I read a lot.  Currently I am reading Joel McHale's autobiography.  It's an old library edition.  I don't think too many people clamored to the library to check that one out.  Do libraries measure the success and failures of their book buyers?  If you spent money to get Joel's book when it dropped you paid close to peak pricing.  If it was only checked out 5 times and sold on Amazon for under $10 I feel like this is a fail.  I wonder how many fails before they fire the librarian.

May 19, 2020 12:12:34 GMT theend said:

I read a lot.  Currently I am reading Joel McHale's autobiography.  It's an old library edition.  I don't think too many people clamored to the library to check that one out.  Do libraries measure the success and failures of their book buyers?  If you spent money to get Joel's book when it dropped you paid close to peak pricing.  If it was only checked out 5 times and sold on Amazon for under $10 I feel like this is a fail.  I wonder how many fails before they fire the librarian.

Such an interesting side to the library game I never thought about. I guess I just assumed they're all nonprofits because I always knew them as public libraries growing up. But you're right, you've got to have some kind of metrics to measure performance, right? Or maybe @ness can confirm all gov't jobs, even peripheral ones, are the same.

May 19, 2020 12:12:34 GMT theend said:

I read a lot.  Currently I am reading Joel McHale's autobiography.  It's an old library edition.  I don't think too many people clamored to the library to check that one out.  Do libraries measure the success and failures of their book buyers?  If you spent money to get Joel's book when it dropped you paid close to peak pricing.  If it was only checked out 5 times and sold on Amazon for under $10 I feel like this is a fail.  I wonder how many fails before they fire the librarian.

I am fascinated by this post. Luckily I am friends with an actual librarian. A private school librarian, but still. I assume she knows stuff about the library game. I will look into this via my inside source.

On a related note, does anybody on PW besides me still frequent their local library? I am a regular patron of multiple Baltimore County public libraries. I've had 2 books checked out for months due to BCPL libraries being closed because of stupid COVID 19. I also borrow videos from my libraries which lead to this conversation with my work friend about a year ago....

Angie: I just watched ____ on Netflix. It's really good! You should watch it.
Me: W...what is a "Netflix??"
Angie: Shut up. You know what Netflix is.
Me: LOL of course I do. I was just playing up the gimmick since you all think I still live in the 19th Century. I really don't have Netflix though.
Angie: You should get it. It's really good. How do you watch movies or tv shows?
Me: I don't watch much movies and tv to be honest. But sometimes I'll watch regular tv. I don't have cable though. Just a few channels. Other times I'll watch stuff online. And sometimes I'll get stuff from the library.
Angie: They still have libraries?
Me: Shut up. Of course they do.
Angie: I wasn't joking! I honestly wasn't sure if they still existed. Haven't been to the library since I was a teenager. (Angie is somewhere in her 30s)

Which reminds me, I miss Angie She was my favorite coworker. But she left me a short time back for a new job. It was the work equivalent of 🤯 leaving PW.

May 19, 2020 14:32:13 GMT Baker said:

May 19, 2020 12:12:34 GMT theend said:

I read a lot.  Currently I am reading Joel McHale's autobiography.  It's an old library edition.  I don't think too many people clamored to the library to check that one out.  Do libraries measure the success and failures of their book buyers?  If you spent money to get Joel's book when it dropped you paid close to peak pricing.  If it was only checked out 5 times and sold on Amazon for under $10 I feel like this is a fail.  I wonder how many fails before they fire the librarian.

I am fascinated by this post. Luckily I am friends with an actual librarian. A private school librarian, but still. I assume she knows stuff about the library game. I will look into this via my inside source.

On a related note, does anybody on PW besides me still frequent their local library? I am a regular patron of multiple Baltimore County public libraries. I've had 2 books checked out for months due to BCPL libraries being closed because of stupid COVID 19. I also borrow videos from my libraries which lead to this conversation with my work friend about a year ago....

Angie: I just watched ____ on Netflix. It's really good! You should watch it.
Me: W...what is a "Netflix??"
Angie: Shut up. You know what Netflix is.
Me: LOL of course I do. I was just playing up the gimmick since you all think I still live in the 19th Century. I really don't have Netflix though.
Angie: You should get it. It's really good. How do you watch movies or tv shows?
Me: I don't watch much movies and tv to be honest. But sometimes I'll watch regular tv. I don't have cable though. Just a few channels. Other times I'll watch stuff online. And sometimes I'll get stuff from the library.
Angie: They still have libraries?
Me: Shut up. Of course they do.
Angie: I wasn't joking! I honestly wasn't sure if they still existed. Haven't been to the library since I was a teenager. (Angie is somewhere in her 30s)

Which reminds me, I miss Angie She was my favorite coworker. But she left me a short time back for a new job. It was the work equivalent of 🤯 leaving PW.

If Big Pete is Sideshow Pete, PB is Plum Bum, @ness is Nessticle, Emp is Dr. Emperor, etc. I guess I can be PW Angie.

But Ness is NOT Nessticle. Stop trying to make it happen!

@ness, Nessticle?

Haha that's awesome.

May 19, 2020 14:32:13 GMT Baker said:

May 19, 2020 12:12:34 GMT theend said:

I read a lot.  Currently I am reading Joel McHale's autobiography.  It's an old library edition.  I don't think too many people clamored to the library to check that one out.  Do libraries measure the success and failures of their book buyers?  If you spent money to get Joel's book when it dropped you paid close to peak pricing.  If it was only checked out 5 times and sold on Amazon for under $10 I feel like this is a fail.  I wonder how many fails before they fire the librarian.

I am fascinated by this post. Luckily I am friends with an actual librarian. A private school librarian, but still. I assume she knows stuff about the library game. I will look into this via my inside source.

On a related note, does anybody on PW besides me still frequent their local library? I am a regular patron of multiple Baltimore County public libraries. I've had 2 books checked out for months due to BCPL libraries being closed because of stupid COVID 19. I also borrow videos from my libraries which lead to this conversation with my work friend about a year ago....

Mom and I do.  We use their online courses all the time.   I was learning Gaelic last month.  Mom still checks out books and movies.  We make a yearly donation to them.

Anybody remember when the Dewey decimal system was in card form, so they really made you work for it if you wanted it. 

I should mention my daughter is an avid reader and still frequents the local libraries.  For school but also because she loves them.  I once thought she would work in one.  Alas, I was wrong.

May 19, 2020 15:39:30 GMT 🤯 said:

May 19, 2020 14:32:13 GMT Baker said:

If Big Pete is Sideshow Pete, PB is Plum Bum, @ness is Nessticle, Emp is Dr. Emperor , etc. I guess I can be PW Angie.

I now christen you PW Angie.

Fun Fact: Just two days ago I appointed my main man Eddie as the new work Angie. He was flattered! The young lad is only like 22 but he's a hardcore basketball historian and we enjoy discussing 80s & 90s NBA. He's been going on about that Jordan series for weeks. I also taught him my two best basketball moves- The Scoop and The Spread Eagle. He says he's going to start recording his games so he can show me him Scooping and Spread Eagling on people. Can't wait! Eddie rules.

All this chatter about PW Angie's and Nessticles reminds me of my failed attempts to get Magnum PI and Nessie over. 

May 19, 2020 16:17:22 GMT iron maiden said:

Anybody remember when the Dewey decimal system was in card form, so they really made you work for it if you wanted it. 

OMG yes. Digging through the card catalog built character. That's a nice way of saying it was a pain in the ass. Moving the catalog online was a godsend. Now I know exactly which library will be carrying what I am interested in so I no longer have to drive to half a dozen libraries to find what I am looking for.

Back on topic, I just texted my private school librarian friend with theend's original questions. Will post results when she gets back to me. 

🤯 why didn't you let Magnum be a thing? It's way better than Wife 's nickname for you...Cutie Pi.

May 19, 2020 17:14:29 GMT Big Pete said:

🤯 why didn't you let Magnum be a thing? It's way better than Wife 's nickname for you...Cutie Pi.

I didn't know "Magnum" was an option! Was I asleep at the wheel?! I'm OK with an amalgamation: "Cutie Pi" Magnum Angie.

May 19, 2020 12:12:34 GMT theend said:

I read a lot.  Currently I am reading Joel McHale's autobiography.  It's an old library edition.  I don't think too many people clamored to the library to check that one out.  Do libraries measure the success and failures of their book buyers?  If you spent money to get Joel's book when it dropped you paid close to peak pricing.  If it was only checked out 5 times and sold on Amazon for under $10 I feel like this is a fail.  I wonder how many fails before they fire the librarian.

I know In the theological library I use that books that don’t get checked out often get sent to the store, which in turn means they’ll be checked out even less as people can’t just happen upon it. So if there’s a book I feel is important I check it out now and again to make sure it stays in circulation.

My librarian friend finally got back to me today. I had honestly forgotten all about this thread. I will transcribe her messages word for word.

For our school, we got rid of books because they were either falling apart, or hadn't been checked out in over 3 years. If no one was reading it, or it was in terrible condition, we would either donate it or try to sell it.

I think for the public library, they buy a lot of copies of new books to keep up with demand when they first come out. Once the initial demand wanes, I think they get rid of some.

I take the daughter to the library once per week. It started as a Summer Reading program thing to get her free stuff for reading but eventually turned into an every week thing. We’ve missed it a lot, but the library’s closed and I haven’t had a Saturday off in two months so we wouldn’t have been going anyway.

I think our local one is open for curbside pickup orders now, and will eventually open to adults before letting kids in, so hopefully with some of my work stuff winding down I’ll be back to it soon.

May 19, 2020 15:59:22 GMT @ness said:

But Ness is NOT Nessticle. Stop trying to make it happen!

Sorry Nesticle. To be fair, there was never the second S when I started typing it. I think there was an old NES emulator called Nesticle that I got that name from. 

Anyways, good question theend. 

And I love the library. I don't remember the last novel I bought, always (was) checking things out from the library. Have also read a ton of comics from the library too, especially if I was on the fence about buying them. 

The plan was to start taking my son to the library, like what mikec does. He's 2.5, and loves to read. We'll see. Being so isolated, and boring, my Province is currently sitting at 17 active cases, so everything is starting to reopen now. 

My local library has fantastic stuff, other than the obvious good books they have many acclaimed graphic novels as well as new movies & CD’s.

Tried to sit in there before for peace & quiet but there’s always tutors that all talk like they skulled 8 cans of mother and will die if there’s any hint of silence between sentences.