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Pretty sure my library still has PS1 and PS2 physical discs to borrow.
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Jul 18, 2023 15:12
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Aug 8, 2023 19:12
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Waffle! posted:Cats. They watch, and they judge. Few are worthy. Ah, but worthy ones exist, apparently. I was listening to local NPR the other day, and heard that a few libraries in my neighboring county and mine have started up Caturday, where kids can read to cats! As a crazy cat lady, I NEED to go see this. It sounds like chaos (but adorable chaos).
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Aug 9, 2023 21:44
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An off-topic question for all the good librarians in this thread: I know when shelving books, it is usually alphabetical by first letter of last name; in my experience, names like O'Reilly and McDonald are abbreviated to "O'R" and "McD" on book spines. What would you do with a name like Al-Znbori? "Al-Z"? Thanks in advance!
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Aug 10, 2023 04:16
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/\ I would do Al-Z, right before Alm. I had to tell this kid twice that there's no food in the library. Then he started to open up the historical book display, and got mad when I told him not to. I didn't want his Cheeto fingers on 100 year old books, but apparently that makes me racist and he stormed out. Ok bye.
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Aug 17, 2023 23:10
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Waffle! posted:/\ I would do Al-Z, right before Alm. We had a Cheeto President, get over your hangups about those people. In all seriousness, though, when I was in college somebody spilled coffee on some W. Faulkner correspondence. Since my college was Ole Miss, it was scandalous enough that even us Bio/Chem folks followed the story for a month. 👴🏻
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Aug 17, 2023 23:34
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Nothing to see here... posting to check if I posted a thing in this thread. Curse this dgf's clunky search. 
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Aug 18, 2023 12:14
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Cable Guy posted:Nothing to see here... posting to check if I posted a thing in this thread. Curse this dgf's clunky search. You can just type username:"Cable Guy" in the search bar at the top of the page.
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Aug 18, 2023 15:52
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Tiggum posted:You can just type username:"Cable Guy" in the search bar at the top of the page. La…Larry?
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Aug 19, 2023 18:23
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DerekSmartymans posted:In all seriousness, though, when I was in college somebody spilled coffee on some W. Faulkner correspondence. Since my college was Ole Miss, it was scandalous enough that even us Bio/Chem folks followed the story for a month. 👴🏻 Someone who has since died once told me the story of how, when she was studying at a university in Belgium, she was in the Old Documents room at the library, and another student came in to consult some 17th-century ledgers and took out a pink highlighter and underlined some important details.
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Aug 21, 2023 19:07
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I'm considering doing a data science project which would involve automated analysis of at least several hundred (but probably less than a thousand) fiction novels that were published in the last few years. Ideally I would have a script check out the ebook, download it, remove the DRM, analyze it, delete my copy, and immediately return it. For this project piracy is not an option, the analysis must be done on legally-acquired ebooks. Since I'm not actually reading them I'm really concerned about the potential negative impact on the library and other patrons. I've tried googling how much checking out ebooks costs library's and the answers are constantly changing and mostly unknowable for me. I even found some librarians saying it's really just Good to check out ebooks because their budget depends on people actually using the resources so I don't know if I should be worrying at all. I won't be doing it all at once, I'll spread my borrowing across several systems, and I'll borrow some from Kindle Unlimited. Is that enough? I could also skip certain publishers, skip anything from bestseller lists/oprah/etc, or just skip any book that Overdrive says someone else has checked out a copy of. Am I way overthinking this?
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Aug 28, 2023 03:56
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Gobbeldygook posted:I'm considering doing a data science project which would involve automated analysis of at least several hundred (but probably less than a thousand) fiction novels that were published in the last few years. Ideally I would have a script check out the ebook, download it, remove the DRM, analyze it, delete my copy, and immediately return it. For this project piracy is not an option, the analysis must be done on legally-acquired ebooks. Since I'm not actually reading them I'm really concerned about the potential negative impact on the library and other patrons. I've tried googling how much checking out ebooks costs libraries and the answers are constantly changing and mostly unknowable for me. I even found some librarians saying it's really just Good to check out ebooks because their budget depends on people actually using the resources so I don't know if I should be worrying at all. I believe the 'removing the DRM' stage may be illegal, which I'd normally scoff at but you said the legalities are important here. You could limit your project to publishers that omit DRM (e.g., Baen, Tor), or the vast "free!" sections on Smashwords, Kobo, etc? Also, I very much hope this isn't something involving large language models so that you could automate the generation of prose-like content.
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Aug 28, 2023 14:13
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Depending on the delivery model, libraries can be charged per-use for some ebooks, so depending on what you're using it could actually be costing them money; ebooks are getting very expensive for libraries. Also, like the poster above me said, scraping DRM is probably not OK if you need to do everything legally. It'd be better to use ebooks that are free/free of DRM if you have the option.
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Aug 28, 2023 14:59
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I remember we had these law journals that we got in print because the digital subscription was more expensive. They weren't journals, though; they were volumes of laws and regulations kept in 3-ring binders. So periodically someone had to go around taking out pages and putting in new ones to reflect changes in the law.
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Aug 28, 2023 16:09
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Halloween Jack posted:I remember we had these law journals that we got in print because the digital subscription was more expensive. My academic library, until recently, had a journal on hospitality law, titled Hospitality Law, that would come in the form of several hole punched pages. They discontinued the print version of it but it made it really easy to collect and "bind" when the binder got full and we just shelved it, got a new binder. We used to actually bind them into a book but we don't bind anymore, just box, so it ended up working out well.
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Aug 29, 2023 13:35
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https://twitter.com/OrkneyLibrary/status/1710293107168682198
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Oct 6, 2023 22:08
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Just fine?
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Oct 6, 2023 23:42
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Halloween Jack posted:I remember we had these law journals that we got in print because the digital subscription was more expensive. Hey, I did those at my law library. Did you guys have the supplements where you had to literally shove a booklet into the pocket in the back of the binder?
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Oct 8, 2023 03:22
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A guy came in yesterday at a different branch I work at, saying he was told to take donations here. I looked in his bag and it was a PS 2 and a bunch of games! The library doesn't take donations, but I sure as hell do. It works as far as I can tell without the AV cable. I just need a new one and an HD converter. Not all weirdos are bad 
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Oct 11, 2023 16:59
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grassy gnoll posted:Hey, I did those at my law library. Did you guys have the supplements where you had to literally shove a booklet into the pocket in the back of the binder?
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Oct 11, 2023 17:43
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Waffle! posted:A guy came in yesterday at a different branch I work at, saying he was told to take donations here. I looked in his bag and it was a PS 2 and a bunch of games! Figures. Some people get video games, my library gets a bunch of dirty, decades-old medical books that had probably been sitting in someones attic/basement;  These were found in the overnight drop when I emptied it on Sunday. 
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Oct 11, 2023 23:20
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Parahexavoctal posted:I believe the 'removing the DRM' stage may be illegal, which I'd normally scoff at but you said the legalities are important here. You could limit your project to publishers that omit DRM (e.g., Baen, Tor), or the vast "free!" sections on Smashwords, Kobo, etc? Even if it's a publisher like Tor that does not publish with DRM, the library borrowing software (Overdrive, CloudLibrary, etc) will add its own DRM layer to prevent you from keeping books checked out indefinitely or sharing them with other people. And most ebook DRM stripping tools do not support library DRM in the first place anyways. So yeah, the easiest approach is going to be free books. Next easiest (but quite expensive given your book counts) is going to be purchasing DRM-free books. Next easiest after that is going to be purchasing DRMed books and stripping the DRM from them. Using library ebooks for this is going to be quite difficult just on technical grounds. Actually the easiest easiest approach, on a technical level, is probably to find someone you know who is a voracious reader, has lots of recent books specifically, buys DRM-free or removes DRM from the books they buy as a matter of policy, and is willing to let you run your data science project on their personal library. I don't know if your project would be damaged by the bias inherent in a dataset curated by a single reader's tastes, though, nor do I know anyone who has that many recent books specifically; most people do not read a thousand books a year. I'm also not sure if that would satisfy your legal requirements.
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Oct 12, 2023 01:28
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After over 10 years in a public library in Canada and getting my MLIS I might have a shot at an academic librarian job. My public library job has good job security and benefits, but it is getting so so stressful commuting and dealing with the public. By contrast the academic library job is a support role, leading a few technicians and working regular office hours in a hybrid environment. However, it's a one-year contract, with no possibility of renewal, and while the chief librarian told me they'll be looking to fill a few permanent positions soon, I'm not sure how seriously to take that. What are people's thoughts who've worked in an academic library before? Would you take it? It seems like I'm a relatively strong candidate, but I'm not thrilled about potentially having to job-hop for a few years if the permanent position never materializes. I'm very nervous about the idea of walking away from job security.
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Oct 12, 2023 03:05
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I really enjoy my academic library position, but I'm in a unique position as we are faculty and have tenure. A one year position might be a blessing because you'll be able to meet all sorts of academic librarians who that you otherwise wouldn't have the opportunity to work with. On the other hand, if you have great job security now, you may want to stick with it. You're going to have to weigh the pros of a fresh, new position vs job security and possible burnout. If you do get offered the academic library job and want to take it, treat it like a paid networking opportunity and make those professional connections. Use whatever resources are at the university to bolster your career prospects, attend webinars, participate in a working group, take whatever travel money is offered to you, etc. Best of luck in your future endeavours!
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Oct 12, 2023 03:24
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Tippecanoe posted:After over 10 years in a public library in Canada and getting my MLIS I might have a shot at an academic librarian job. My public library job has good job security and benefits, but it is getting so so stressful commuting and dealing with the public. By contrast the academic library job is a support role, leading a few technicians and working regular office hours in a hybrid environment. However, it's a one-year contract, with no possibility of renewal, and while the chief librarian told me they'll be looking to fill a few permanent positions soon, I'm not sure how seriously to take that. Literally every librarian at my old job worked on a one-year contract, renewed at the discretion of their immediate superiors, all the way up the chain to the appointed director off libraries. This is so they could be faculty, but kids table faculty like adjuncts. It was very important everyone knew their place, you see. You can't beat the hours compared to public librarianships, the money is way more secure, and it's assumed you'll need to do your time before you're in the system until you die, so I wouldn't be very concerned about the temp contract. I'd go for it in a heartbeat, if you're not entirely in love with your current library and responsibilities. Carefully consider avenues for promotion, however, because if the library system is worth half a drat, you'll be waiting for vacancy by mortality or a sudden new funding source to magically appear, like the maker space or machine learning fads getting attention from a VP or something. You'll also need to learn to abuse the staff if you want to make any kind of executive position, so start practicing on the undergrads right away.
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Oct 12, 2023 07:03
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The_Other posted:Figures. Some people get video games, my library gets a bunch of dirty, decades-old medical books that had probably been sitting in someones attic/basement; Update: The PS2 works  My little library also had a donation problem, when someone dumped a college course's worth of company management textbooks on our porch. I hope they graduated and all, but I had to put a sign out saying no more. I got a message from ebsco talking up their DRM-free books, so maybe the Goon that was asking about that could check it out.
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Oct 18, 2023 21:27
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Welp, accepted my academic job offer and sent in my resignation letter, so I'm turning in my weirdo card. Best of luck, fellow public library weirdos
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Oct 20, 2023 00:51
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Does anyone have experience with teen librarianship? I do paraprofessional work at a small academic library right now, and I just started working on my MLIS. The part of the job that I like the most is doing stuff that brightens the faces of our students. Getting student art in the library, getting comics and manga in the library, helping students find books, advising for a club, things like that. I have to work within somewhat narrow parameters because, as an academic library, our main budgetary focus is on meeting students' educational needs. So the resources we can allocate to stuff to delight/enliven our students is limited and treated with a sense that like, this is a treat, not the main course. (Keeping an up-to-date collection that meets students' intellectual needs is obviously crucial). Makes me think that maybe what I'm looking for once I have my degree is to do young adult librarianship. I really like the idea of cultivating a safe space where teens can have access to resources that will let them grow into themselves. I also kind of genuinely find younger folks fun to be around, and I think I'm generally pretty patient toward them and just want them to flourish. (I once had a student tell me that I reminded them of Rebecca Sugar and it made my heart grow three times in size). But I also recognize that I'm working with a demographic of like, 16-20 year olds, and that might be a different vibe than working with 13-18 year olds. I'm just not really sure what YA librarianship is like in terms of the day-to-day or what qualities it demands. library weirdo story: Once had a patron walk into the library, pull a book off the end of a shelf, sit down and pull out a blender, and start making a green smoothie. When I told him he couldn't use a blender in the library, his response was "But I just got out of the gym! And besides I'm uh... [squints at book] learning about the Himalayas!"
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Oct 21, 2023 05:49
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So my library's copy of The Goetia: The Lesser Key of Solomon the King has gone missing. Somebody's trying to conjure demons and doesn't want anyone else to know .
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Dec 9, 2023 16:03
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Tippecanoe posted:Welp, accepted my academic job offer and sent in my resignation letter, so I'm turning in my weirdo card. Best of luck, fellow public library weirdos Um... as an academic (non-library), I'm not sure how to understand your assumption that your weirdo card won't still be 1000% valid at your academic job. Also: congratulations!
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Dec 11, 2023 02:23
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ExecuDork posted:Um... as an academic (non-library), I'm not sure how to understand your assumption that your weirdo card won't still be 1000% valid at your academic job. Thank you! Yes, this is clear to me after working for a month and meeting all my new colleagues; my new Weirdo Card is a different colour, but it is ultimately still a Weirdo Card.
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Dec 13, 2023 01:21
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Tippecanoe posted:Welp, accepted my academic job offer and sent in my resignation letter, so I'm turning in my weirdo card. Best of luck, fellow public library weirdos Congrats! I am the director of a small academic library and the first two library jobs I had were 1 year contracts like this. The second one I was able to turn into something more. The first one I wouldn't have wanted to and was happy to be able to leave easily. If you like it and are a good fit, it probably shouldn't be too much trouble to make into something real. If its a bad fit you'll be happy for an easy exit. The non-cynical explanation for the 1 year contracts is they help ensure they don't get stuck with too big of a weirdo for decades because once you're in, you're in.
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Jan 13, 2024 20:16
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hydroceramics posted:Congrats! I am the director of a small academic library and the first two library jobs I had were 1 year contracts like this. The second one I was able to turn into something more. The first one I wouldn't have wanted to and was happy to be able to leave easily. Thanks! I've definitely heard some mixed messages; for the institutions in my province, some people seem to get permanent in a year or so, others get shuffled around for years. Overall it's still miles ahead of my old job, so while this contract business does frustrate me (and I am not looking forward to interviewing again) it's not like I'd jump back to the public sector. My supervisor is saying that I might be a good fit for a permanent job that's coming up next year but I'm not sure if that's for serious or if she's just trying to convince me to take on more work. I do fill a bit of a niche by having more technical skills than a lot of the other librarians. We'll see what happens!
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Jan 16, 2024 02:56
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Tippecanoe posted:Thanks! I've definitely heard some mixed messages; for the institutions in my province, some people seem to get permanent in a year or so, others get shuffled around for years. Overall it's still miles ahead of my old job, so while this contract business does frustrate me (and I am not looking forward to interviewing again) it's not like I'd jump back to the public sector. My supervisor is saying that I might be a good fit for a permanent job that's coming up next year but I'm not sure if that's for serious or if she's just trying to convince me to take on more work. I do fill a bit of a niche by having more technical skills than a lot of the other librarians. We'll see what happens! Be careful to not over-extend yourself. Knowing how much you can do and doing it well are, in my opinion, worth more than being willing to get loaded way down and overworked. I've had colleagues in your position, and taking on a bunch of extra stuff didn't wind up paying off for them. Being good at communicating, being good at the work, and being easy to get along with will probably have a much bigger impact. Of course take this advice with a grain of salt; I don't know you, your boss, or your circumstances as well as you do. Edit: having had a little more time to think about it, if you're going to take on 'extra' work, try to do things like committee representation and other university service work. That tends to be a big avenue for career advancement anyway (rather than publishing). Also don't neglect professional development opportunities. hydroceramics fucked around with this message at 01:05 on Jan 17, 2024 |
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Jan 16, 2024 03:16
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Midjack posted:True Porn Clerk Stories, on improvisation.ws. The site is long gone but the Wayback Machine provides at least the first page: Forgive me for responding to an ancient post like a weirdo but I just discovered this thread today and read the whole thing immediately like a mad woman. I also really enjoyed the first page of the Porn Clerk thread posted above but it seems like pages 2 and 3 weren't archived. After some digging around, I found a full archive of the Porn Clerk Stories thread in PDF form for anyone who wants to see the rest of it. I hope posting this link isn't against any rules. It's not  because it's an archive of the thread, not the book version of it but If anyone has an issue with me posting this link here, I'll remove it immediately. http://eeyore.uh.cz/wp-content/themes/bk/stuff/true%20porn%20clerk%20stories.pdf This was a fun read. This thread was also a hoot as well! Thanks OP! 
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Feb 27, 2024 19:47
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So here's what some illiterate did this past Friday: 
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Mar 4, 2024 01:31
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Book donations aggravate me. People just don't understand that we have no interest in taking their trash off their hands. When I used to tell people we wouldn't take their donations for XYZ reason they'd just inevitably dump them in the book drop or leave them in a box somewhere or even hide them on shelves.
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Mar 4, 2024 01:38
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Question: What about brand new, current books? I was gifted a couple of cook books that just isn't my thing. Is there a chance my local public library potentially be interested in it?
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Mar 4, 2024 04:09
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slidebite posted:Question: What about brand new, current books? I was gifted a couple of cook books that just isn't my thing. Is there a chance my local public library potentially be interested in it? Definitely way more likely to be appreciated than most donations. You still might want to check their donations policy or give them a call, just in case. At my current institution we have a total freeze on donations right now just because we have a huge backlog that we don't have the time to deal with.
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Mar 4, 2024 04:17
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slidebite posted:Question: What about brand new, current books? I was gifted a couple of cook books that just isn't my thing. Is there a chance my local public library potentially be interested in it? Do you have little free libraries in your neighborhood? They're a great place to get rid of books if so. There is also the time honoured tradition of leaving it out the front of your house with a sign saying "free" or "$10" if you really want someone to take it.
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Mar 4, 2024 05:13
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