h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Baggers, you also need to remember that public libraries have items of general rather than limited interest. We don't have the shelf space to keep items that are seldom or never circulated on the off chance that someday someone might want them.

Irv is right. The best way to keep your favorite authors/books on the shelves is to check them out. The Asimov books we discarded were popular in their day but are no longer in demand. It reflects the changing tastes of the general public.

Lots of really good books are discarded. It isn't a question of whether or not they are well written. You keep or discard an item based on the coypright date, the general condition of the book, whether or not the information contained is still current (for nonfiction) and whether or not the item circulates often enough to warrant giving it shelf space. You need a pretty compelling reason to keep an item that doesn't circulate. And just because the author was popular 30 years ago isn't a good enough reason.

All of this serves to remind me that I need to get down to my public library and get a card. I have one for Phoenix, one for Tucson, but I don't have one for Flagstaff yet.

Happy Birthday Ti! Here is a hand-knitted midnight blue Thing. It will be a hat, socks, mittens, or a scarf, depending on which of these you happen to need the most at that precise moment. It will of course fit perfectly, not itch, and make you look even cuter than you already do, should such a thing be possible.

Yes - there truly is Not Enough Room on the Shelves, at any given library, but we in academia have to keep all the blasted things regardless, and even if no one ever ever touches them, because we should so much as hint at the possibility of disposing of, say years 1966 - 1990 of Enormous Boring Marketing Journal The Students Would Sooner Gnaw Their Own Toes Off Than Read, the professors pitch a fit. I spend a lot of my working life mending horrible old rubbish nobody reads and nobody wants, and another lot of my working life shuffling the journal collection millimetres back and forth so I can get the next issue on the shelf. And this is why I always dress in shades of grey, beige and slurry at work. Everything I own is grey (dust), beige (disintegrating leather bindings) and slurry (miscellaneous antique filth)-coloured by 5:30 pm anyway.

for Ag. Of course you don't have to do storytime for 2 year olds. But seriously, I think working in a public library suits me better than working in an academic library would. I positively enjoy discarding things. My 'Withdrawn' stamp is worn down and needs replaced.

Our public library used to have the best annual sale to raise funds for the library every October; not only did they sell the discarded books, but local bookstores (even Barnes & Noble) and individuals donated their used books. It was the highlight of my autumn social calendar. Mine and plenty of other people's too--the line to get in the sale room on opening night would go out the door, down the sidewalk and around the corner. It was a madhouse of books, bags, elbows and dirty looks (when you picked up the book someone else wanted). Sadly, they stopped having the sale in 2006. Instead, the library has decided to constantly have two or three shelves of used books on sale. They're right by the Information Desk. That's nice, but it's not as fun as the big sale.

Oh, yeah, Happy Birthday Titania. Whoops, missed that with my other posts today.

Hyp - I wasn't being entirely serious in my concern for the local Isaac Asimov fan. I do realise there's limited shelf space and it's good to know you are getting new stuff in - apparently libraries over here are getting less money to spend on boring old stuff like books (admittedly this is according to the old guard of librarians who probably object to such newfangled stuff as computers and comfy chairs).

[RNick - a mad Asimov fan ]

I still spend a larger percentage of my budget on materials than on technology. But the gap is closing.

I figured you were yanking my chain, Baggers. You've seen how limited my shelf space is.

I mostly remember there being lots of books, I didn't notice the shelving, 'cept that it wasn't very high. I may have been in the children's section at the time.

Of course there are lots of books. Just not much room for any more unless we get rid of some of the ones we already have. And yes, the shelves in the children's library are low. So the kids can reach the books.

By that logic shelves in the rest of the library should not have any books on them lower than about three feet above the floor, to prevent back pain in seniors, the middle aged, the not as young as they used to be, and fools like me in their late 20s who did stupid things to their backs while they were teenagers.

Irv, I sure wish I could stop using the bottom shelves. Nothing would please me more. Unfortuantely, I need them. But you're right. It is pretty difficult to browse them. That's why we have stools everywhere for folks to sit on while searching the bottom shelves.

I have just been watching my three legged cat wash herself and don't think she would like any sort of other animal here as either would be frightened of it as very nervous or simply likes herself to be center of attention.
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As to libraries, a main library in this area has very old maps about a metre long and nearly as wide on carboard and fascinating they are too as large scale and very detailed about how the area was, many look not far of a hundred years old and much used they seem to be too which is great.

*Leaps up the staircase, and waves*

Merry Christmas and Happy respective other holidays to non-Christmas celebrants, Atelier! Figured I'm well past due for a visit.

The libraries in my area have a few interesting old treasures as well. I'd investigate them more, though I'm currently trying to find a library book that has vanished under mysterious circumstances that prevent me from feeling deserved of searching their archives at the moment (seriously, no amount of cleaning in any reasonably likely place has found it, and the unreasonable places become, well, silly after I search them four or five times.)

The other reason I'm up here: anyone know where I can research that old decorative technique where you fold a sheet of paper, snip it a few times, and suddenly have a lengthy string of angels or snowflakes or dolls or something along those lines? I've been scouring the Internet for the past few hours, and can't find anything.

Affy, what kind of research do you want? There is a "how to" here:
http://www.beware-of-art.com/images/gallery/technique/paperdolls/paperdolls.htm

I found that with a Google of "Paper Dolls Joined" (no quotes). If you want actual research... I don't know what to say.

Does Affy get the fuzzy pants now?

I think Affy gets the fuzzy pants for the last 5 threads

Hey, Affy!

Hyp, I rather like the UC sytem's library mentality. Every campus has its own, but then we have NRLF and SRLF, which are basically two HUGE warehouses that are filled with row upon row of shelves. If a book is not checked out for more than 5 years, it gets shipped off to one of these RLF (Northern and Southern, respectively, depending on the campus shipping it). That way, the campuses that use the material keep it, the ones who don't, don't, and ILL is a breeze.

Mornin All

Kind of dusty around here this morning, must be all the old, crumbly tombs...eek

'ning

Two days to Christmas Vacation - and counting

'ning all

From a frosty Winsford, which means the bogs are frozen again...

Belated happy birthday T

Anyway I should be headed south at the end of today, and then hopefully a quiet spell untill Cristmas is over (who am I kidding?)

{BB}