Rant of the day; our public library

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Our local library system, considered one of the best in Canada, and number one in usage, is getting rid of the primary reason for it’s existence. Books. The average employee is not happy about it either. In order to comply with city regulations regarding accessibility to the disabled, all books on the bottom and top shelves in all 8 branches of the library have been removed. In addition, the middle shelves have been stripped of about 40% of the titles so they aren’t crammed in. The shelves themselves, formerly about 7 feet high, have been reduced to five feet. This means I can no longer just wander in to the nearest branch, or even the main one, and pick up a handful of my favorite novels. I can order them, and they will arrive from distant branches in smaller towns, but it takes weeks. The thinking is, why would we carry an older title by author A when they have one in Coronach, only 200 miles away?

Now they’re talking about the need for a new library downtown, costing $150 million. Reason; they’ve run out of space for the number of items they need to stock. My thinking is if they’d kept the original shelves and filled them to the brim like every other library in the civilized world maybe they wouldn’t need a new and luxurious building. Our daughter worked for a number of years in the main branch and said, besides the city regulations, the whole place is run by morons who don’t appear to have ever read a book in their lives.
 
Wow, that sounds crazy. Surely, there are other solutions…
 
I don’t know about Canada, but the public libraries where I live have become havens for the homeless and the jobless and the mentally ill. I don’t even feel safe walking into the public library. They take over the computers and many are so
unclean. I would not want to sit down and use the same computers or sit in the
chairs for fear of bedbugs.
 
7_Sorrows said:
I don’t know about Canada,
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Unfortunately it’s exactly the same here. When our daughter worked there she said, at the downtown branch at least, the police might be called several times a day to deal with disruptive people. The vision for the vast new library is to include video gaming and a coffee shop. Yup, that’ll solve the problem.
 
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As a disabled person, I honestly would weep for joy if our library was so considerate! It is easy to take for granted reaching the bottom shelf or top shelves.

I’ve never minded inter-library loans, nor being on a wait list for a popular book.

The online apps from our library allow me to access thousands of titles right from my smart phone.
 
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TheLittleLady said:
As a disabled person, I honestly would weep for joy if our library was so considerate
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The problem is that the issues the city is addressing really don’t exist. There are plenty of staff on hand to assist anyone who needs it. And the disabled voices in the newpaper say they would far rather have a greater selection and are dismayed at the downsizing. The inter-library loan system takes weeks. According to our daughter the books they are culling are being withdrawn without any thought as to their popularity. The basic issue is not accessibility but the incompetence of those running the system.
 
CelticWarlord said:
There are plenty of staff on hand to assist anyone who needs it.
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Imagine for a moment that you have to ask someone for help every time you go to a store, a library, etc. It takes a toll on a person, the lack of independence, it can make one feel infantalized. What you talk about, the joy of browsing the shelves, is gone when you have to go find a grown up to reach a book for you.
 
I am 5’8” and sometimes I still have to get someone at the market to get something for me because it may be too heavy or up too high. It’s not something I mind asking for, and anyone I have asked for help has always done so without a second thought.

There comes a time when logic needs to be applied also. Yes, it is nice for people to be able to help themselves, but not at the cost of losing what the majority of people go to the library for. All one needs to do is ask for assistance.
 
It seems like there should be some sort of middle-ground solution. Maybe make the public portion of the library a bit smaller with accessible shelving and then add a “staff only” section where they can have floor-to-ceiling book shelves with books crammed in as much as space allows. That way all the books are still there at least.

We request all our library books online. That way I don’t have to searching the aisles for anything. I just go pick them up from the pick-up room and then use the self-checkout. I’m in and out in less than a minute. 😁
 
Irishmom2 said:
It’s not something I mind asking for, and anyone I have asked for help has always done so without a second thought.
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However, doing it every day all day? Accessibility is a good thing. Ableism is real.
 
There may be more to it than this.

Not too long ago, our local library system combined with other regional library systems.

Like you, we have to wait longer to receive a book because of holds on them.

I have noticed that titles are taken out of the system now so that new ones can come into the system.

It’s my opinion that this was probably one of the reasons for having the libraries combine their inventory.

There have been positives and negatives to it, from what I can see. The positives include the sharing of resources and books over a broader area.

The negatives include lesser inventories than there were before locally, and longer wait times on both e-books and hard copies of books at times.

Our libraries have cut back on staff and have put in several self-check out areas so that you can check out your own library materials.
 
Ah, yes. The self check out areas that many times mafunction and you have to
ask for assistance anyway. Sometimes the librarians are just sitting at a desk
twiddling their thumbs.
 
Hi 7_Sorrows,

It’s always great to see you posting! :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

I haven’t seen any librarians that are not really doing anything.

In fact, when I go into our local library branch, it’s hard to find anybody around.

Sometimes I’ll see someone putting books back on the shelves, but other than that, no one else really seems to be around. Usually the clerks are the ones who do the shelving.

I don’t see many librarians around.

It’s pretty quiet regarding staff.

There are still many library patrons/customers who use the libraries here though, but like I said, there has been a cut-back regarding staff.
 
@oldgraymare2. nice to see you too! ☺️

At the public library in the last community I lived in, most of the time they were behind the desk where you first walk in. Rarely do you see them.on the floor.
The small branch library I have been to twice in the community I live in now,
they sit behind a desk too. I don’t know what they do all day.
 
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