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Librarians tired of being accused of hiding secret books that were made up by AI

gizmodo.com

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Re: Librarians tired of being accused of hiding secret books that were made up by AI

#11

Post by araes »

k310 wrote: post #6

I visited the local library (California foothills) during a “book sale”, and what didn’t sell was left out in boxes, either for cheap or free. What didn’t move was destined for the landfill. I was aghast, but without enough room to take in the strays. Real estate is unforgiving. I am in favor of “little free libraries” [0] where books circulate freely, and if they aren’t returned, hopefully are read and not destroyed…

We have those around our town in a bunch of neighborhoods. Not sure on the usage rates, yet thought they were a pretty cool idea when I saw them, and they seem to always have books available (ie, not like they're just being taken and emptied)

Re: Librarians tired of being accused of hiding secret books that were made up by AI

#12

Post by JumpCrisscross »

k310 wrote: post #6

I visited the local library (California foothills) during a “book sale”, and what didn’t sell was left out in boxes, either for cheap or free. What didn’t move was destined for the landfill. I was aghast, but without enough room to take in the strays. Real estate is unforgiving. I am in favor of “little free libraries” [0] where books circulate freely, and if they aren’t returned, hopefully are read and not destroyed…

> I am in favor of “little free libraries”

Do these work for kids' books? Whenever I've seen them geared towards adults, the content is absolute crap.

Re: Librarians tired of being accused of hiding secret books that were made up by AI

#13

Post by JumpCrisscross »

pyuser583 wrote: post #10
WarOnPrivacy wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Libraries remove unborrowed books and sell them. Borrowed books stay on the shelf. That's what they do with books.

No it’s a lot more complicated than that … Librarians try to “market” books based on what they think the public wants or needs. They try to assure a variety of books put forward, with a special emphasis on “good for you” books. Books deed as “not good for you” are likely to be shelved in the back. in practice, libraries use the Dewey decimal system, but that excluded the many “exhibits” of “good for you” material. I…

> No it’s a lot more complicated than that

Article is about a librarian in Virginia. OP is commenting about practice in India. Unless there is some secret code to global librarian conduct, chances are you're all correct.

Re: Librarians tired of being accused of hiding secret books that were made up by AI

#16

Post by CJefferson »

Guestmodinfo wrote: post #3

Librarians do hide books. But not as a way of hiding from public but as a way of not throwing them away. Let me explain. Even though libraries are very big still they run out of space and regularly throw out (in India because most don't care) / ( or in Texas sell out books cheaply) and it pains the librarians deeply so they kind of stash books secretly from being thrown away. And if you really show interest in a part…

Almost every library regularly throws out books, and all librarians I know are happy with this. New books arrive regularly, and unless you plan on your library growing unlimited, you need to, in general, a 1 in 1 out policy.

Re: Librarians tired of being accused of hiding secret books that were made up by AI

#17

Post by CJefferson »

Guestmodinfo wrote: post #5
WarOnPrivacy wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Libraries remove unborrowed books and sell them. Borrowed books stay on the shelf. That's what they do with books.

Judging books by their unborrowedness is like judging a youtube video's educational content by its view count. It's a bad reality created by the powers that be

Why have shelves full of books that haven’t been borrowed in 15 years? what benefit is that providing?

Re: Librarians tired of being accused of hiding secret books that were made up by AI

#19

Post by Ekaros »

Guestmodinfo wrote: post #5
WarOnPrivacy wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Libraries remove unborrowed books and sell them. Borrowed books stay on the shelf. That's what they do with books.

Judging books by their unborrowedness is like judging a youtube video's educational content by its view count. It's a bad reality created by the powers that be

Depending on goal of library and possible value of book this seems reasonable enough process. If you have library with goal of sharing popular enough content, keeping the popular books and removing truly unpopular that do not have significant value seems reasonable.

Unlike digital world where storage is cheap, in physical world it is limited. Thus focus on what the customers want is reasonable.

Archival libraries are different game. There keeping at least one copy is often reasonable.

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