To Restore Civil Society, Start with the Library
1–10 of 149 posts
Re: To Restore Civil Society, Start with the Library
#2I love the idea of libraries, but where I live most of them are almost as bad as public transportation. People fighting, being loud, people on drugs asking for money, so it's difficult to get comfortable to sit and read. Sadly you have to go to the suburbs to get a quiet library where you don't get hassled. Amazon certainly isn't the solution, but neither is having libraries be the daytime homeless shelter.
Re: To Restore Civil Society, Start with the Library
#3I love the idea of libraries, but where I live most of them are almost as bad as public transportation. People fighting, being loud, people on drugs asking for money, so it's difficult to get comfortable to sit and read. Sadly you have to go to the suburbs to get a quiet library where you don't get hassled. Amazon certainly isn't the solution, but neither is having libraries be the daytime homeless shelter.
As I understand it, they've effectively been displaced there. As other places they can go have been closed off to them, they end up looking for an alternative dry, sheltered place where it's possible to sit down and even wash; the library. It would be a real shame if libraries shut down as a side-effect of other cuts to public services.
Re: To Restore Civil Society, Start with the Library
#4I love the idea of libraries, but where I live most of them are almost as bad as public transportation. People fighting, being loud, people on drugs asking for money, so it's difficult to get comfortable to sit and read. Sadly you have to go to the suburbs to get a quiet library where you don't get hassled. Amazon certainly isn't the solution, but neither is having libraries be the daytime homeless shelter.
To be fair, it's not the fault of libraries if society offers no more humane options for the homeless than to hang out there... nor is it the fault of the homeless.
Re: To Restore Civil Society, Start with the Library
#5I love the idea of libraries, but where I live most of them are almost as bad as public transportation. People fighting, being loud, people on drugs asking for money, so it's difficult to get comfortable to sit and read. Sadly you have to go to the suburbs to get a quiet library where you don't get hassled. Amazon certainly isn't the solution, but neither is having libraries be the daytime homeless shelter.
The local library where I live (Sydney suburb), when I tried reading there - after abandoning reading in parks because full of roaming people on mobile phones - was interrupted every minute by someone running out yelling I'M IN THE LIBRARY! HANG ON! into their phone. :-(
They sold off/gave away all their books and music that aren't borrowed so much, i.e. most of what was good. They have about 5 books on philosophy, and a whole aisle on christianity...
Re: To Restore Civil Society, Start with the Library
#6I love the idea of libraries, but where I live most of them are almost as bad as public transportation. People fighting, being loud, people on drugs asking for money, so it's difficult to get comfortable to sit and read. Sadly you have to go to the suburbs to get a quiet library where you don't get hassled. Amazon certainly isn't the solution, but neither is having libraries be the daytime homeless shelter.
The local library where I live (Sydney suburb), when I tried reading there - after abandoning reading in parks because full of roaming people on mobile phones - was interrupted every minute by someone running out yelling I'M IN THE LIBRARY! HANG ON! into their phone. :-( They sold off/gave away all their books and music that aren't borrowed so much, i.e. most of what was good. They have about 5 books on philosophy, a…
Librarians are pretty brutal about shelf space and 'discards' are ruthless and based on readership as you noticed.
In UK most public libraries will offer to get a book in on the 'inter-library loan' system - there is usually a charge. University libraries (https://copac.jisc.ac.uk/) are (mostly) accessible through this system.
The other strategy would be to try to increase readership of philosophy books perhaps starting with texts accessible to the teenager age range (Sophie's World?, the various comic book options?)
Re: To Restore Civil Society, Start with the Library
#7I appreciate the librarians because they're one of the very few people who stand up against ubiquitous government surveillance. It's nice to have a place where I am not profiled based on what I browse.
Re: To Restore Civil Society, Start with the Library
#8I love the idea of libraries, but where I live most of them are almost as bad as public transportation. People fighting, being loud, people on drugs asking for money, so it's difficult to get comfortable to sit and read. Sadly you have to go to the suburbs to get a quiet library where you don't get hassled. Amazon certainly isn't the solution, but neither is having libraries be the daytime homeless shelter.
To be fair, it's not the fault of libraries if society offers no more humane options for the homeless than to hang out there... nor is it the fault of the homeless.
No, but it is the fault of libraries if they fail to enforce reasonable standards of behavior on the premises.
Re: To Restore Civil Society, Start with the Library
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
To be fair, it's not the fault of libraries if society offers no more humane options for the homeless than to hang out there... nor is it the fault of the homeless.
No, but it is the fault of libraries if they fail to enforce reasonable standards of behavior on the premises.
What do you expect a librarian – who is, after all, not a trained security guard – to do besides simply call the police? And in so many of the examples that I see people complain about, it would seem that the disruption by homeless people or drug users is only noticed after it has taken place (e.g. they trash the toilets or leave needles or paraphenalia behind).
Re: To Restore Civil Society, Start with the Library
#10I appreciate the librarians because they're one of the very few people who stand up against ubiquitous government surveillance. It's nice to have a place where I am not profiled based on what I browse.
I don't understand this comment. Are librarians politically aligned in the US? If so, why?
Also, if you are going to downvote, you might as well spend some time explaining why.