A sad library tale

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by crane3

The county library system here has been renovating local branches. Also saw the local news that the library is doing "library of things" for people to borrow like a weed eater, if available. All one needs is a library card as there is no charge for the borrowing of the items.

Libraries are evolving & is easier in metro areas. Was finally able to renew my card online & not need to be done in person. I do wonder if the Friends of the Library book sales are still going strong.

And your OK with your library buying crap like a weed eater instead of buying the things a library should by like eBook, pBooks, CDs, Blu-Ray, video games, newspapers and magazines? It's a waste of money (IMHO) to buy garden tools (and other non-library stuff). That leaves less money to spend on the things a library should be spending on.

[Quoth]

Absolutely.
Sadly our village hasn't even got a library, we have to go to the nearest city, 7km to library with poor & expensive bus service. The most important aspects of a library are educational support via books. literacy support via books. Not so much video as that's accessible even to the poor and not video games.
There are many households where there are big TV screens and game consoles. Even very poor often have a TV and multichannel PayTV. A supermarket video can be half the price of a book. Many houses have no books at all. Not just the poor.

Totally agree it's a waste of money (the tax payer here) if a library has non-educational, non-cultural items and spends on garden tools or other so-called "library of things".

[meeera]

Originally Posted by FrustratedReader

A[...] Many houses have no books at all. Not just the poor.

Totally agree it's a waste of money (the tax payer here) if a library has non-educational, non-cultural items and spends on garden tools or other so-called "library of things".

One thing a library of things might do is bring people to the library who may never visit otherwise. Maybe some percentage of those people will borrow a book. Or their kid will be with them and borrow one. Or over time they'll be exposed to the library bulletin board of community and school holiday events... and decide to go to one.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by meeera

One thing a library of things might do is bring people to the library who may never visit otherwise. Maybe some percentage of those people will borrow a book. Or their kid will be with them and borrow one. Or over time they'll be exposed to the library bulletin board of community and school holiday events... and decide to go to one.

Maybe, but I still disagree with this "library of things". I would be pissed if I my local library was spending tax money on garden tools or other junk.

[meeera]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Maybe, but I still disagree with this "library of things". I would be pissed if I my local library was spending tax money on garden tools or other junk.

Looks like Massachusetts near the forefront of the Libary of Things movement.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Librar...s#In_libraries

I was interested to read that one tool library in Michigan has been going since WWII. It's not a new concept, and I can imagine with growing emphases on sustainability and waste reduction that it will only grow.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by meeera

Looks like Massachusetts near the forefront of the Libary of Things movement.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Librar...s#In_libraries

I was interested to read that one tool library in Michigan has been going since WWII. It's not a new concept, and I can imagine with growing emphases on sustainability and waste reduction that it will only grow.

I'm thinking maybe you should look up the word library, because I don't think it means what you think it does. Libraries are collections of books. It comes from a latin word that is normally translated as book.

[crane3]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

I'm thinking maybe you should look up the word library, because I don't think it means what you think it does. Libraries are collections of books. It comes from a latin word that is normally translated as book.

Then computers & copy machines for patrons' use are OUT. No internet connection to the library as it is not a book of any sort; no free wifi. No story-time for kids; no IRS tax forms available for pickup; no CDs or videos as they are not "books". No lending of ereaders of any sort as they are not books.

I've found that words change their meanings thru time or usage or by the younger gen to be more secretive(?); hard to see that "bad ass" has a good meaning in reference.

Or even people who disclaim not "honoring" the 'publisher's' config in ebooks but will turn around & do just that with modified fonts to change the publisher's font for a book.

[Tomk2]

Everyone knows you can borrow a book at the Library. Everything else is mission dilution. You can gather there, you can use a computer there, pick up some tax forms there, you can borrow music there, borrow movies there, and now borrow tools and lawn care equipment? For some reason, in today's information age where 90% of households have access to the worlds information at home on their own devices, this seems like desperation to remain relevant on the Libraries part.

It is good that they try to stay relevant, they could be just a generation away from being de-funded if taxpayers decide that what they provide is not worth the cost.

But I think they need to beware hastening that sentiment by straying too far from what taxpayers would consider the core mission.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by Tomk2

Everyone knows you can borrow a book at the Library. Everything else is mission dilution. You can gather there, you can use a computer there, pick up some tax forms there, you can borrow music there, borrow movies there, and now borrow tools and lawn care equipment? For some reason, in today's information age where 90% of households have access to the worlds information at home on their own devices, this seems like desperation to remain relevant on the Libraries part.

It is good that they try to stay relevant, they could be just a generation away from being de-funded if taxpayers decide that what they provide is not worth the cost.

But I think they need to beware hastening that sentiment by straying too far from what taxpayers would consider the core mission.

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Good point.

[doubleshuffle]

Just dipped into this interesting thread. Of course libraries ave been important places in my life. The local council library as a kid, to provide the loads of books I read. later, university libraries.

But I'm mainly here to post a link to one of the best essays I have ever read, Zadie Smith's "The North West London Blues" (2012), a sad and beautiful meditation on the role of libraries in our society, occasioned by the closing of one.

Well-run libraries are filled with people because what a good library offers cannot be easily found elsewhere: an indoor public space in which you do not have to buy anything in order to stay.

In the modern state there are very few sites where this is possible. The only others that come readily to my mind require belief in an omnipotent creator as a condition for membership. It would seem the most obvious thing in the world to say that the reason why the market is not an efficient solution to libraries is because the market has no use for a library. But it seems we need, right now, to keep re-stating the obvious. There aren’t many institutions left that fit so precisely Keynes’s definition of things that no one else but the state is willing to take on. Nor can the experience of library life be recreated online. It’s not just a matter of free books. A library is a different kind of social reality (of the three dimensional kind), which by its very existence teaches a system of values beyond the fiscal.

Do yourselves a favour and read the whole thing.

[meeera]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

I'm thinking maybe you should look up the word library, because I don't think it means what you think it does. Libraries are collections of books. It comes from a latin word that is normally translated as book.

It's almost as though words evolve their meaning over time.

I'm guessing you also think it's not a real book if it's not runes carved into beech.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by meeera

It's almost as though words evolve their meaning over time.

I'm guessing you also think it's not a real book if it's not runes carved into beech.

I'm pretty sure library hasn't evolved to mean a place where you can borrow a weed whacker.

[ekbell]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

I'm pretty sure library hasn't evolved to mean a place where you can borrow a weed whacker.

The term 'tool library' does a good job of indicating what is being offered (tools on term loan to members) which means that it's not likely to go away just because the word library is derived from the Latin for book. A brief google search provides the locations of many places calling themselves tool libraries.

There have been much more confusing word developments (see 'nice').

This is not to say that I think regular libraries should become tool libraries as well, or that tool libraries should be government funded. Just that the term is an obvious one to use and as such it's not going to go away.

[gmw]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

I'm pretty sure library hasn't evolved to mean a place where you can borrow a weed whacker.

If you followed your own advice and actually looked up the word, you'd see just how far it has come. (But, of course, always keeping in mind that dictionaries follow the language and not the other way around, so not all current trends have made it to dictionary status.) So, actually looking up the word we see (in addition to the expected)...

OED: A scribe; A theatre-ticket agency; a great mass of learning or knowledge; the objects of a person's study, the sources on which he depends for instruction; a collection of films, gramophone records, music etc.; an organised collection of routines [...] suitable for a particular model of computer.

dictionary.com: a collection of any materials for study and enjoyment; Biology. a collection of standard materials or formulations by which specimens are identified; Computers. a collection of software or data usually reflecting a specific theme or application;

dictionary.com, British dictionary: a collection of literary materials, films, CDs, children's toys, etc, kept for borrowing or reference; a collection of specific items for reference or checking againsta library of genetic material

Merriam-Webster: a collection resembling or suggesting a library; a collection of cloned DNA fragments that are maintained in a suitable cellular environment and that usually represent the genetic material of a particular organism or tissue.


So the definitions spread pretty wide, and I highlighted the Merriam-Webster definition that would most obviously cover a tool-library. (Note, too, that there is nothing about "library" that insists loans are completely free, there are subscription libraries where members pay a fee to participate.)

[Fiat_Lux]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

I'm pretty sure library hasn't evolved to mean a place where you can borrow a weed whacker.

In doing some research, I stumbled across a bar from the sixties called The Library. Given the context of what I was researching, I suspect that the clientele were either leather-boys, or cruisin' lesbians.