My Library is terrible.

[NecroCombine666]

I have a list of 47 books.

Out of all of those they only carry SlaughterHouse-Five, Brave New World, Farenheit 451 and a H. G. Wells collection. Got it for The Sleeper awakes. No Shape of things To Come though. :(

[Dark Muse]

That is like the library at the university I go to. The library where I attended community college was really good and I spent a lot of time there, but the library at the university is lame and a joke. I have only stepped into it a couple of times.

[Tallon]

I've only found one library in my city and its outlying towns which has any decent fiction in it. Most have no Dostoevsky, Shakespeare, etc. at all, only genre fiction. It's really terrible.

[NecroCombine666]

Yeah everything I searched for in their catalog besides what I found was either in miamisburg (5 minutes away), Dayton (15), Troy (an hour) or trotwood (20 minutes away)

[Annamariah]

Can't the books you're looking for be delivered from another library?

At least where I come from you're not supposed to find every single book you might be looking for in one library, but for 0.50 euros they'll get you whichever book you're looking from another library and you can come and pick it up in a few days (unless, of course, there are a lot of people after the same book and no copies are available at the moment, then you'll have to wait for a bit longer).

[DaveB]

My library is fiction-deprived too. We have a system called Inter Library Loan (ILL) which allows us to search a large number of library catalogs and request that a book be loaned to us via our local library. It costs $1.50 USD per book and takes around a week. It eliminates spontaneity from my choices, but at least I can get the books I really want to read.

Recent genre fiction is, of course, plentiful at my library. Classics? Forget it!

[Hank Stamper]

I visited my local library about a year ago after moving back to the area where I grew up.. there seems to be more DVDs and magazines than books.. not how I remember it from when I was younger! Our local bookshop is pretty good tho, even tho it doesn't carry a great deal of stock, what it does sell is generally high quality

[stlukesguild]

NecroCombine666... how long of a commute is Columbus? I would assume (although I could be wrong... ) that they have a major library. Obviously in Cleveland I have access to a world-class library... and even more so Virgil in New York. Outside of research for college courses, I must admit to rarely using the library. I prefer to own any book I read because I am almost certain to wish to refer to it again at some time.

[JBI]

The library at my university, well the big one anyway, there are many, is of Borgesian Proportions. My personal has about 80 books that I would consider noteworthy, I kind of shoved all my other books into the waste basket as I decided they weren't worth keeping.

Only one first edition, and that is of Findley's Not Wanted on the Voyage. Got it from 2 dollars :).

I think though my most prized book is my Canti by Leopardi in the original - the Garzanti edition, with the extremely wide range of critical notes (an incredible little bit of scholarship, the Garzanti publishing series on poets is fantastic) and perhaps my Twentieth Century Italian Poetry, an Anthology edited by John Picchione and Lawrence R. Smith, which offers the poems in Italian, with extensive notes in English.

I think I'm rather lucky, relative to other people - I have the TPL which is essentially all-containing, and I have the Robarts Library, which virtually has everything, though isn't by any means public. I think the best way around not having libraries is to convince your friends to like what you like, and then simply trade books. I'm sure there are people out there who like the same works as you, so it shouldn't be too difficult.

[kelby_lake]

Local libraries are generally not great but order out of county.

[JBI]

I don't know - I have the best local library - I get every book I want for a month without worrying. IT depends how big the municipality that you are in is, and how library-focused your country is.

[NecroCombine666]

sorry i forgot about this site for quite a while. Columbus is 2 hrs away.

[Lokasenna]

I don't know what its like in the States, but in Britain you can go into a library and ask them to buy any book for you, and they will; you don't even pay a penny (except in taxes, obviously).

[wessexgirl]

I don't know what its like in the States, but in Britain you can go into a library and ask them to buy any book for you, and they will; you don't even pay a penny (except in taxes, obviously).

In theory maybe. I used to work in Public Libraries, (I'm now a School Librarian), and there is a very tight balancing act. We used to have our Book Fund cut every year, but at the same time we always encouraged our borrowers to suggest things, not just on what books to buy. The level of interaction, (or the encouraging of it) between the service and the users was very good, but in real terms, if they bought everything everyone suggested.... well they couldn't in reality. I know there was special collections in my area, for example where they took a group of teenagers and got them to buy books. But I don't think it could work across the board, as I remember with dismay the almost daily discussions, often heated, from certain members of the public about which newspapers we bought. As a smallish branch Library, we only had a selection, but that never pleased everyone, and I remember a couple of incidents in particular, such as a very arrogant man who was not even a regular user of the Library, demanding that he got a certain paper. What happened? We duly ordered it and never saw him again, and another one who shouted loudly every day about what he wanted and which he never got :rolleyes: .

My own personal Library is probably over a thousand. I am an avid collector, but I haven't read them all, unfortunately. I live by that quote from Borges(?)
"I have always imagined Heaven to be a kind of Library."

[Pecksie]

I've found that buying through Amazon (or, I suppose, any of the similar websites) is a good option. I've made a good library for myself, very seldom breaking my self-imposed rule of never buying a book that costs more than one buck.

Since I live in a Spanish-speaking environment, it's difficult to find English-language books in the libraries. So this was a life-changing option for me. I had access to books I would otherwise never have been able to read.

[andave_ya]

[QUOTE=Pecksie;710483]I've found that buying through Amazon (or, I suppose, any of the similar websites) is a good option. I've made a good library for myself, very seldom breaking my self-imposed rule of never buying a book that costs more than one buck.[QUOTE]

less than a buck from Amazon?? WOW :). I get most of my books from the library booksales, and those are a dollar each, hardcover, too.

[Janine]

I am in the US but live in a small town. Actually, my library has really old books, but also newer ones and usually I do find what I am looking for there, but not always; in that case, one can request the book and have it send (free of charge) to our library from many of the branches in the county - wherever they locate the book. This applied to DVD's/videos as well; so I don't think it is such a bad deal in the long run. I too, have found books (even hardbacks) at my little library and brandnew editions for sale between 50 cents and a dollar. I think the paperbacks are 25 cents sometimes. For a time, the library had tons of books on a free give-away shelf. Apparently, they were clearing out old ones; also, people donate their old books, so they had a major overflow. I actually, found some real gems on the freebie shelf; one was a brand new edition (pristine condition) of "Anna Karenina". I thought of going to different libaries in the area, to see if they sold books cheap or gave them away; but I never followed through on that note. As it is written, "seek and thee shall find". Yardsales and thriftstores are also great sources for used books.

[Michael T]

I’m very fortunate because as already mentioned by ‘Lokasenna’ above, in the UK the local library will order in any book they don't have in stock. In my city there are also two universities with libraries and plenty of bookshops. Also, the charity shops in the area where most of the students are concentrated have a constant supply of great literature and textbooks flowing through them to choose from. They cost next to nothing to buy and are in great condition, as the students don’t seem to hang on to them for long!

[The Walker]

I don't know what its like in the States, but in Britain you can go into a library and ask them to buy any book for you, and they will; you don't even pay a penny (except in taxes, obviously).

Lokasenna, you are so lucky! that wouldn happen here (Ecuador), in a billion years hehe. Actually there are no libraries in the town i'm living, which sucks! I try to read on line but it is a waste of time or paper...

[metal134]

My local libraries suck as well. The main branch, which is downtown, was a place I used to go a lot when I was a kid and it was a damn good library. Well, I went last year, not having gone since I was about 14 (I'm 27 now). It now SUCKS. They used have just shelves and shelves of classic fiction. Now, there's about 4 bookcases, total. By comparison, there are reams and reams of, ROMANCE NOVELS. My local library carries more romance novels than classic literature. The library at my alma mater (the University of Akron) is WAY better. That's the one thing I miss about college. Having a good library.

[Nightshade]

I don't know what its like in the States, but in Britain you can go into a library and ask them to buy any book for you, and they will; you don't even pay a penny (except in taxes, obviously).

Actually that isnt exactly true. There are all sorts of factors that we have tp go through to decide if we will buy the book like is it only published abroad, is it still in print, just how likly is this book to be borrowed.. there is an equation that I am supposed to be revising right now as I have this exam in 2 weeks but for the life of me I cant think what it is .. lets just say the image libraries try to give is they will get you anything and they do try to the best of abilities but there are occasioans when we can't .


In theory maybe. I used to work in Public Libraries, (I'm now a School Librarian), and there is a very tight balancing act. We used to have our Book Fund cut every year, but at the same time we always encouraged our borrowers to suggest things, not just on what books to buy. The level of interaction, (or the encouraging of it) between the service and the users was very good, but in real terms, if they bought everything everyone suggested.... well they couldn't in reality. I know there was special collections in my area, for example where they took a group of teenagers and got them to buy books. But I don't think it could work across the board, as I remember with dismay the almost daily discussions, often heated, from certain members of the public about which newspapers we bought. As a smallish branch Library, we only had a selection, but that never pleased everyone, and I remember a couple of incidents in particular, such as a very arrogant man who was not even a regular user of the Library, demanding that he got a certain paper. What happened? We duly ordered it and never saw him again, and another one who shouted loudly every day about what he wanted and which he never got :rolleyes: .

My own personal Library is probably over a thousand. I am an avid collector, but I haven't read them all, unfortunately. I live by that quote from Borges(?)
"I have always imagined Heaven to be a kind of Library."

exactly! :D

[Lokasenna]

Actually that isnt exactly true. There are all sorts of factors that we have tp go through to decide if we will buy the book like is it only published abroad, is it still in print, just how likly is this book to be borrowed.. there is an equation that I am supposed to be revising right now as I have this exam in 2 weeks but for the life of me I cant think what it is .. lets just say the image libraries try to give is they will get you anything and they do try to the best of abilities but there are occasioans when we can't .

Maybe I've just been lucky (or have particularly charitable librarians), but they've always got in everything I've asked for, and I've requested some very esoteric texts... one of my hobbies is Judeo-Christian mythology, and some of those books wouldn't attract a mass audience...

[Drkshadow03]

My local libraries suck as well. The main branch, which is downtown, was a place I used to go a lot when I was a kid and it was a damn good library. Well, I went last year, not having gone since I was about 14 (I'm 27 now). It now SUCKS. They used have just shelves and shelves of classic fiction. Now, there's about 4 bookcases, total. By comparison, there are reams and reams of, ROMANCE NOVELS. My local library carries more romance novels than classic literature. The library at my alma mater (the University of Akron) is WAY better. That's the one thing I miss about college. Having a good library.

Well, the Romance genre is the best-selling genre in all the world.

[Nightshade]

Also in a twist, alot of people who read romance would rather borrow it then spend the money buying it becasue they will only read it the once, so it is also one of the highest borrowed genres.
Popular theory is people dont want teh classics. But I have to saythat m,my own reserach showed that highest 2 asked for wer more classics and more romance books.
seems the ausianc e for those two nevre reach 'readerr saturastion' which is basically Ive read this gere to death can we go with something new now?
:d