- therobit
- Aug 19, 2008
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I've been tryin' to speak with you for a long time
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My aunt was a school librarian when she read working, and would always bring over stacks ord whatever books stea being discarded from either the library or get own kids for me to read. When I was in gaul my mother had mentioned something to get about how she wasn't sure if the subject matter of some book I wanted to read was appropriate, and my aunt really went to bat against any sort of censorship and basically told my mom she couldn't restrict my access to reading material or I would never want to read. I love how committed to libertarian ethics my aunt is. She still brings over boxes of books her grandkids are done with for my kids to read.
I probably still should not have been reading "It" in 4th grade though.
On the subject of "Lolita," I read it in high school and felt like the guy was trying to make the girl to be the evil one. It's been 20 years but did I read that book wrong? I have no desire to reread it or to have anything related to it in my search history.
Also my wife is a middle school teacher and today she had a girl that had been a voracious reader come in and ask to borrow another book. It is the sort of situation where it sounds like things might be tough at home. My wife asked her if she ever goes to the library to get books, and the kid said, "Do you mean like Barnes and Noble?"
The kid is in 7th grade, has never been to a library, and doesn't know what a library is. My wife is going to print out some directions to the nearest branch for her tomorrow.
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Nov 30, 2018 07:53
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Apr 27, 2024 18:09
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- therobit
- Aug 19, 2008
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I've been tryin' to speak with you for a long time
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This isn't a Nabokov thread, but Humbert tells you he's an unreliable narrator and a liar right off the bat. Yes, the book portrays Lo as the aggressor, to some extent, and he does sort of treat her like a villain, but at no point is the reader meant to take his side. I could be wrong, but that's how I've always interpreted it.
Also, Lolita is an amazing book and I'll pee all over all y'all's shoes to defend it (I'm sure Quilty would approve.)
Don't stand so close to me.
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Nov 30, 2018 08:11
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- therobit
- Aug 19, 2008
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I've been tryin' to speak with you for a long time
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You smell that? That's piss AND literature, baby.
So it smells like a library?
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Nov 30, 2018 16:18
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- therobit
- Aug 19, 2008
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I've been tryin' to speak with you for a long time
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But there are several other zoonoses that horses carry.
https://www.cdc.gov/healthypets/pets/horses.html
Still cute though.
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Dec 5, 2018 03:58
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- therobit
- Aug 19, 2008
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I've been tryin' to speak with you for a long time
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I swear it's 95% trashy romance novels.
I mean, that's what most people read, if they read.
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Dec 12, 2018 16:18
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- therobit
- Aug 19, 2008
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I've been tryin' to speak with you for a long time
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Here is one way to spot a clueless librarian, from the last public library I worked at.
At this library, we had a number of problem patrons who were in just about every day.
Frank is an elderly guy, and he would grab random newspapers, hog one of the library's copiers for hours making copies of obscure articles, then camp out at the circulation desk for as long as you'd let him to talk about his conspiracy theories he's working to prove.
Joe is also an elderly guy, and he decided that the best way to do research for a book he's writing is to come down to the local public library and camp out at the circulation desk for hours asking you to look up random things on google and computers while screaming that you're stupid and should be fired if you can't find what he wants (usually because what he wants doesn't exist) or can't find a certain obscure book he wants for ILL.
Dave is also an elderly guy, and very lonely because his wife divorced him because he cheated on her, and he would camp out at the circulation desk for as long as any female staff member would let him to look up legal materials and books about divorce while sexually harassing the female staff member in question. This was also the guy who repeatedly sexually assaulted female staff off the library property because he'd follow them out of the building and wait for them when they left for the night.
So came one Friday morning after one of Dave's more egregious days, and we the circulation staff were discussing what to do about these three guys. Management had consistently refused to do anything about any of the three of them, on the basis that we are here to create a safe and welcoming space for all patrons. Banning people from the library is only for violence. But all three of these guys were in almost every day, and would be there for most if not all of the day - Frank especially was invariably one of the first in at opening and last out at closing. In fact, management refuses to even make written records of their behaviors.
Our manager, the head of circulation and public services, walks in from her office and hears us discussing these guys and how to handle their behavior. She has no idea who any of them are. Only after we tell them about their behavior in detail does she remember that these are the three main people 'You guys keep making an unnecessary fuss about.'
Why did nobody call the cops on the guy assaulting women? Jesus loving christ.
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Dec 22, 2018 07:31
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- therobit
- Aug 19, 2008
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I've been tryin' to speak with you for a long time
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See my previous posts about "well, maybe he just has a hand deformity" or The Shooter. Sometimes the folks in charge (i.e., Admin) are just, well, giant ignorant idiots who plain don't get how a woman can feel threatened or even just squicked out by patrons.
That's an awful story, Cythereal. Was your library small enough that circ had to deal with that? We would've sent them to reference and let the big paycheck MLS-havers deal with that BS.
Seems like a lawsuit is in order then. I know that it is a common problem, but I think any employer that allows that to happen to their employees and tries to shield sex criminals deserves to get sued out of existence.
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Dec 22, 2018 08:27
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- therobit
- Aug 19, 2008
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I've been tryin' to speak with you for a long time
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The next book in the series should be "Can You Post When You're Dead?" and the answer is yes, because I just died laughing at those. Holy crow, you weren't kidding, Fleta. "Robert Makes a Graph" --- omg tell me how it ends but put it in spoiler tags, please! Wouldn't want to ruin that roller coaster of a story for anyone else.
Hell yeah I remember BOCES, good on your dad for supporting them. (For those of you not from the area, it was a vocational education program for kids that struggled with traditional academics for one reason or another) Sad thing is, the image we all had at the time were those were the dumb kids, or the bad kids, that got put on the short bus in the afternoon to go to BOCES classes. I'll just come out and say it: it was the 80s and we were kids, so anyone in that program got called a retard.
Those "retards" all learned a valuable trade and probably own their own homes now, making mad bank as car mechanics or electricians, while my MA is gathering dust and I'm a line cook struggling to pay rent. It's me, I'm the retard.
(NB. I hope no one's offended by my use of the word "retard" and get my point about how stupid and offensive kids in the 80s could be before we knew better.)
Anyways, it's a dreary Friday that I have off, so as promised:
How many Nazis does it take to change a lightbulb?
My very first day after I defected from circulation to the a/v and conference room job, they trained me on simple stuff like how to answer the multi-line phone, enter room reservations into the software, how we filed applications for reservations, basic desk stuff. At one point Will says to Skipper, "Oh, we should warn her about the... Y'know, that group. In case they come in or call and JD's on desk." Skipper agrees and pulls me aside.
Turns out a white power neo-nazi bunch had expressed an interest in renting our theatre for a meeting or rally of some kind. Before submitting an application and plunking down the deposit fee, they had already approached our staff to ensure that their event would be protected as free speech. Skipper essentially gave them a "um, maybe?" and took it up with the director. Our director, though a staunch defender of our library being a place for all people, did not want a three ring circus of nazis, protesters, and media disrupting the place and ruining it for other patrons. We technically couldn't outright say "no" to them, but we weren't giving them a definitive "yes", either. The group was apparently eating this up, all "see? Look how they want to take away are freedumbs!" and frothing at the mouth. They wanted a shitshow, it would draw attention to them.
So I was instructed that if someone from this group called or came in, I should not book them, but get either the Skipper or the director to talk to them first. Fine by me, I'm still figuring out this crazy rear end software and getting over my phobia of talking on the phone. When I took the job, it hadn't occurred to me that such unsavory folks would be renting our space and there would be ethical dilemmas involved. Helluva curveball on my first day!
Couple days later, we get word from the director that they opted to rent the community room at the neighboring county library (we'll call it Jones County). Jones didn't have an issue with it, and was definitely more redneck and in their demographic, anyways. Whew, we dodged that bullet, let them deal with it. Still, we felt bad for their staff, having to put up with the potential nightmare, and eagerly watched the news to see how this was going to blow up.
A few days before the event, Jones County sent out a message to the press and on their site that they had to close to the public for maintenance on that day, but the meeting rooms would still be available for folks that had already made reservations. When pressed for information on why they were closing, they said:
"We need to change all the lightbulbs."
Which had all of us at My County dying, I mean, why would you close a library for a day to change ALL your lightbulbs? We'd done a massive renovation a few years back and never closed even though they were knocking down walls and poo poo. Lightbulbs, lol, c'mon, you could've come up with a better excuse. We knew what was up.
The result being that the only people in the library that day, besides a skeleton crew, were 30 nazis sulking in the community room, disappointed that they hadn't created a ruckus with media attention on a parking lot full of protestors and counter-protesters. It was a complete non-event that barely got a blurb in the local newspaper.
Gotta hand it to you Jones County, your excuse was hilariously lame, but you handled that pretty smoothly.
That's pretty loving funny.
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Dec 29, 2018 04:33
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- therobit
- Aug 19, 2008
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I've been tryin' to speak with you for a long time
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Same, friend, I keep thinking of all the awful stuff about this design, then Mr. Prokosch posts "how do you mop it?" And as someone who had to regularly pinch-hit maintenance stuff like vacuuming or taking care of some disaster in the women's restroom because I was the only woman on duty that night, I'm now scratching my head on that. It just gets worse and worse.
Uh, closed signs exist and can even be printed on the fly if need be. What the hell? As a former male janitor I can assure you we are able to clean the ladies' room in the event of a disaster.
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Dec 28, 2019 09:16
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- therobit
- Aug 19, 2008
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I've been tryin' to speak with you for a long time
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State law forbids us from requiring people to wear masks and distance in our building. I'd feel differently if we could enforce that.
WAT? What kind of lovely hell state do you live in?
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Jul 11, 2020 04:30
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- therobit
- Aug 19, 2008
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I've been tryin' to speak with you for a long time
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We have a brand new library building that is not open to the public because of the pandemic. I wonder if they have a maker space.
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Aug 21, 2020 05:25
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- therobit
- Aug 19, 2008
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I've been tryin' to speak with you for a long time
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I think you mean Jurassic World? Unless Jurassic Park is another one that I’ve not heard of.
I’m not sure if this is sarcasm or not. The book Jurassic Park is by Michael Crichton and was a bestseller before the movie was conceived.
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Aug 13, 2021 20:54
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- therobit
- Aug 19, 2008
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I've been tryin' to speak with you for a long time
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I remember when Terminator 2 came out and even though I wasn’t old enough or allowed by my mother my dad took me to see it because he heard how great the special effects were gonna be with the CGI. And they were impressive for the time but the last time I watched it I was cracking up that we thought that was any good.
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Aug 14, 2021 03:03
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- therobit
- Aug 19, 2008
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I've been tryin' to speak with you for a long time
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Men interrupt libraries like THIS while women interrupt libraries like THIS.
Nah it’s socialization and it’s real.
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Apr 9, 2023 04:08
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Apr 27, 2024 18:09
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- therobit
- Aug 19, 2008
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I've been tryin' to speak with you for a long time
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I was at the help desk and about to help someone with his phone. He noticed the screen was dirty so he brought it up to his face and LICKED the screen, rubbed his spit around with a sock from his pocket, and handed it to me.
Yes I took it. I figure I've touched much worse in the library without knowing it.
That might be the most disgusting thing I have ever read. How degrading.
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Jun 2, 2023 02:18
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Nov 30, 2018 07:53
. I always think that argument is hilarious. I mean, I pay taxes too, but that still doesn't mean I can walk onto an army base and drive off in a tank