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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

#91

Post by wat10000 »

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…

I totally agree. People who want evergreen classics count too, and the library should do its best to ensure they can get the books they want as well. They shouldn't stock nothing but bestsellers, any more than they should stock no bestsellers at all.

Re: A dumpster arrived behind my university's library

#93

Post by ghaff »

kelnos wrote: post #89
fhdkweig wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

40 years ago, my public middle school would periodically pick books that weren't checked out for a couple decades. They'd rubberstamp "discard" over the library's ownership mark and put them in a pile that said "free books" with the implicit declaration that those books were headed for the landfill. I ended up with a nice selection of books on nuclear energy and radioactivity including a nice non-fiction Asimov book…

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!

My local town library has a book sale every fall and you can take away a paper bag of books for $10. It's not practical for every small library, in particular, to hold onto every book forever.

Re: A dumpster arrived behind my university's library

#94

Post by Cycl0ps »

crote wrote: post #71
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,…

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.

Re: A dumpster arrived behind my university's library

#95

Post by eutropia »

kelnos wrote: post #89
fhdkweig wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

40 years ago, my public middle school would periodically pick books that weren't checked out for a couple decades. They'd rubberstamp "discard" over the library's ownership mark and put them in a pile that said "free books" with the implicit declaration that those books were headed for the landfill. I ended up with a nice selection of books on nuclear energy and radioactivity including a nice non-fiction Asimov book…

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!

I wonder if they could have transferred it to a separate nonprofit, and then that nonprofit has no restrictions on whom it is transferred or sold to?

Re: A dumpster arrived behind my university's library

#96

Post by ghaff »

wat10000 wrote: post #91
bashmelek wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I totally agree. People who want evergreen classics count too, and the library should do its best to ensure they can get the books they want as well. They shouldn't stock nothing but bestsellers, any more than they should stock no bestsellers at all.

And, with the Internet (e.g. Gutenberg), evergreen classics are less of an issue. Speaking for myself, I've gotten rid of most of my books in the public domain unless they have other characteristics like illustrations that make me want to hold onto them.

Re: A dumpster arrived behind my university's library

#97

Post by ghaff »

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.

That seems like a very reasonable timeframe for a physical book. Certainly used to take longer than that to special-order something.

Re: A dumpster arrived behind my university's library

#98

Post by littlekey »

tecleandor wrote: post #81
el_io wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is even a fake book? Like it has a nice cover and nothing inside?

Yep, think movie props or fake computer or books in an IKEA or other furniture store. Maybe a whole shelf with a cardboard structure simulating the spines of a bunch of books, but all empty inside.

Small nitpick but the books in IKEA are all real, and written in Swedish :).

Re: A dumpster arrived behind my university's library

#99

Post by bigbadfeline »

elictronic wrote: post #74
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…

Expecting libraries to maintain digital scans of every book they have had or anything to that effect is a little laughable. These organizations do more for communities with less money and you expect them do now navigate the legal and ethical quagmire of digital ownership because you can't handle knowledge and books becoming less valuable with time. If you are a software dev, go volunteer at a library and offer up you…

> If you are a software dev, go volunteer at a library and offer up your time to do this.

You misunderstand the environment, "offering" doesn't work if the library haven't asked for help, in that case you're just ignored. You see, whatever you do for them would require participation and at least some effort on their side.

Some other organization could help here, but going to the library and begging them to let you help them is a non starter.

Re: A dumpster arrived behind my university's library

#100

Post by jubilanti »

anigbrowl wrote: post #57
Ekaros wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably because there is demand. Could be that there was very deep waiting list at some point. Or there has been deep waiting list for specific author before. Fulfilling these demands does require multiple copies or it could take years for people to get popular book.

Sorry, I don't think popularity should be a factor in library decision-making. Extremely popular books driven by massive marketing campaigns predictably translate into the same book being available for only a few dollars months later. This all sounds like it's driven much more by the needs of publishers than library users; consider that the more reduced the selection, the fewer people will come to use the library bec…

> I don't think popularity should be a factor in library decision-making.

How dare librarians... give the people the books they want to read???

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