donor at this library, buying whatever they sell, donating, attending the hors d'oeuvre and wine tasting benefits or jazz and art show benefits they put on to raise funds.

It is very strange. I thought maybe it was because it was that I was using the main, downtown branch. But when we moved to a hoity toity neighborhood, we got even worse treatment. Big sighs, annoyed looks, slumped shoulders. This was the way it was 2.5 years ago, before the big budget crisis.

so, I have no clue other than these folks really aren't interested in people checking books out of their precious library. I keep doing it but after experiencing the most wonderful librarians in every city, town, state, surburb I've lived in.


>One hope for the future is what's happening in Ohio - the statewide university
>sharing consortium now includes a few large public libraries, and there
>are talks on
>expanding to some degree of connectivity with all publics in the state.

This was the case, I think, in Pinellas county where I lived. They gladly ordered you any book you wanted, from any library in the consortium. To boot, they didn't think anything of ordering the book for you, from a library branch 20 miles south, spending the funds to transport interlibrary loan books for you. And interestingly, they've never charged for any articles. When I did research for Ehrenreich, I ordered articles and no one ever asked for a cent -- though they are much better about electronic copies of articles in FL than here. You'd think that a state like this would have better facilities than the anti-education folks who run the state of FL.


>Incidentally I checked WorldCat (a listing of the holdings of 71,000 libraries
>world-wide, holding over 1.5 billion books - it's www.worldcat.org if
>anybody wants to use it.) and that librarian was right! Three libraries
>have it - two in Australia and one in Minnesota!. That's very strange,
>especially since this database includes academic libraries as well. One of the
>book review sources that libraries depend on for acquisition advice may have
>really panned it, if they covered it at all.

yeah. I was really surprised when I saw that. I'll have to buy it.

I was aghast that R had the audacity to ask them to order a book we could afford to purchase. i thought it kind of rude. But this particular person emailed promptly to say it was in -- though in person he got the crabby face at the local hoity toit library branch.

*shrug*



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