Easy solution. Just make him sleep outside and let the cool moist air settle on him. Libraries appreciated people who are dewy.

Is this guy homeless, then? Many of the truly reeking are (and lack facilities) but occasionally there are people who seem to have ordinary jobs, money, etc, but just don't like to bathe. It's almost weirder, since they have no facilities excuse and don't SEEM to be all that mental in other areas.

Either way, if the public LIBRARY has kicked a patron out, that's a sign. A very, very bad sign.

I once had to send an employee home because of his odor. It was affecting everyone else in the room. Frankly it was one of the hardest things I had to say to someone, "Hey, you need to go home for the day, you smell."

johnsoninca: Barack Obama?

Boston Oriels?

T-Luv: johnsoninca: Barack Obama?

Boston Oriels Baltimore Orioles?

FTFY.

Books Overdue?

DslainteC: Easy solution. Just make him sleep outside and let the cool moist air settle on him. Libraries appreciated people who are dewy.

Reverend Otis: I once had to send an employee home because of his odor. It was affecting everyone else in the room. Frankly it was one of the hardest things I had to say to someone, "Hey, you need to go home for the day, you smell."

I used work with this guy who never washed his uniform, and he smoked pipe tobacco. He would be outside smoking and get a phone call and literally put the lit pipe into his shirt pocket, go inside take the phone call, then return to finish it. It wasn't B.O. but he smelled so bad it made your eyes water when he walked into a room, and I smoked cigarettes at the time. He was counciled several times about his odor.

/cool story bro, yeah, yeah

unatnaes: T-Luv: johnsoninca: Barack Obama?

Boston Oriels Baltimore Orioles?

FTFY.

Wow did I really just do that. Epic fail. I'll take my licks, but in my defense I haven't been to into baseball in a while. And the Oriels stink!

Beating off?

The official policy of every library should be B.O. O.K.

If you take public transportation, libraries are good b/c you can get books to read... and if you take public transportation, you are used to the smelly homeless people anyway.

/no, I don't want you to tell me how great your Kindle is, kthx techie guy

Mom...?

That's bad news for B.O.

This is a tricky one. I'm in a city of 400k, and there are some seriously weird folks in the library. I love libraries and don't like the idea of kicking people out, but between the mentally ill, the internet pervs, toilet cruisers, and street kids stealing purses, something's gotta be done. Librarians need psychology and criminal degrees as well just to cope.

/right this is a Fark discussion - throw 'em all out!

I'm a librarian and our library has a very good selection of the unwashed masses. And they're not homeless. They're mostly older guys with permanent bedhead and BO who are shopping for hot chicks on Match.com etc.

/eau de humanity

Linux_Yes: in other news, Americans in libraries always smell fresh and clean!!


oh, i forgot. americans don't go to libraries because most of them don't read. their too tied up with the corporate owned boob toob propaganda machine.




approves and also doesn't own a "boob toob"

MasterThief: ecmoRandomNumbers: Libraries only exist so homeless people can make B.M. All good tax-paying Americans buy their books at Barnes and Noble. And the best Americans don't read at all.

You forgot the part about letting the homeless people whack off while looking at porn on the public internet terminals.

Now, if libraries were to focus less on storing paper books and more on getting those books scanned and made available online, they'd have something going. (That, unfortunately, will require unfarking our ridiculous copyright laws so that libraries couldn't get sued out of existence for doing it...)

Working at a library for a long time has made me realize that there is nothing in hell or on Earth that would make a library willingly give up free internet access. They would rather burn the books in a pile.

Nobody goes to a library without computers. No, excuse me: a fraction of the people who visit libraries would. And that's the gag: a lot of communities see libraries as wastes of money and will do everything to cut them to bare minimums. Libraries respond with adding more and more grandiose schemes to keep themselves running that displace that money from books. In short, libraries are going to be free internet cafes for a very, very long time. It's the nature of the beast just to keep the money coming in.

Of course, a real library will have some censoring material on there. A few don't and those ones have a lot more issues than dealing with porn on the computers and such. I could tell you a few stories, but you get my drift.

Guntram Shatterhand: MasterThief: ecmoRandomNumbers: Libraries only exist so homeless people can make B.M. All good tax-paying Americans buy their books at Barnes and Noble. And the best Americans don't read at all.

You forgot the part about letting the homeless people whack off while looking at porn on the public internet terminals.

Now, if libraries were to focus less on storing paper books and more on getting those books scanned and made available online, they'd have something going. (That, unfortunately, will require unfarking our ridiculous copyright laws so that libraries couldn't get sued out of existence for doing it...)

Working at a library for a long time has made me realize that there is nothing in hell or on Earth that would make a library willingly give up free internet access. They would rather burn the books in a pile.

Nobody goes to a library without computers. No, excuse me: a fraction of the people who visit libraries would. And that's the gag: a lot of communities see libraries as wastes of money and will do everything to cut them to bare minimums. Libraries respond with adding more and more grandiose schemes to keep themselves running that displace that money from books. In short, libraries are going to be free internet cafes for a very, very long time. It's the nature of the beast just to keep the money coming in.

Of course, a real library will have some censoring material on there. A few don't and those ones have a lot more issues than dealing with porn on the computers and such. I could tell you a few stories, but you get my drift.

I honestly think that someone is going to get killed over the public PC access. We have a reservation system and people get seriously bent out of shape about it. Evidently Farmville is VERY VERY important. That and looking at your friends making gangsta signs on Facebook.

I'm as liberal as they come, but Jesus man the stench coming off some people is no different than someone standing in the library and pushing stacks over and eating a big bowl of feces as far as disturbing my enjoyment of the library is concerned. Too much is too much.

Lloyd Braun: Fun fact: Turnip juice will reduce underarm odor for up to 10 hours. Grate a turnip, squeeze the juice through cheesecloth, so that you have two teaspoonsful. Wash your armpits first, and vigorously rub one teaspoonful on each one.

Reduce underarm odor, or make me smell like soup?

legion_of_doo: If you take public transportation, libraries are good b/c you can get books to read... and if you take public transportation, you are used to the smelly homeless people anyway.

...and the smelly hoarder not-so-homeless.

I'll admit, I take the bus. There is one older woman (white hair, fat) frequently on the same bus as me, heaven forbid if she sits in front of me, because when the bus starts up the air will shift backward slightly and it's a nose full of reeeeeek. BO, and just... old BO, that sour smell from not bathing since god knows when.

She rides a bike, too (modern nice bike) and stores it on the front of the bus for the bus part of her travels, so there's sweating involved. And 240951039830296 plastic bags full of god only knows what involved, because she picks up trash on the street and keeps it.

She doesn't comb her hair and is kinda disheveled, but it takes a moment for the full stink to kick in. So there are always n00bs who make the mistake of sitting next to her, and then 2s later realizing just WHY that was the only seat left open while people were standing...

/and yes, she's often taking the bus to the library by my house

capnfutile: This is a tricky one. I'm in a city of 400k, and there are some seriously weird folks in the library. I love libraries and don't like the idea of kicking people out, but between the mentally ill, the internet pervs, toilet cruisers, and street kids stealing purses, something's gotta be done. Librarians need psychology and criminal degrees as well just to cope.

/right this is a Fark discussion - throw 'em all out!

The weird, eccentric, homeless, mentally ill and let's not forget the most frightening of all: WACKO RIGHT-WING CHRISTIAN HOME-SCHOOLERS. They will drive you insane.

//Richard Kreimer does not approve and has filed a lawsuit

//is positive some of my fellow jersey farkers will get this reference

Guntram Shatterhand: Of course, a real library will have some censoring material on there. A few don't and those ones have a lot more issues than dealing with porn on the computers and such. I could tell you a few stories, but you get my drift.

My local library is awesome and well used, for books and computers. They've put the public access terminals (as opposed to free wireless which is throughout the building) in a place clearly visible from the reference desk, so if you're on the terminals, you're under surveillance.

This cuts down on the vast majority of, well, "inappropriate" web browsing.

However, it means that when someone IS surfing the pr0n, they're hardcore enough to do it out there in the open right under the librarian's nose.

I used to hang around a community space that also had some public access terminals, and one of these individuals started coming by on a regular basis, to surf pr0n and generally be inappropriate about it. Under questioning, he admitted that he'd been banned (banned!) from the public library. Yeah, if they've banned you, I don't EVEN wanna know. We eventually ended up banning the guy too, because he turned out to be quite nuts, started claiming he owned the building and was a federal agent and all sorts of fascinating stuff.

Sometimes the whiff of Teh Crrraaaazy! is more off-putting than the physical BO issues. But so often they coincide, for extra fun!

Zappagirl: The man has apparently a girlfriend, and they both look like what you'd expect...

*shudder*

Link (new window)


AWESOME!!!

I would be all for a raise in my property taxes if they hired a security guard who kept the homeless people out of the library.

Harold_of_the_Rocks: The weird, eccentric, homeless, mentally ill and let's not forget the most frightening of all: WACKO RIGHT-WING CHRISTIAN HOME-SCHOOLERS. They will drive you insane.

Around here we have some who keep donating creationist videos and literature to the library and then complaining when the library lets the stuff go to the library sale rather than keeping it there in the science section. So, they write letters to the editor about it.

Zappagirl: The man has apparently a girlfriend, and they both look like what you'd expect...

*shudder*

Link (new window)

"lives with his mother"

who didn't see that one?

/what's his FARK handle?

I worked at a game store for several years. We had a regular who we actually nicknamed "Stinky Mark" (name changed to protect the unhygienic). The guy's arms were actually gray from accumulated crud. We kicked him out one day due to smell, telling him that he needed to shower before he came back. He came in the next day smelling better, and we thought things were resolved.

Apparently he thought that the one shower would carry over forever. He just got dirtier and dirtier, with the smell returning slowly. The next week we told him that our doors would remain closed to him unless he had showered within the last 48 hours.

Never did see the guy again. I'd feel more sorry for him, but he had a home with running water.

/Cool story, bro.

Years ago I use to teach software applications at this one place. The computer room was very small. One night I had a woman of a certain ethnic background known for not using deodorants or other personal hygiene products and it was absolutely horrible in that room. The other people revolted and went home. I passed the buck to my boss and let her be the bad guy... an oh how what was a bad stink turned into a bigger stink when that woman's husband showed up.