Entries tagged with libraries

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libraries

Who Ya Gonna Call to Save Your Library?

The ImprovEverywhere Ghostbusters are working to help the New York Public Library, which faces a $37 Million budget cut.

Link about the fundraising here: Don't Close the Book

If you are so inclined, you can add your voice by visiting their site (NYPL) and clicking to write NYC elected officials - simply filling in a short form will send an email to the Council Speaker and Mayor (and is OK if you are not from NYC!).

Current Mood: angry

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Angry Now

Story (acquired via

chernobylred) about children's books produced before 1985 now being illegal for resale because of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA), passed by Congress last summer after the panic over lead paint on toys from China.

Apparently, because there are trace elements of lead in the inks used to print some picture books pre-1985, we are now supposed to be concerned about vast numbers of children EATING vast numbers of children's books and getting lead-poisoning.

The New Book Banning

It's funny, but I seem to recall being raised with a great many picture books that were printed before 1985, and both my sister and I are still alive. Hmmmm...

While the law as it stands currently means that used book stores and secondhand shops may be prohibited from selling these books, the American Library Association has determined that until they are told otherwise, it does not apply to library collections, since they are not selling the books, and at least the last time I worked in a children's library, were also fairly active in discouraging people from eating them!!!! (The law will, however, probably play havoc with library book sale donations.)

Somebody really wasn't thinking when they wrote this damned thing. Phooey.

UPDATE: Additional link in the form of a guide to the CPSIA for Small Businesses, Resellers, Crafters and Charities.

Here's hoping that an offical review of the regulations by slightly-less-panicky-morons will help.

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Library Love

Today I am indulging in one of my favorite exercise programs - reshelving books. There's bending and stretching and lifting and walking and pushing heavy objects. When I used to do this sort of thing 20 hours a week, I was in much better shape than I am now. I've missed it. Plus, I am a chronic book-truck browser, so if a new book or two hasn't wandered back to my desk with me by the end of the day, I will be very surprised.

I've also come to realize recently that the longer I work in libraries, the less I view books as physical objects, and the more I see them as the ideas they contain.

Which means that the objects themselves can pass through my hands, leave, and come back again when I want them. Instead of being stored in boxes, rarely looked at, and hauled back and forth across the country "just in case" I need them - yes, guilty as charged. Did I mention that I have a bit of a hoarding problem? (Also a long-standing disappointment at the fact that a number of people who have the same interests as I do also seem to constitute a large percentage of the people who steal books from libraries - but that's another story, and can be told another time.) So this is a fairly revolutionary idea for me personally.

My newfound attitude doesn't apply to all my books. Some I can't replace, some have individual sentimental value, and some I just love so much that I'd have to keep them out on permanent loan. Those all need to stay. The rest though, the rest can travel. If I need them again, they'll come back.

Just another reason why I love libraries.

Libraries = freedom from stuff!