Libraries

How's your local library? I'd say mine's pretty good for the most part. I visited a big library I used to work at during high school/college and I was shocked to find that almost everything is automated now. There's only one person working the downsized front desk. I figure they could operate with half the personnel they used to.

I'm a university student and we have a large research library, so I have access to just about anything I can think of. The local library is respectable but I usually go to the one on campus. Both are heavily automated, as you mention, but the school's librarians are all experts.

My local library system is great. The main branch building was built in the late 90s and is quite large. I remember using some ancient amber plasma screen catalogue computers until the mid 00s when they introduced a more user-friendly system.

The town I grew up in, despite being one of the smaller settlements in the county, actually has the largest branch library by luck of being Carnegie Library from the 1910s that received a extension in the late 70s that about tripled it's floor space. Liberally I'd say it's about a third the size of the main library.

So as such, I had really great access to books growing up which I supposed has helped turn me into somebody who finds reading pleasurable instead of only reading Dan Brown or hanging out at the Starbucks with a copy of The Great Gatsby and hoping the barista notices.

The library at my local community college is okay, but it's more of a computer/study center with a research library attached I suppose.

It's shit. They have a couple of worthwhile books in the "assigned reading" section and maybe a couple of Library of America hardcovers of 3-4 authors who aren't total garbage, but other than that you could toss 90% of the books there into a dumpster and not lose anything of value.

In my experience at my local library, it is mostly children and elderly women who utilize the library, so most of the shitty books caters to the biggest demographic. I feel the same way as you, though. It is over-brim with trash.

>it is mostly children and elderly women

I work at my neighborhood library, this is largely the case. We're in a consortium with a bunch of other libraries in the county, however, so all kinds of books are always passing through, and I get first dibs. It can be tedious dealing with the people who are still dependent on the library for internet access and the like though.

I still use my university's massive library. They're building a new and thinking of instituting automated retrieval, which I hope they don't do since I liked freestyling in the stacks -discovered a lot that way.

I used to go to the library a lot when i was a kid, pre internet, or at least pre when i had a computer.
I remember i would get so many books and graphic novels.
Also one of the librarians had a fat ass and i would get boners while pretending to read and staring at it.
I feel sad thinking about how empty they must be now

They have IJ, so that's all that matters

Don't worry, libraries will still be popular as a place for homeless people to use computers. Or teenagers to play Runescape/Adventure Quest out from under the eyes of overly protective parents.

Small but decently sorted library 300 meters away. University library with books on all kinds of subject. Main library with lots of old out of print fiction. It's pretty good.

it's very cozy! i usually go to the one on my campus, it's pretty big with a ton of super interesting older books.
i also notice the automation thing, i suppose there's just not too much need for librarians anymore. it makes me a bit sad, to be honest, or just nostalgic maybe, but i guess that's the times we're living in.

Someone post the ripping out pages pasta.

>i also notice the automation thing
Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

The last thing I read from a library.

Absolute trash

They don't even have basic stuff like George Orwell, Ernest Hemingway or Hunter S. Thompson

where abouts do you live? what do they have?

Mosul

Somewhat regional Australia

Literally nothing but garbage, Jodie percult that's about it

Even the non fiction is trash

I work at a library in New Zealand, a lot of our physical checkouts are automated but we stay fairly busy. Part of the effort to keep libraries relevant is to branch out, my job is mostly to push our digital services.

>be from shithole
>study in europe for several years
>dem libraries
>dem knowledge
>my mind when
>be back in shithole
>'libraries'
>'life'

why live

on the other hand, only this thirst can make you make the most of it. cause if you are just there and take it for granted, you wont know what to do with all that. this at least is my experience from the people i shared with.

Where are you from?
You know, you can always come back.

>get a library card
>having fun is still incredibly hard

which library whanau i used to work at a library in akl

post your local library

from latam. and yeah i know, hopefully i will sometime. but it is also cheap as fuck here, which is good to live the lit lifestyle on your own.

...

I use my university library. It's nothing special, but it has all I need, so there's no need for me to go anywhere else for now.

>libgen.io
>openlibrary.com, no-drm software
>kindle for pc, buy books, no-drm software, retrurn instantly and get refund
>pic related for the library books
>pic related for amazon books and return them to get a refund

never spend a dime again on books, and get anything you want.

thank me later

I live in a small Eastern EU city. It's a nice place with nice people but there's not much going on. We do have one of the biggest and most modern libraries this side of Europe though.

youre pooing it brong.

I live pretty far out in the sticks, so mine's trash. It's so trash, in fact, that I'm going to donate a bunch of my books to it. I already asked if they'd want any and yes, they're pretty desperate.

made it in paint but I'll do a better one in PS later

Its a small semi private that was formed from a private endowment, but its connected to my state share system which has some ivies so its ok, if you are willing to wait a few weeks.

convenience cost is a real thing user.

...

>glorious neoclassical library with huge selection
>connected to private network that has never not had a book I am looking for
>across street from shelter and halfway house, one of which is only open from 6pm-6am
>literally filled with the homeless every day
>the aggressive drug addicted kind

It's shit because:

>small communist city in France
>only children for school, unsatisfied housewives, and old people use the library
>anyway it's closed out of working hours
>thus there are almost no classics or serious books

The backbone of society (white men who work) doesn't read anything at all nowadays. Cheap entertainment killed literature. So libraries are cesspools of insignificance.

I work in one of the North Shore Libraries. I've found I can have a great time if I don't pay too much attention to what's going on with upper management.

>Wanting to touch the same books as the unwashed masses

>unsatisfied housewives
I'd be in there every day

A small Irish town library, mostly stocking rubbish pop fiction, but one of the few places in the world you can get lesser found Irish works, great local selection

>his library doesnt protect the books with plastic covers
>he doestn remove the covers when reading borrowed books

think again. theyre french.

I love it, we have a book press so I can photocopy the old manuscripts from 1700-1900 they won't let me check out and print my own copies.

The 4 fundamentals of Psychoanalysis
>have

clinical intro to lacanian psychoanalysis
>don't

The Devil and commodity fetishism in South America
>don't

Being in the World
>don't

Beautiful albeit impersonal which is par the course for Portland.

Catch me haunting the Naperville Public Library sometime

The LA library is great. I only have 3 minor problems with them:

1. Their budget seems to have been cut to the extent that whether something on a small press put out between 2008-2016 is stocked can be hit or miss.

2. Most things more than 80 years old are reference only.

3. Many foreign and indy things from the 70's or before are reference only.

>1
That is par for the course everywhere except for maybe the USC and UCLA libraries.

>2
They're mostly just in the stacks and they'll go and have someone grab it for you just ask bro.

>3
That's mostly a consequence of hippy and alt trash being edgy and stealing the books leaving only the reference copies behind and they still try and steal those every once in a while.

t. gf who works there

Also the only place I saw a man openly viewing hardcore gay pornography without headphones.

Why do people do that? Why are they so degenerate? What's wrong with them?

That's either pure giving up, or homelessness/poverty

No local library in 50km range. My country is poor and low IQ, 300 euro a month wageslave with no life or benefits or retirement so they dont have to read.

If you go to library here you will be greeted by communist literature or some unreadable pop shit.

>without headphones.

degenerate barbarian.

you are a fag. people can do anything they want as long as they dont disturbe common order or harm anyone.

>The backbone of society (white men who work)
Spooky.

Small Irish town, so comfy but crap selection. The next town over has a great one that I used to go to as a kid. Big, nice selection, shitty town though.

I'm living in Poland at the moment so unfortunately the local libraries don't really have anything in my language beyond obvious classics. It's really impossible to find books in other languages translated to English here

Also you have to leave your coat when you go in in case you steal stuff. I find that slightly offensive.

I read something once where librarians say this is relatively common. I can't really understand how people can feel comfortable doing that but apparently it happens all the time and a lot of libraries pretty much accept it.

va te pendre pédé

>Also you have to leave your coat when you go in in case you steal stuff. I find that slightly offensive.

now you know what it feels like to be black.

My local library in the 90s had the "teen zone" that had the CRTs recessed under the tabletop with privacy shrouds above that.
Only in hindsight does it make sense.

Where do you live?

Eh, it's not that good.

There's a wide selection of books, and I could probably find something to read but the other day when I went to find some books to check out they either didn't have anything by the author I was looking for (Delillo, Gas,) or they didn't have the one's I was looking for (Vonnegut, Ellison, Chandler)
They did have a couple New York Times Bestsellers that I've been meaning to read just to see what all the hype is about, and they had a couple twenty-something girls behind the counter working there which is nice I guess, but I was hoping to get some books to read.

I guess I'll just have to either get an e-reader so I can torrent my books or I'll have to wait until I can afford to pay $4 per book for each one I want to read from Amazon.

Not really. But if he threw a violent temper tantrum in the middle of the library because of its coat policy, then he would know what it's like to be black.

South of Seattle. Amazon scares the public works into greatness.

Not really. But if he threw a violent temper tantrum in the middle of the library because of its coat policy, then he would know what it's like to be white.

>be me
>go to large state university with research library with ~3 million books
>library is pretty great, find most of all the books I've ever needed for assignments
>talking to friend
>tell him I'm going to the library to check out a book I need
>"which library, user?"
>tell him the big one on campus
>"oh I didn't know they had books there. I only go there to use the Starbucks and do work on my computer. I've never seen any books there"
>mfw

>you are a fag

No I'm not. It's gross to see people looking at porn in public. I only go to campus libraries and I'm sick of homeless people or old wrecks coming in to look at pornography. They're obviously not students or professors and they're not paying tuition so I don't get why we have to tolerate them. It makes me want to go full /pol/

If people want "access to information" then that's fine, but if someone's looking at porn they should get kicked the fuck out and told not to return.

My new library is cozier than I had expected.

There's a second floor dedicated to it's history and it was undergoing remodeling to install an escalator.

Plus someone decorated signs for letters in where to look. I don't know who did that, but I liked the very simple looking signs.

I thought the library in my old town was part of the indian reservation because I saw a lot of rough looking kids use the computers there.

Because I was twelve and three quarters old, I thought rough looking = Indian reservation kid.

When will I be able to scan a book's ISBN on my phone and have it automatically checked out weeks on my kindle

you can get any mass printed book for $0.01 + shipping on Amazon

Doesn't make much sense. Whites are less violent blacks and aren't known for mass organized rioting in response to perceived social injustices

>has never seen a midwestern college town after they loose a football game

My city used to have a very ugly, hidden-away, obscure library which you pretty much had to search for to find. Located in a bleak, postwar building. There was only two floors, and they were packed with shelves and books, lots of comfy corners between bookshelves. There were hardly anyone there.

A few years ago the city spent loads of money improving the cultural facilities of the city, which included a wholly new library building. Now the library is in this very centrally located, modern, fancy looking building of glass and light concrete and marble. There are several floors, and huge open spaces there. Now it's filled with normies and immigrants, and despite being massively larger than the previous one, the selection in books hasn't actually improved.

Went there last week, tried to read a bit, but was disturbed by this dumb bitch and her normie boyfriend who were talking rather loudly, and even kissing behind the shelves.
It's much worse now.

No, they riot because their hockey team only finished second.

just know that shitlibs only get a free pass for this kind of equivocation during the summer because the whole board gets so shit that no one notices you

Nice """argument"""

a bad football riot every few years committed by 60% of the population... headline dominating riots every month committed by 15% of the population...damn, i guess there just isn't an argument there at all.

>every month

My city's main library is small and there's not a huge amount. The old cosy university library was knocked down and replaced with a shiny normie infested one, which was a tragedy

>WE

Big shift the last 10 years, can not compete with the net. Specialy with current copyright regulation, both public and science libraries are struggeling to keep up with what I can get in mins. from torrent and streaming sites.

Horrible. It's small, has an extremely limited selection, and is ugly as fuck. The only good thing I have to say about it is that it came in handy when I first moved back here with almost nothing and needed internet access to look for/apply for jobs.

We also only have one used bookstore in town, with one more in any of our neighboring towns. I've only been to the one in my town as the other only just opened, and it doesn't have the best selection. It has a fair number of the classics, but usually not much that isn't strictly canon, found on typical high school/college curricula. The owner is pretty awesome though and both willing and able to get a copy of whatever you're looking for at a good price.