They do need to cull books to allow space for new books and it makes sense to do it by getting rid of the books that people don't want to take out.
They should probably come up with a more rigorous "don't throw away" list though. I do remember being a kid where the limits of the books I was exposed to was the books in the local library.
I am ok with the "dick in a box" and with our trashy culture in general. People do what they want to do and they don't want to read the 'sound and the fury'.
Enjoy the re-education camp, joeo.
What if they also had internet terminals?
The real question is why have a library at all? Why not just let the taxpayers pay lower taxes, and spend the money they save on books--or not--of their choice? Honestly, people. Next you'll be saying we should subsidize the arts or something.
3: Faulkner's fourth novel... is a difficult work that has posed many problems for both readers and teachers.
Fuggedaboudit. What's on tonight?
Collection development is hard. For every person who thinks we should have more "classics," there are people who think it is impossible for a "classic" to be younger than 50 (bye-bye, Toni Morrison) or funny (sorry, Vonnegut), or graphic (no more Persepolis).
Heck, forget classic -- we're talking about what should be on the library's shelves at all. And deciding that is hard. Majority rule doesn't work; having a self-selected group of community-minded/nothing-better-to-do (pick your poison) board members doesn't work; having degreed librarians doesn't always work.
Worst of all, software imposes a false sense of certainty -- aha! We KNOW how often this item has circulated -- when in reality the stats are far easier to misinterpret or even falsify.
I look around the libraries at my college and am just amazed that a system like this exists in so many places in this country. Shelf after shelf of books that probably only one person in the entire faculty has any interest in, acquired without any faculty even asking for them to be acquired.
On an unrelated topic, I find it comical how rarely libertarians ask for public library systems to be shut down, given that they do nothing but subsidize Homo Non-Economicus. If you value reading this book at a price of $0 dollars, why would you read it? If you value this book at a certain price, why wouldn't you go out and buy it at that price? If the value of an extra day with an overdue book is 25 cents, why exactly is it not 25 cents every day you borrow it in the first place? Bleagh! Vrrrp-vrrrp!
I definitely value reading The Sound and the Fury somewhere around -$75/hour. Reading it was the second most painful reading experience of my life, and that's only because I had to reread it in college. And I love to read and read classics in my spare time. Can't we be having this argument about a book that people might want to actually read?
From the link in 8: you can now get a fine used copy of The Sound and the Fury off Amazon for about four bucks (that's with shipping included), or just download the whole text for free. . . . On Craigslist there are plenty of old, lower-end, but still perfectly serviceable computers going for about $100
Take that, 12-year old bookworms on welfare!
9: I read TSatF at about 12 (I wasn't on welfare, but I'm pretty sure I did get it from the library) and fucking loved it. Philistine.
Can't they just throw out the John Grisham-equivalent of 20 years ago first?
You know, after reading the article, it doesn't sound so bad. Ok, there's software that tells you which books are unpopular. After that, the librarians decide whether to retain or not. And guess what, they mostly decide to retain. I'm fairly okay with the idea that, say, suburban branch A stocks popular crap while Faulkner and Proust are held downtown and can be requested, or with the idea (implied at the end of the article) that maybe Latino and African immigrants might have reading interests that don't adhere to the standardized western canon. It's not quite the "library throws Faulkner on the pyre" story that Smasher implies.
My dad grew up in one of those hinterlands Julian mentioned. They had a private, subscribers-only library, which I'm pretty sure did not benefit the poor First Nations children. Also: while fines for late returns were hefty, what most children feared was being spanked for embarrassing their parents. And the librarians totally ratted the kids out to the parents.
Ok, I'm all about teh faulkner, but The Sound And The Fury at 12? Did you get what all that honeysuckle was about?
Probably not, but there are books I love that I still don't "get" the "all about." Isn't that kind of a given?
I can't remember what I made of The Sound and The Fury (read it for high school) but I think I liked it. I'm sure I didn't get much about it, but.
yes. I just wanted to make a joke about the honeysuckle.
DID YOU KNOW Faulkner wanted to color-code the typeface of TSATF according to which character was doing the thinkin'?
AND he planned to bind it in human skin.
Maybe I was subconsciously induced to a late-blooming life of hedoinism, though. You never know.
19: I think figuring out who was narrating at which point was the part I really enjoyed.
the multiple characters with the same name was what did it for me.
doesn't he basically just stay in one character, section by section? Been a while. It was figuring out the timeframe, in Benji's section that was hard. Maybe that's what he was going to color-code.
But the human skin thing I know fer sher.
19: I read this comment, but my exhausted brain replaced "Faulkner" with "Farber", and couldn't figure out what in the world you were talking about.
My Dad was briefly a member of a book club that was organized by the local library. The club had assigned The Sound and the Fury. He was the only person who made it through the book--he loved it, but everyone else thought it was boring or too hard.
I agree with 13. My dad was a high school librarian for a chunk of his career and got exactly this kind of shit for doing exactly the sort of balancing act that librarians have to do. There are books that really ought to be available even if they're unpopular, but a book that's never, ever taken off the shelf isn't doing anybody any good by just sitting there taking up space.
http://saveclassicbooks.blogspot.com/
Take effective action on this topic at Save Classic Books Camnpaign.
doesn't he basically just stay in one character, section by section?
Either yes, or I really didn't follow that book at all.
What makes me sad about this is the things I really enjoyed about libraries growing up were the fifties, or thirties, best-sellers that were still hanging around on the shelves -- reading the complete works of AJ Cronin. I can't think of where else I would have run across books that don't qualify as part of the canon, but weren't current anymore, and I love that stuff.
But libraries probably shouldn't be designed to appeal to me, because I'm terrible about returning books.
DID YOU KNOW that although TSATF is a very good book, Absalom, Absalom! is the far superior work?
29: Yeah. I had one of those idealized rural 1920's -> 30's childhoods thanks to librarians unconcerned with being "with it".
Fuck all you haters. I am bumping TSatF up to the top of my list to (re-)read as soon as I'm done with my current lunch-book. Gah!
In this space was once an ill-considered diatribe.
you should check it out from the library.
Faulkner wanted to color-code the typeface of TSatF according to which character was doing the thinkin'?
I think the book would be better that way.
I was a VISTA for a year after college. The work the group I was with did was for a rural school district. There was a local library in a run down "community center", and one of the things we took it upon ourselves to do was get more books for the library, clean it up, and get people to start using it. It was a daunting task. We put everything on the shelves we could get. But most of the few readers wanted paperbacks... Anyway you may be surprised to learn that we had over one hundred copies of TSatF that people donated upon our request for "gently used copies" of books. (We also got a billion children's books.)
I have great memories of the little public library in my hometown. I'm sure it was missing some of the canon, and not because they tossed it out. When I was home over Christmas I discovered they're building a bigger, better one across the street. I also remember the wonder I felt the first time I was in a university library, where every book ever published in the history of the world seemed to reside.
reading the complete works of AJ Cronin. I can't think of where else I would have run across books that don't qualify as part of the canon, but weren't current anymore, and I love that stuff.
I had a Saturday job with the Borough Library while still at school. A.J. Cronin, P.G.Wodehouse, O Henry, Henry James, G.K. Chesterton, Descartes, Montaigne, Ray Bradbury....and yes William Faulkner were for me the unexpected rewards.
I now think it criminal that it is possible to go through a secondary education system and not have to read at least one Wodehouse novel.
I think Kriston's takedown is at least unfair, at most unhelpful. I work part-time at our dinky town library in NJ (as staff, not a trained librarian). There are many challenges libraries face, including collection management. This NYT article discusses another NJ library's problems w/kids during the after school hours. We have similar, though less violent, problems. The public library has become free after-school childcare.
Wrt collections: the library takes up the first floor of a 19c house. Imagine your entry way and living room and dining room are full of shelves. Your half bath is our half bath. Your kitchen is the childrens' room. Your mudroom or other little extra space is the director's office. There are a few more shelves in the basement. The head librarian likes to keep the classics, but sometimes she has to go w/the idea that another library (usually the big county library) has it so we'll get it for anyone who wants it. As a commenter noted, no one will discover it by wandering our shelves, which is sad bc I discovered many a wonderful book that way as a kid. We have approximately 10 rows of shelving. That's it. Last year, the town alderpeople voted down a successful non-binding referendum to build a new library. So no new space is on the horizon as long as this particular collection of alderpeople are around.
An interesting development is that libraries can now rent books. This way, they have the titles when they're new and popular. Later, they can either buy them very cheap or return them.
And yes, a good chunk of our patrons are Latino, Pakistani and Indian. They need English language materials, citizenship materials, just plain guidance on how and where to do things, etc.
The link in 27 is helpful bc it makes practical suggestions. If you feel that libraries have strayed from their original purposes, I would also suggest going to your local library director and asking about it. There's probably something you can do to help, even if it's just using the library more.
Sorry for the ramble; I don't mean to preach; it's just not as simple as some might think.
I think it's also worth noting that, though I doubt TSatF is among them, there are a lot of books in a lot of rural or perhaps a certain class of suburban libraries that are "never" checked out because the people who want to read them are scared of taking them up to the counter and inviting the world to notice their interest.
37 - no, do you really think so? What kind of book do you think people swipe without checking out because the librarian will judge you?
I'm understanding you to mean "fear of coming off as a nerdy smarty-pants." Public libraries are such docile, quiet places, and the librarians so generally kindly...
37 - I feel like kissing people who take out the good stuff. Esp. the good stuff that I like.
(1) Where is your library located?
(2) What good stuff do you like?
40 - Appreciated, but fear of legal repercussions (and social repercussions; everyone knows everyone here) has kept my ardor in check so far.
38, 39: I was trying to point out all the non-hetero kids who go to public libraries because there are books about being non-hetero which they want to read at a time when they don't know anyone with whom they can actually speak about their issues. Thus I take a smooches raincheck, though of course I am flattered.
(I also think my point can apply to plenty of hetero kids who have issues of their own. Teenagers are mighty good at having problems they are too terrified to mention to adults or otherwise publicly acknowledge, often with good reason, but on which they can at least do a little research with access to the right books.)
39: I just went to the restroom and took out the good stuff. You might like it.
Hmmm, okay. Like the way condoms and yeast-infection treatments are the most shop-lifted items.
I don't buy it entirely, what with access to gay-friendly websites. Also I'd suspect any library that gets rid of gay-friendly lit to make space for John Grisham of having an ulterior agenda.
8: What's not pragmatic about Julian's suggestion? Okay, reforming copyright: maybe not. But libraries already provide net access to the poor -- I'd argue that it's becoming one of their most important functions. They may have to play by some ridiculous policy under which they only have X licenses for ebook Y, and have to enforce artificial limits on which ones are "checked out" (my university had a system like this, in fact), but that still allows you to get around the shelf space limitation.
42: Ah, yes. They shouldn't feel that way, but of course they do. I thought it took a lot for this one kid to take out the book on 'GLBQT/Questioning' teens or for the woman taking out info bc she's wondering if her spouse has Asperger's.
I like to see certain books just lying around the library, bc that means someone was reading them, even if they didn't bring them up to check out. Depending on the family situation, a kid might not want to bring the GLBQT/Questioning book home.
Now, patrons who take out philosophy books? Teh hott.
Why's everybody being so hard on John Grisham? ;)
Answering a question up there some where about The Sound and the Fury: Each of the first three sections is inside a characters head. The first, Benjy, time-shifts radically and what you have to do is read it very open-mindedly-- the clues slowly become obvious. Each time has themes and names that tell you exactly where you are. The ones that some most confusing at first (Quentin/he vs. Quentin/she) you immediately realize are the actual reference points to which time you're in. Faulkner's friend Phil Stone, the first person to read it, described it as opening up like a flower. You have to just trust Faulkner to deliver it to you, in a way different from any other novel I know.
BitchPD said something about getting different things at different ages. That's really true of this book; it rewards rereadings at a very high level. While I "got" the important stuff in college, I had no clue about a running joke in the Jason section-- he's trading commodities and gets a margin call at a key plot moment. I had no idea and it went right over my head reading that at 18. Later, after law school, that sequence was made me laugh out loud.
It is a beautiful book, in my opinion greater than Absolem, Absolem!, but that's obviously something that could be argued about. There's something very self-contained about The Sound and the Fury that makes it resistant to commentary (to me much like One Hundred Years of Solitude.
It's sort of sad that a library branch would say "don't stock it," but as Bitch points out, it's there to be requested in the main branch, and can be obtained. That's what really matters.
46: Yes, internet and plain old word processing are very important. Much homework is supposed to be typed and some kids don't have computers at home so they use the public pcs at the library.
You were talking about "taking [] it out" in the bathroom.
It might just be that gay-friendly websites are just as good (if not better); it might also be that the world has changed enough that this simply isn't as much of an issue at all anymore. It has been a long, long time since I was a teenager with a lot of questions. I am entirely open to being wrong.
51: Not for long. And libraries seem like an ideal place to put on-demand-printing operations (although this runs into copyright problems).
46 - Like you, tom, I like to believe that technology is the answer and ebooks and stuff could solve these problems but I worry about publishers, etc. clamping down even harder on copyright restrictions as libraries become more and more digital. Maybe I'm just overly cynical about that.
56: If you mean to print out the books, patrons still have to pay for the printing. We currently charge $0.15/page. Some places charge more, like $0.25/page. Buying the book could be cheaper, if that's an option. Of course, checking it out is cheapest of all!
56: Maybe (the sony reader), and add 10 years until you hit small rural libraries. On demand print is interesting; but thank Disney for half the problem. None of what was there really supports getting rid of existing dead-tree capacity; at best it supports diverting some percentage of resource for growth in new directions. And that only whent the technology is solidly there.
Those A.J.Cronin references are very endearing to me, I grew up hearing them talked about.
I must have bought several hundred books over a dozen years from library sales on my lunch hour. at 25 cents apiece I was willing to let them pile up. About half were serious books being weeded-out for non-circulation, the others were good books that must have been donated but not acquired.
I'm a slow reader; it's much better for me to own than borrow, and I don't usually know a book I read when borrowed or checked-out anywhere near as well as one read that I own, even when I spend about the same time. I don't mark, so I don't know what it is.
BitchPD
Up against the car and spread 'em!
61: I work at the library, but deep down I'm a book owner, too.
58: oh, I read it to mean that the library didn't have to have a copy until there was real demand. If it is just for patrons, it makes no sense to me.
further on the sony reader --- I t's only about half way there (which beats predecessors) so that's hope for the nearish future, but not really that relevent for planning today.
36: But funny? I was aiming for funny.
The librarians in the article don't acquit themselves nearly as well as you, and at some point it must be said that there is art as well as science in being a librarian, and the librarians--or the reporter--don't seem to acknowledge that. It's not newsworthy to me that Faulkner isn't flying off the shelf—surely they don't need software to tell you that--and I understand that maintaining the stacks is zero sum. But the suggestion that libraries exist to subsidize entertainment, as J-Sanchez puts it, is news to me, and offensive even.
61: "Anything you say can and will be used against you."
It's not even really John Grisham that's competing with the Fagles translation of The Aeneid that my library system isn't carrying—it's shit like National Treasure on DVD.
61:
thanks, Becks. Here's your missing "h":
h
Hopefully the advent of automated systems for inter-library loans via WorldCat and the like will give let small local libraries have small popular collections while retaining access to large classic collections. That's how largish metropolitan libraries tend to work, we just need to connect the networks.
What's not pragmatic about Julian's suggestion?
This is a reference to a conversation to which Julian, Will, Jackmormon, B, a handful of others, and I were privy and the rest of you all were not. Welcome to Unfogged A.D.C.
57: I understand, and sort of feel that an IP-law apocalypse is inevitable. If libraries are going to stay at all relevant they're going to have to deal with these issues.
58: You can do considerably better than 15 cents/page with the right equipment. And hey, check out this thing (here's a video) -- libraries are already gearing up to implement this idea. Although to be honest, this machine looks a bit rinky-dink to me -- it's using commodity hardware and running pretty slowly. I'm sure there's a lot of room for improvement, both in terms of cost and speed. Libraries could maintain their paper collections, and subsidize in whole or part the fee for an on-demand printing when the need arose for a work they didn't have.
59: electronic paper has the capacity to get much, much cheaper. The Sony device is the first significant one to market, and it's only $350! To me, that seems very promising.
55: You're not at all wrong. Having books available for "accidental" perusal, nooks and crannies for surreptitious browsing -- those are absolutely vital functions of a library. Divorce, cancer, estate management, test-taking, sexuality, religion, mental health, dieting -- the list of things that people are ashamed to admit they are reading about is huge.
The most-shoplifted item from libraries is routinely Sports Illustrated, and graphic novels/comic books and Chuck Palahniuk's works are high on the list too. But the other topics, the ones listed above -- those books disappear, maddingly, and then quite often return, resurfacing in strange places after a few hours or days.
My dream is that someday, as with the "Check this price!" barcode readers in department stores, there will be a "Scan this book!" barcode reader in an unobtrusive place in the library, so people can make a book "Unavailable" while they look at it, and yet not have to attach their own name to a borrower's record.
In the meantime: Yes. Gay teens and divorcing spouses and grieving widowers and even Barry Manilow fans need a guilt-free way to read/listen/view what they need. It is the very core mission of a library to provide access to information to people who cannot otherwise obtain it.
One solution that seems to be on the tips of several tongues is 1) a centralized moratorium for high literature with 2) a network of neighborhood suburban branches where you can borrow the latest Jack Ryan DVD and the books on which they're based. I'm all for 1, and in particular if the building is composed in style or substance that residents don't find "warm and inviting".
A solution on the tips of several tongues!....How racy! I hope one of them is mine.
63: Oh. Good idea.
64: A dick in a box is always funny. Yes, some of the librarians quoted don't come across as well as one might like, but who knows for sure what all was said. Who is this J-Sanchez? I'm re-reading the article, but not seeing it.
67: There was this one really bad Jimmy Fallon movie the director was trying so hard not to buy, but just get from other libraries, but we had so many requests for it she finally just bought it.
69: Our main inter-library loan system is county-wide. But we can also get stuff from other libraries. I recall a former staffperson got stuff from places as far away as Nebraska. Most patrons don't know about it, I'm sure. Or need that service. It takes a little longer. But it's there, and it's been especially helpful for when I've needed academic books that town libraries don't carry.
A solution on the tips of several tongues!....How racy! I hope one of them is mine.
One of the tongues can be yours, but the solution is mine.
: Our main inter-library loan system is county-wide. But we can also get stuff from other libraries. I recall a former staffperson got stuff from places as far away as Nebraska. Most patrons don't know about it, I'm sure. Or need that service.
Inter-library loan is great, I agree. It seems so natural, which is why I was surprised when I realized that there is a whole group of people -- and this is correlated with social class, but I'm not sure that's what causes it -- who never, ever ask for (and won't usually accept) an ILL. They see it as "bothering" the library. Seriously.
81: When I visited the Colosseum in Rome, I learned that vomitoriums did not actually have anything to do with vomit.
71: Oh, I agree that it is promising, it just isn't there yet. And it won't be next year. Resolution is marginally acceptable (probably a fairly easy fix), the machines are way too expensive (but it's early innings; take a while to get to a reasonable level), the DRM is stupid (probably the stickyest issue) but somewhat avoidable. Tech isn't robust enough. So, like I said, give it 10 years before it will really look sensible for the suggested use.
Libraries could implement print-on-demand for patrons but it really isn't an obvious match, and certainly doesn't fulfil their basic function. As a way of reducing ILL etc., perhaps it makes more sense.
78, that was so well phrased I can't think of a retort. Something playing on the liquid meaning of the word "solution".
79: Thanks.
80: Yes, I like to reassure those people that it's there for just that purpose and it's one of their (tax-supported) library's services. I hate to see a patron leave empty-handed.
Something playing on the liquid meaning of the word "solution".
That's sort of what I was going for, actually.
78: Speaking of lips, one of my favorite ILLs that came through was something like 'The Low Down on Going Down'. It was a book on performing cunnilingus.
82: So what is a vomitorium?
Goddamnit, I keep writing that when I mean "mausoleum".
86 - MEET ME AT THE VOMITORIUM IN FIVE.
I remember surreptitious browsing at the library as a kid and totally appreciate the need. Hell, I feel the same way about my local video store here in New York. It's set up so that instead of bringing the box to the counter you have to tell the guy what you want and he shouts it to the back for someone to retrieve, their tones both passing judgment on your selection. Sometimes a girl just wants to watch Bring It On, OK?
86, 89 : and bring your copies of `the low down on going down'
So what is a vomitorium?
It's just an exit passageway under a section of seats.
92: it was mostly after running down that passage they'd all vomit, right?
It's set up so that instead of bringing the box to the counter you have to tell the guy what you want and he shouts it to the back for someone to retrieve, their tones both passing judgment on your selection. Sometimes a girl just wants to watch Bring It On, OK?
Do you ever rent more than one movie at a time, one the movie you actually want to watch and the other a prophylactic against scorn?
Libraries could implement print-on-demand for patrons but it really isn't an obvious match, and certainly doesn't fulfil their basic function.
Would it help if you made patrons bring them back?
I think you're being too pessimistic about the tech. Even having ten PDAs for checkout and a decent unified catalog of Project Gutenberg/Google Print/commercial ebook vendor offerings would go a long way toward expanding a small library's scope, and could be done very affordably. I agree that reading hundreds of pages from an LCD sucks, and that it'll be a while before electronic paper becomes the main way we read new publications, but I don't think that makes these ideas non-starters as means of solving the problem at hand. If it's an LCD or nothing, I'll take the LCD.
Good link.
1. I was all braced to see something much grosser, and
2. That clarifies why it's called that.
I don't understand why "mausoleum" would be better than "moratorium."
96: No, I said in 63 it makes sense to me if they come back.
Readers today are a non-starter for checkout, it'll take a few years until we are there. Interesting idea, but nonsense to talk about it a broad policy sense today.
70.--Oh, that's right. I now remember saying that to a bunch of card-carrying professional libertarians.
Man.
Do you ever rent more than one movie at a time, one the movie you actually want to watch and the other a prophylactic against scorn?
I think you all can guess the answer to this.
Didn't we invent television so that kids wouldn't have to bother with books? What the matter with you fogies?
90, 102: I find it charming that Becks is still using real, live video stores. Everyone I know seems to have become enamored of Netflix.
Do you ever rent more than one movie at a time, one the movie you actually want to watch and the other a prophylactic against scorn?
Yes, and in fact that was one of the things that I was convinced to stop doing by the book "The Paradox of Choice". Really, it's a great self-help book. I think it had a similar effect on me that the book "Getting Things Done" had on my senior student.
I find it charming that Becks is still using real, live video stores. Everyone I know seems to have become enamored of Netflix.
When the day comes that more than a small fraction of the movies available on out-of-print VHS tapes are available on DVD, my local video store will be obsolete, and all its carefully-curated hard-to-find VHS tapes will be as so much dust ground beneath the heel of progress. But for now, I check out a lot of movies that I don't think have been released on DVD yet.
104
Am I the only one who finds an advantage to browsing in a real live store (book or video)? I do have the benefit of living in a small town with very both a very good indie book store and very good indie video store, but I find myself seeing things I would not have noticed, necessarily, otherwise. The local record stores, though, have completely died (the indie stores here were never as good as either the bookstore, which has a national reputation, or the video store, and so had less margin to compete), and I find it much more trouble to keep up with what's new. I seriously hope this is not the future for books and videos, too.
I agree with 106. I would hate to live in a world where I couldn't browse through used things.
If it's an LCD or nothing, I'll take the LCD.
I'd definitely choose nothing if we're talking about an entire book. Unless it contained some actual information that I actually needed (this is not the case for any book I can think of at the present moment).
Would you believe that The Low Down on Going Down isn't anywhere in Stanford's library system? What kind of two-bit institution is this?
109: did you look for a thesis version?
104- Moral Quandry: would it be evil of me to cancel my netflix subscription and sign up for the new BlockBuster Total Access? I'd really like the in-store drop-off/pick-up option, and there's a BlockBuster near my apartment. But somehow it feels dirty, since netflix has been so good to me and (historically) BlockBuster has done me wrong. On the other hand, it's not like Netflix is exactly a mom and pop operation I'm supporting, at least not anymore. But I wonder if BlockBuster would have as good a selection of the indie flicks, documentaries, and other (unpopular) items I like to watch? The deep catalogue has been the biggest benefit of netflix membership, really.
111: Is the blockbuster closer than a mailbox? I don't see how in-store is good, there. The catalogue is the real problem though. Blockbuster can't fill the selection the same way from stuff it actually carries in-store, but they might buy it just to compete with netflix.
In-store can be good because you can browse.
113: I guess. Last time I tried to browse a blockbuster the selection was pretty underwhelming. I like poking around in quirky independent shops, but it always seems to me that places like blockbuster have 50 copies of stuff you can't help but have heard of (and may or may not want to see) and low chances of finding something surprising.
It could also be useful if you don't know what you want to watch until right when you want to watch it. This is what's kept my parents from signing up for NetFlix so far.
80:
You're right about patrons' reluctance to use ILL, which is why it ought to be a seamless process. Search for an item in the OPAC, and if it's not available, don't tell the patron that, just tell them it can be in their hands in X days, would they like to request it? Don't make them fill out a form with pen and paper, just make it happen.
Incidentally, I became a very happy person once I discovered my library's hold request feature. I use it like my NetFlix queue, but it's better cos it's books and it's free.
I was shocked the last time I went to my Blockbuster in Virginia - it had shrunk in size by at least 75%. I happened to get the manager as my checkout person and asked her what was up. She said that they got completely burnt by that "No Late Fees" plan they tried out. Apparently, if you liked a movie, you could pay a flat fee and keep it instead of returning it. A bunch of smarties made a coordinated effort to "like" and keep all of the old movies that were out of print and going for more than the flat fee on eBay. So they were, say, paying Blockbuster $10 to keep the movie and then turning around and reselling them for $30 or $40. With those economics, there was no way Blockbuster could restock their supplies and the store was wiped out before they caught on to what was happening.
112- it's the "I'd like to see [x] tonight, let me go exchange [y] for that" feature that's nice. Mostly I'd use the mailbox. But I could get a (relatively popular) movie in 15 minutes, instead of four days. Obviously I probably couldn't run to the store and grab Darwin's Nightmare. But I could still mail away for that.
But I could still mail away for that.
Or could I? That's part of my quandry...
Blockbuster is everything that is vile about chains, as near as I can tell. No selection either of catalog or new release, unless by "selection" you mean jillions of copies of all the obvious stuff. Try finding something as major-but-non-obvious as, "Wages of Fear" or the restored "Touch of Evil", say. I assume their online service would have to compete at some level with Netflix in catalogue depth or it would die fast, but I've never checked. But it would not surprise me if it didn't really compete and was just an attempt to pretend they were.
If you have a decent indie store in range, folks, give it a chance!
Given what Becks describes in 117, I'm not at all confident that Blockbuster has thought through the implications of this new service (need for substantial catalogue, etc.). Tread carefully, Brock.
111: Unrelated, but my beef with Blockbuster is that when they opened an office in small suburb near me, the local planning board went through an extensive process to make sure that the building would contribute to the walkable, pedestrian-friendly, crime-unfriendly neighborhood look they are trying to cultivate.
After all the approvals were done, but before the building was actually built, Blockbuster went and flipped the store around. Now the back wall faces the sidewalk, creating an ugly, imposing, windowless blockade, and the front of the store faces a parking lot. Blech.
that and netflix has really tuned their service. I don't know what it is like everywhere, but I usually get `received' notices in less than 24 hours, and surprisingly quick actual turnaround. Three days? I really don't know how they manage it.
that and netflix has really tuned their service. I don't know what it is like everywhere, but I usually get `received' notices in less than 24 hours, and surprisingly quick actual turnaround. Three days? I really don't know how they manage it.
That's new. Netflix famously throttled the speed at which movies were delivered to heavy users of their service.
I jumped to my feet, spilling dry crumbs of dead sandwiches onto the men who lolled about the large room, to the man in the great stone credit coins. A decent fee for a decent job done.
hirsutical science have developed an antidipilatorisational agent that
Is plastic.
Rather, I intoned, falling into his academic mode of speech. Thanks, I said.
walk, then a crawl. If there had been any farther to go I would
consternation among them when they discover how things have changed
I think I would have preferred the treatment. I didnt mind seeing my
tell you a few things. You will not laugh at anything I say -
Did the filter catch the spambot's link?
Oops - 126 was me. It was something I found in my spam filter. No links, that I could tell. I agree with 129.
130 does little to clarify your identity.
On libraries: There should be more libraries, and the property of libertarians should be expropriated in order to pay for them.
Also: There should be tool libraries, car libraries, bike libraries, furniture libraries, art libraries, toy libraries, etc.*
On Netflix: Probably a more insidious competitor for the "good" video store than Blockbuster, esp. in smaller towns and cities.
On things going out-of-print: There should be a very low maximum amount of time that a copyright holder is allowed to maintain their copyright without using it. Say five years. Then, there should be a fund devoted to making sure that those lapsed copyrights are brought back into print, at least in a limited edition.
On pedantry: I can't believe it took like 70 comments before somebody brought up the whole moratorium/mausoleum issue. Sharpen your pitchforks, Unfogged imps!
*And there already are, just not widely distributed enough.
116: I spent a while accumulating books in my local library's ILL request system, but got kind of screwed when a stack of six of them all arrived at once. Oddly, I want them to be more like Netflix and just let me have a small number out at a time, so that I stand a chance of getting around to reading them.
Question: could a Netflix-like service exist for books? This new "Netboox" service could consist in regional warehouses of books, compiled from local libraries, with patrons able to visit the local joint for the most-popular books, and the ability to request, at the local joint or from the comforts of their couches, the latest edition of Faulkner (or what have you), to be delivered within 1-2 days.
Cost-wise, books get the media-mail discount; do DVDs?
Of course, I think this scheme would require a centralization of the library system, which is, you know, Teh Communist.
Ya know, this ain't the mythical land of Madame George and roses.
The problem with doing this with books is that they're more expensive and less durable than DVDs.
135: Please limit all music references to the year 1982 and thereafter.
136: That's a good point. Even my Netflix DVDs often look like they were pawed by ferrets on speed. A digital solution, with all the attendant copyright/software/hardware issues, may be as good as we can hope for.
I happened, last trip home, to grab my old high school copy of The Sound and the Fury off my parents' bookshelf. It took me about three hours to read and was awesome.
135: Please limit all music references to the year 1982 and thereafter.
Look, Stan, some of us are old and with gray hair. Deal.
139: Fair enough. For what it's worth, you get to keep my Social Security withholdings later on.
I'm quite confident I'm not more than fifteen years older than you. Whatever happens to Social Security, happens to both of us.
Also, Sinéad's screed was 1990.
Whatever happens to Social Security, happens to both of us.
Well, shit. Can we hold hands and read from the books of yore, while the castle collapses around us? I'll let you pick the music.
Pick "Brazil"! I need to hear the lyrics.
Can we hold hands and read from the books of yore
No, because Julian Sanchez is in ur library, defunding ur amusement.
Apo's older than I am. Apo, protect us!
"protect us!" s/b "stop taking our monies!"
You can live in my fortified, post-SS bunker.
And wine? And veggie bacon, for us commies?
Will there be bacon?
Only while the supplies last. Then it's long pig.
But we have all the books in a centralized location!
Sweet, I was worried that Swift's bunker would be crowded. Have fun with your sharp sticks, boys.
Silly ogged. After Social Security collapses, people will grow bulletproof skin.
You people joke, but I have a friend who has actually built a bunker and who routinely berates me for owning a credit card. Every four months or so, he's got the next scorched-earth scenario all figured out ("see, Iran just moved its submarines just off the shores of Lebanon, see..."). Crazy though he be, he really is my back-up plan. Motherfucker is currently trying to build a generator out of a several blenders.
There's more than enough postapocalyptic squalor for everyone.
You know the vegetarians will get eaten first, right?
Does any other country have crazy survivalists? Russia?
Where do libertarians come from?
I submit that no country lacks crazy survivalists, but that all burgeon in bouquets of lunatic schemes for outlasting civilization.
166-->164
I doubt there are many libertarians in Somalia.
Not with that attitude there won't be.
When you say "I submit," that means you're making it up, right slol?
Surely, Somalia, used to be the national capital, but in the throes of decolonization federal authority lodged in the port city fo Kuala Lumpur, where denizens had built a monument to national pride.
I'm not entirely confident I haven't made everything up.
But if there is an undersupply of libertarians in Somalia, then the absence of a functioning government should make it much easier for the invisible hand to move enough there to meet demand.
You're positing an actual demand for libertarians, as opposed to an instinctive revulsion.
Perhaps they're just propelled from external lands into the Somali vacuum. Like particle transfer.
I can't tell if Julian Sanchez wants a dope-slap or not.
Only the dopest slaps for Julian.
161: Not all. One of my kids went vegan after getting a good look at the Meat-Industrial Complex in vet school. He'd have no trouble killing and eating a human tho'.
I'd love to use a local video store instead of Netflix, but the only one within a reasonable distance is Blockfuckingbuster, and Hippie Jesus doesn't want us going to a chain that has built a business out of enforcing a media regime in which violence is red-blooded wholesomeness and sex is shameful.
I used to work with a guy who was trying to devise a way to bury a Unix box in the ground and give it a solar power supply. He believed that Islamic terrorists were going to overrun us all because the Democrats weren't clapping hard enough and that he would be one of the last operating nodes on the Freedom Internets.
Re 19: Don't know about the human skin weirdness, but the hypertext TSATF linked in 3 includes color-coding. It kind of works. Anyhow, "Through the fence, between the curling flower spaces, I could see them hitting, " is up there with "Call me Ishmael" among opening lines. But teh Melville may have joined teh Faulkner on the trash heap of history, for all I know.
179b: You know, you can buy a solar powered backpack that will charge your laptop these days, and MIT is developing a computer with wireless broadband (running Linux) that you can crank like a wind-up toy. It's kind of tragic when a post-apocalyptic crank gets out of date.
The Washington Post's ombudsmun has pretty thoroughly debunked this story in an article found here.