My problem with libraries is when they don't have enough books.
My neighborhood library back home did not have a book by Faulkner. I kid you not. I went one time in high school to find something by Faulkner and they didn't have any. They threw out all their Saul Bellow books -- and we are on the South Side of Chicago, pretty much exactly where Bellow lived & where Augie March is set. It's a travesty.
I hate the city government. They're like, "Oh, there are black people in your neighborhood? Ha ha, no public services for you."
My problem with libraries is when they don't have enough books.
My neighborhood library back home did not have a book by Faulkner. I kid you not. I went one time in high school to find something by Faulkner and they didn't have any. They threw out all their Saul Bellow books -- and we are on the South Side of Chicago, pretty much exactly where Bellow lived & where Augie March is set. It's a travesty.
I hate the city government. They're like, "Oh, there are black people in your neighborhood? Ha ha, no public services for you."
that's usually not the government so much as the those in wealthy districts insisting on higher standards and better funding for the schools in their district but otherwise ignoring schools in poorer districts
if the funding isn't there, it's hard to pay for it
I got bitched at for answering my cell phone in one of those private booths at the Carleton Library last year. I guess the guy behind me was really really really trying to concentrate. I guess the conversation was pretty inane, but I thought if I listened to this bitch's problem she would give me sexes...
parents/guardians tended to treat my local library as afterschool daycare. hey let's sit around and talk loudly in the kids section while the kids run around like retards OKAY!
All my library resources for uni are available online so I very rarely go into the building.
I've only ever seen people use the library for checking facebook or sleeping.
I haven't been to my public library is years because they never had anything I actually wanted to read, so instead I just started to buy piles of second hand books from markets.
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VivixenneRemember your training, and we'll get through this just fine.Registered Userregular
edited September 2009
I used to love going to the uni library to study
plus when I was doing research playing with those microfilm machines made you feel like such a pro
Until this year, my study strategy was to take my reading materials and head to the bottom level of the university library - 5 floors below ground - and just dig in, because it's empty and quite and it blocked my cell signal and wireless, so I had no distractions
Now, they upgraded the wireless so it reaches down there, but it's still better than doing it in my apartment or one of the coffee shops where a lot of kids go
plus when I was doing research playing with those microfilm machines made you feel like such a pro
We made a microfilm reader using just a couple of lenses in our physics lab last year
the angles you could actually read the film from were tiny so you couldn't read all of it and it was horribly boring
...wooo
also I can study fine with noise and shit, I probably get distracted more when stuff's really quiet because I will get long crazy chains of thought going, then try and figure out how I ended up thinking about that from the initial thing and bam there goes quarter of an hour
The downtown library was great. The building needed a little maintenance and the collection a little updating, but it was solid. It was a few big rooms with lots of books all laid out so you could find them and a few places to read them.
The branch was also pretty good. It was just as well laid-out and the building was a lot newer. The collection was much smaller, but more up to date and better selected so you were about as likely to find what you needed as at the main library. It also had all the computers (once that got to be a thing) and a moderate media selection.
Eventually they shut down the downtown library. Apparently fixing up the building was going to be too expensive and it just wasn't getting used as much as the branch. They moved some of the collection to the branch, but most of it was sold or packed up or something. They didn't have anything spectacular, just the usual.
Just recently they built a brand new library next to the branch. It's not laid out too well. They dedicated about as much space to media as to fiction and non-fiction combined, and there is a lot of empty shelf space in the latter two. They set aside a study/reading area with overstuffed chairs and a fake fireplace, but didn't include a whole lot of books to read or study.
They have plenty of computers and community rooms and I hear the kids' area is nice, but all that should really be secondary to the whole book thing.
Libraries near me are pretty much where you go to print off porn in full view of the staff and pretend like it's totally cool. That's just what the patrons do, who am I to judge?
it's a significant upgrade from what was there before, and please don't tell me that ratty old place was better
aaand I'm not sure what you're talking about really in regards to the problems with the new library really
Their fiction and non-fiction collections aren't any better than they were, but they're much less well laid out. They only have two ass-slow dedicated catalog computers, and no alternative for when PrairieCAT is being retarded, which is about as often as not.
Collection and accessibility are what define a library. The latter is no better and the former is much worse. The old branch was ratty as hell and smelled like hobos, but they had books and I could find them.
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My neighborhood library back home did not have a book by Faulkner. I kid you not. I went one time in high school to find something by Faulkner and they didn't have any. They threw out all their Saul Bellow books -- and we are on the South Side of Chicago, pretty much exactly where Bellow lived & where Augie March is set. It's a travesty.
I hate the city government. They're like, "Oh, there are black people in your neighborhood? Ha ha, no public services for you."
http://numberblog.wordpress.com/
that's usually not the government so much as the those in wealthy districts insisting on higher standards and better funding for the schools in their district but otherwise ignoring schools in poorer districts
if the funding isn't there, it's hard to pay for it
It's the university science library and around half of the people here are asian exchange students so they have hella work ethic and it's silent
kpop appreciation station i also like to tweet some
Dear satan I wish for this or maybe some of this....oh and I'm a medium or a large.
Dear satan I wish for this or maybe some of this....oh and I'm a medium or a large.
i need paper
stuff like the Kindle is better but i still much prefer paper
Gautama Public Library
All with an eightfold card catalog
Dear satan I wish for this or maybe some of this....oh and I'm a medium or a large.
They have a reading area, but under a sacred fig tree
Hahahahahah
I usually try to avoid laughing at people dying, but that is priceless.
not really
Because I am very cheap
This place is huge
Amazon Wishlist: http://www.amazon.com/BusterK/wishlist/3JPEKJGX9G54I/ref=cm_wl_search_bin_1
I've only ever seen people use the library for checking facebook or sleeping.
I haven't been to my public library is years because they never had anything I actually wanted to read, so instead I just started to buy piles of second hand books from markets.
plus when I was doing research playing with those microfilm machines made you feel like such a pro
also today at the library the door was squeaking so much i couldn't concentrate so i left
god damn that was fucking annoying
Now, they upgraded the wireless so it reaches down there, but it's still better than doing it in my apartment or one of the coffee shops where a lot of kids go
yeah this is true but the public library here is p quiet too, they have a soundproofed room for all the teenage layabouts somewhere upstairs
We made a microfilm reader using just a couple of lenses in our physics lab last year
the angles you could actually read the film from were tiny so you couldn't read all of it and it was horribly boring
...wooo
also I can study fine with noise and shit, I probably get distracted more when stuff's really quiet because I will get long crazy chains of thought going, then try and figure out how I ended up thinking about that from the initial thing and bam there goes quarter of an hour
kpop appreciation station i also like to tweet some
The branch was also pretty good. It was just as well laid-out and the building was a lot newer. The collection was much smaller, but more up to date and better selected so you were about as likely to find what you needed as at the main library. It also had all the computers (once that got to be a thing) and a moderate media selection.
Eventually they shut down the downtown library. Apparently fixing up the building was going to be too expensive and it just wasn't getting used as much as the branch. They moved some of the collection to the branch, but most of it was sold or packed up or something. They didn't have anything spectacular, just the usual.
Just recently they built a brand new library next to the branch. It's not laid out too well. They dedicated about as much space to media as to fiction and non-fiction combined, and there is a lot of empty shelf space in the latter two. They set aside a study/reading area with overstuffed chairs and a fake fireplace, but didn't include a whole lot of books to read or study.
They have plenty of computers and community rooms and I hear the kids' area is nice, but all that should really be secondary to the whole book thing.
It's completely rad if you want to rent Twilight on CD while checking your myspace.
It's significantly less rad if you want to go get some books.
It's nearly useless if you want to do some research.
But if you do want to rent Twilight and check your myspace it's good though right?
Amazon Wishlist: http://www.amazon.com/BusterK/wishlist/3JPEKJGX9G54I/ref=cm_wl_search_bin_1
aaand I'm not sure what you're talking about really in regards to the problems with the new library really
I loooved the library as a kid but now I'm too fond of buying my books to go to one
Their fiction and non-fiction collections aren't any better than they were, but they're much less well laid out. They only have two ass-slow dedicated catalog computers, and no alternative for when PrairieCAT is being retarded, which is about as often as not.
Collection and accessibility are what define a library. The latter is no better and the former is much worse. The old branch was ratty as hell and smelled like hobos, but they had books and I could find them.
Maybe they should get better at not putting their books in asstarded places.
Amazon Wishlist: http://www.amazon.com/BusterK/wishlist/3JPEKJGX9G54I/ref=cm_wl_search_bin_1
oh yeah, totally rockin'
But it looks pretty small, and I have a feeling the collection will be pretty dismal.