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A dumpster arrived behind my university's library

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Re: A dumpster arrived behind my university's library

#141

Post by bombcar »

S_Bear wrote: post #82
bluGill wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most books are not worth saving.

I used to work in a bookstore, and I've been working in libraries almost my entire career. Most books have no value. I've probably thrown out a million books in my life; most of them have been diet books, cook books, and political biographies. My current library is around 2000 square feet and I acquire around 1000 books a year, so I have to toss around 1000 books a year, because they're made of matter and take up spa…

Goodwill is a much more accurate slice of “what is published” than any library is.

Re: A dumpster arrived behind my university's library

#142

Post by fhn »

themaninthedark wrote: post #135
kelnos wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, this part of the article made me sad: > a state university’s property, even if it’s been deemed trash, cannot be transferred to private individuals. What a waste! Sure, allowing something like this could (and probably would) be abused, but I think the waste is worse. I'm glad your middle school was able to do what they did!

They don't have surplus sales? I know the universe I went to did. Price it all at a penny each.

they do and it's usually an auction but at a penny each is not worth the time to even post it. Also, not many people are buying old books unless they are collectibles. So more than just books go straight into the dump.

Re: A dumpster arrived behind my university's library

#143

Post by bombcar »

Amezarak wrote: post #136
bastawhiz wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My local library wasn't meant for academics, but the problem is exactly the same. In fact, I'd expect a library with those kinds of books to be more amenable to trimming the collection: you often don't have a romance novel in mind, you browse for one that piques your interest. I'd be surprised if anyone was actively browsing shelves for philosophy books that seemed fun. That's the sort of stuff you go to the card cat…

That actually is not at all why most American libraries were founded. They were very explicit about this and it was not so people would have fun books to read. If we needed public entertainment centers, then let's be clear what they are and advertise them as such. Personally I have no interest in the public funding of entertainment.

[dead]

Re: A dumpster arrived behind my university's library

#144

Post by throwaway173738 »

asdff wrote: post #107
bastawhiz wrote: post #10

My first thought is how accessible these books are. If a book hasn't been checked out in years, and there's another library in the interlibrary loan network that has a copy, there's no practical reason to keep another copy. If you can request a book and have it arrive in a few days, that's not an issue in any real sense, especially for books that nobody is checking out in the first place. I used to work in a library,…

It seems like they just don't really plan inventory in a logical way but in a sort of rigid first in first out way. For example I just checked out a recent addition of a classical book, one of those original classical translations that were reprinted in the 2010s with some new forward I will skip over as the only thing different than the 1990 edition, or the 1960 edition for that matter. The library had probably 30 c…

> Rather than destroy the excess copy after I return it, maybe just let me keep it?

This is pretty much what they do with children’s board books. Toddlers pretty much wreck any book you give them. But the library wants kids to learn to read. So they check them out and then they accept them back in whatever condition, no fees.

Re: A dumpster arrived behind my university's library

#145

Post by bombcar »

bashmelek wrote: post #85
wat10000 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point of libraries is to help people access the books they want. If someone wants Oprah's book then why should the library not help them access it? If a lot of people want it, then why should the library not stock many copies so that more those people can access it? They don't exist to gatekeep books and ensure people read whatever you think are the right kind of books.

I have a bit of a problem with the all or nothing framing this discourse usually has. I think that libraries should make an effort to stock evergreen classics in addition to the recent, hot, and in demand. The new ones will be checked out a lot, then fall off, and then the library eventually gets a new batch of new hits. They do serve a lot of people with this method, but am a different cohort. If a library is to ser…

The libraries actually do this, even if it’s not entirely visible or advertised- most librarians are rabid book-lovers and would love nothing more than to stock great books and similar.

They just provide cover with the DVDs and the pulp.

Re: A dumpster arrived behind my university's library

#146

Post by bombcar »

reaperducer wrote: post #83
bastawhiz wrote: post #10

My first thought is how accessible these books are. If a book hasn't been checked out in years, and there's another library in the interlibrary loan network that has a copy, there's no practical reason to keep another copy. If you can request a book and have it arrive in a few days, that's not an issue in any real sense, especially for books that nobody is checking out in the first place. I used to work in a library,…

and there's another library in the interlibrary loan network that has a copy, there's no practical reason to keep another copy. If you can request a book and have it arrive in a few days I've done ILL in three major cities. The shortest time it took to get the books requested was 14 days. Some have taken over 60.

There’s different levels of interlibrary loan - around here all the little local libraries can loan from each other in a matter of days (they ship to a central location each day). But they can also pull from a much wider distribution via media mail if needed.

Re: A dumpster arrived behind my university's library

#147

Post by jubilanti »

NoMoreNicksLeft wrote: post #133
bastawhiz wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Did they ever check first to make sure some other library had a copy? Did they warn that other library "we're getting rid of ours, please don't get rid of yours"? Yes. They have a shared catalog. All of this is coordinated. It's literally the whole point of being a librarian.

>They have a shared catalog. Yes. I have my nose in it constantly. It's a fallacy to ascribe more coordination to this than actually exists. What mechanism is it that you think exists that would sound the red alert when the last library (or even the second to last) is about to get rid of the very last copy?

> What mechanism is it that you think exists that would sound the red alert when the last library (or even the second to last) is about to get rid of the very last copy?

Doesn't need much coordination. Before getting rid of a book, search for it in that shared catalog you allegedly have your nose in constantly. If you're the last or second to last copy, then you know. Unless two libraries are independently doing this at the exact same time.

Re: A dumpster arrived behind my university's library

#148

Post by jubilanti »

NoMoreNicksLeft wrote: post #67
gammalost wrote: post #18

At the risk of sounding a bit pretentious: I think the relationship a lot of people have with books can best be described as commodity fetisishm. People see some value in the physical books themselves. They are sacred, discarding them becomes a crime against knowledge. Sure I get it, the nazis burned books; but these libraries are in no way comparable to that

For how many thousands of years were books equivalent to absurd wealth. Kings might own a book, or several. Libraries were amazing, but places never seen by the proles and serfs. Thousands of years is a duration more than long enough to give our species some instinctual reverence for the object, reverence that is only reinforced by what we learn from an early age about those. And it's not just the wealth, at least fo…

Then you apparently do not want to associate with the vast majority of professional librarians, who do not fetishize every individual physical instantiation of the printed word.

Some books are sacred. But if they all are, then none of them really are.

Re: A dumpster arrived behind my university's library

#149

Post by pibaker »

sailfast wrote: post #33

What’s wrong with e-books? Highlighting is awesome. Accessible and searchable! I have a number of paper books myself but it seems odd to need to have them all on a shelf outside of the need to show your identity to folks that walk into the room with you, or to have some form of art “on the wall” to help one think.

Do you actually own "your" ebooks?

From experience, when a college library offers access to an ebook, what they do is just providing an access token so you can log into some publisher's website and read it there. The publisher can theoretically withdraw a book or raise the price and the library will have no recourse because it doesn't own them.

Re: A dumpster arrived behind my university's library

#150

Post by sapphicsnail »

Cycl0ps wrote: post #94
crote wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A big problem with accessibility is that interlibrary loan is awful for browsing. I rarely go to a library to loan a specific work - I go there to find a work. This means going through dozens of potentially-relevant titles, taking them off the shelf, quickly browsing through them, and taking the one or two best ones home. This entire workflow becomes impossible if the book isn't readily available. A book hidden in a…

You're browsing for whatever piques your interest, and the library wants to curate the collection based on what people are interested in. The books that collect interest get placed on the shelves and the ones that don't get archived. If it's in the archive it probably wouldn't have interested you.

You say that but the author mentioned On Grammatology getting purged. That's a pretty important and influential book. It's a very difficult read which probably contributes to it not being checked out very often and it should definitely stay there.
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