Egalitarian: If your local library isn't part of a group, ask if they can join. Or start your own Friends of the Library group and spearhead a statewide borrowing system.

Not that it means much, but the Hawaii State Public Library System has a Friends group and operates statewide (as the name implies), and they're running on shoestrings for want of money.

Rubberband Girl 2009-12-17 09:56:51 AM
Ow My Balls - Why was she allowed to check out FIFTY-THREE of them?

THIS. Cuyahoga County Public Library patrons are allowed a maximum of fifty items at one time and only allows ten DVDs at a time. AND the librarians will point that out to you if you try to check out more. They simply won't allow them out.

I wonder what movies or TV shows she thought were worth keeping.

My guess is that she got cards for everyone in her family. Lots of patrons do this: if their account has become delinquent, they just use Baby Snively's card, till it becomes delinquent as well. In the library I used to work at, we figured out that at least one patron had MADE UP CHILDREN she didn't have, in order to get more cards.

jdog71: "Let me tell you something, funny boy... You know that little stamp? The one that says New York Public Library? Well, that may not mean anything to you, but that means a lot to me. One whole helluva lot. Sure, go ahead, laugh if you want to. I've seen your type before -- flashy, making the scene, flaunting convention. Yeah, I know what you're thinking... Why's this guy making such a big stink about old library books? Let me give you a hint, junior. Maybe we can live without libraries, people like you and me.... Maybe. Sure, we're too old to change the world. What about that kid, sitting down, opening a book right now in a branch of the local library and finding pictures of pee-pees and wee-wees in The Cat in the Hat and The Five Chinese Brothers. Doesn't he deserve better? Look, if you think this is about overdue fines and missing books, you'd better think again. This is about that kid's right to read a book without getting his mind warped. Or maybe that turns you on, Seinfeld... Maybe that's how you get your kicks... You and your goodtime buddies... I've got a flash for you, joy boy. Partytime is over."

Came for this. Mr. Bookman episode was on last night. Can't stands ya.

untaken_name: 25 bucks per dvd? haven't these libraries ever heard of wal-mart? they could save 20 bucks on every dvd they buy....that's the REAL crime here, the city is overpaying by 4x for every dvd they buy for their library. sickening waste of taxpayer money.

Licensing (yes Francis, legit and government funded operations have to worry about licensing) prohibits retail movies from being shown to audiences. They probably have to purchase "public viewing" DVDs, the same hassle that rental stores like Blockbuster have to do.

I imagine her name being said by Pootie Tang.

$25 Bucks is for the DVD AND the CASE.

Have you seen those cases they put the DVD in? In my library they put them in these heavy duty plastic case. It won't break like the cheapo case the DVD came in.

Add to that the cost of re-cataloging, security tagging etc. It is part of the cost of running a library but it ain't free either.

Oh_Enough_Already: december: i've never really understood why libraries got into borrowing out popular hollywood DVDs. there are video stores for that. furthermore, i fail to see how Wedding Crashers or season 8 of Law & Order count as the sort of thing which a library should own.

So, no books then either unless they're heavy "litarature?"

Nothing that's just entertainment or escapist fantasy?

The ICPL has 8 shelves of graphic novels and trade-paperbacks also - a real comic reader's paradise.

I suppose they should get rid of those, too, right?

since you asked, here is why i think there is a difference.

there is a cheap and easily available alternative in the case of DVDs. there is no such alternative for literature. my point is not primarily about the value of the content, though i do feel there is a discussion to be had about the point of a library and how hollywood comedies or TV shows fit into that mandate.

/library flame-war, fark yeah!

Iamwrong: Reminds me of the OMG Shoes! girl.


Groovy Baby! But that's a man, yeah!

The news

don't you wish you were paying money for this?

$1,360 / 53 = $25.66

Were these bluray? Boxsets? WTF?

The arresting officer?

trappedspirit: The news

don't you wish you were paying money for this?

Whoever had the next ad lined up is. Actually no. Just who ever paid for the spot time and that showed up.

Rubberband Girl: In these hard economic times, being able to acquire more than just books for entertainment for free is a pretty sweet deal.

Our library charges a buck for DVDs. I think they were free at one time but you always have folks who horde stuff.

musashi1600: untaken_name: They're charging $25. I will take your adjusted numbers into account, and I will stand by the statement that if it takes you 10 bucks' worth of time to order, "process" (put a sticker on) a dvd, and put it on a shelf in alphabetical order, you are either too dumb to be a librarian, or you're GROSSLY overpaid.

Disregarding your later statement that providing a free source of information/knowledge is a "waste of money", MLIS degrees don't come cheap.


As much as I disagree with untaken_name's view (who I think is actually that lawyer who wanted to keep poor kids out of HIS public library...snerk) I once worked as a "junior" library clerk for about three months during the summer, stocking shelves, helping patrons, checked out books, checked in books, "bound" paperbacks (put strong packing tape on the spines) put books in circulation, mastered the Dewey Decimal System front and back (up to date at the time...this was about twenty years ago, and going to the library a lot beforehand, that was easy), training kids how to work the computer, etc, etc...basically doing everything the degree holding librarians were doing, except making phone calls for new books and the obvious duties. I honestly don't see how going to college for a piece of paper would accomplish where you basically learn everything hands-on...but then again, like I said this WAS twenty years ago, they only had ONE public use computer and not much else outside of books.

/I'll probably volunteer next year...I live down the street from one of them.
//BTW, I'm not dissing your Library Science Degree (if you're a librarian)...just the fact that you blew money! :D (I keed I keed)

fanbladesaresharp: GungFu: Ow My Balls: Why was she allowed to check out FIFTY-THREE of them?


Because she's called Saira, dammit!

Sara? (new starship window)

Sara Smile? ( New 70's vibe window )

/Maybe she should try

A telephone call to Denny-Cline's attorney was not immediately returned.

Well, that sounds like it fits the pattern.

I do what I want.

CorruptHardware: As a small video store owner, I'm getting a kick.

I'm sorry. How small are you?

Was gonna say meth it's a hell of a drug, but she is way too big to be a meth head.

jdog71: "Let me tell you something, funny boy... You know that little stamp? The one that says New York Public Library? Well, that may not mean anything to you, but that means a lot to me. One whole helluva lot. Sure, go ahead, laugh if you want to. I've seen your type before -- flashy, making the scene, flaunting convention. Yeah, I know what you're thinking... Why's this guy making such a big stink about old library books? Let me give you a hint, junior. Maybe we can live without libraries, people like you and me.... Maybe. Sure, we're too old to change the world. What about that kid, sitting down, opening a book right now in a branch of the local library and finding pictures of pee-pees and wee-wees in The Cat in the Hat and The Five Chinese Brothers. Doesn't he deserve better? Look, if you think this is about overdue fines and missing books, you'd better think again. This is about that kid's right to read a book without getting his mind warped. Or maybe that turns you on, Seinfeld... Maybe that's how you get your kicks... You and your goodtime buddies... I've got a flash for you, joy boy. Partytime is over."


Came here for Bookman pic, got the rant included as well. Bonus! Leaving doubly satisfied :D

untaken_name: Uncorrect: ...or maybe the city overcharges to give the person checking out the movies some incentive to go to WalMart themselves and not just keep the library's copy.

So, do they return the excess to the public who paid for the dvds in the first place? Do they remove that money from their next year's budget? Doubtful. Sounds like just another way the government rips off the hardworking public.

You are a tool.

Ow My Balls: Why was she allowed to check out FIFTY-THREE of them?

This.

I just wanted a brief moment to tell all of the 20 something wankers who wear those severe, oblong, "sophisticated European glasses" and sneer a lot that they look like monumental douchebags and nobody thinks that they are ever so intelligent.

If you wear those glasses, you look like a badly drawn cartoon and the pretense oozes off of you like stink from a crack whores ass.

The more you know...

CorruptHardware: As a small video store owner, I'm getting a kick.

What's a video store?

fearmongert: What's a video store?

They're Starbucks only with no coffee and no Starbucks and no tables and you actually rent videos and PSP and crackbox games by going to them and picking one out.

It's like Netflix only you, umm, go there and keep cash flow in your neighbourhood instead of a warehouse with a lot of servers.

Sure are a lot of anti-library people here.

hittable after five hundred vodkas