I am a public librarian and do a lot of thinking about libraries. Lots of people love the library, I certainly do, and they are always ready to have a story to tell about how great the library is or was for them.
I’d like to know what you HATE about the library. You can make it all the bitchfest that you want. I really just want to hear where the break points are and what libraries should be doing to improve.
Thanks a lot.
by [deleted]
37 Comments
[deleted]
When people forget that libraries aren’t just for books, they’re for information more broadly. Access to the internet for homeless/low income people is a major service, and some library patrons (and sometimes libraries themselves) seem to begrudge their use of public space.
The lack of books that I want to read.
I got into zombie and post apoc books a couple years ago and my library system didn’t have 99% of the books that I wanted to read. I couldn’t interlibrary loan them because my system instituted a $5 fee for every book requested and the book couldn’t have been released in the past 12 months.
I bought a kindle and some friends (that also have kindles) from different library systems share our library cards to borrow ebooks from each other.
Punk-ass book jockies!
The public.
Would be nice to have comic books available.
My local library is really filthy… It smells like moldy cheese and the bathrooms are gross.
This isn’t about the libraries per se, but the books themselves. I’ve seen people write comments in books, underling parts, even white out. I really hate it. The horror story of why I stopped going to libraries for quite some time was what looked very much like pubic hair under the plastic of the book jacket.
I hate how poorly the books are treated. A well read book is one thing, a broken book is another. Don’t fold down page or break the spine.
I don’t really have any complaints, except maybe the lack of lesser-known SciFi and Fantasy titles, but you can’t expect every library to have every book. I just wanted to say that my mother is a librarian (started out public librarian, now middle school), and thank you for what you do.
Honestly? The way the books are displayed on the shelves.
I wish more public libraries would approach their shelving like book stores. Face a few books instead of spine-ing them all. They’re more attractive to the eye of the passerby and creates more dynamic looking shelves. Plus, it’s a great and subtle way to let the library staff recommend books to the shy customers who might never ask for assistance in picking out something to read. The only real downside is that displaying books in this manner can eat up shelf space, which can be very limited.
My local library has great looking shelf displays in the visual media sections of the library, but the books are all just shoved into long, dusty rows. It’s depressing. Let their flashy titles and cover designs show once in a while!
The lack of a solid e-book system that’s adequately stocked both with titles you want to read and enough of those titles that you don’t have to be on a 75-person waitlist. I understand that the whole idea is still in its infancy, and the libraries themselves aren’t to blame, but come on.
I should point out I’m in the U.K., and my complains are specific to my local library, and the wider authority – they’re not indicative of all libraries in the U.K.
**A tendency to favour popular best sellers, over other authors.**
I have absolutely no problem with libraries buying Dan Brown books. He’s a popular author, his books will be in high demand – fair enough. But is buying 100 hardback copies of *The Lost Symbol* really a good use of the budget – especially when said library is complaining about facing ever increasing budget squeezes?
Especially as, once the initial demand had passed, most of those copies sat around on shelves, until they were sold off as used stock, about twelve / eighteen months later.
Meanwhile, if I want to borrow a Thomas Pynchon book? I have to put in a request via an inter-library loan. Which brings me to…
**Ridiculously high fees.**
I understand inter-library loans aren’t cheap to facilitate. But charging patrons £6 / $9 to borrow a book for twenty eight days, when for an extra .38 you can buy the exact same paperback copy from Amazon just seems ridiculous. People who can use Amazon will simply do so, skipping the option of using the library. And those who can’t? They face missing the opportunity of reading that title all-together, due to being priced out.
Similarly, thirty pence / forty-five cents for a black and white print-out also seems a wee-bit expensive.
**Investing in inappropriate technology**
Whilst I understand the problem with OverDrive, buying a licence to use an eBook service that won’t work on a Kindle, when said device is by far the market leader when it comes to eReaders, is a bit of a mis-step. Especially if you don’t then explain to patrons – either in branch[s] or via the website, *why* they can’t use their new Kindle to borrow eBooks.
Similarly, it’s a bit difficult for the public to know what to make, when, in the aftermath of complains about budget cuts, and the possibility of having to lay-off staff, branches – both main ones, and smaller, community based ones, have self-service stations installed.
**Unhelpful staff.**
Most librarians are nothing short of brilliant. And clearly passionate about their job. But the thing that drove me away from using my local library was an incredibly rude librarian.
Long story short? Prior to *Hugo* being released in cinemas, I attempted to borrow *The Invention of Hugo Cabret*. Having logged onto the library catalogue, I was told I was unable to borrow “this type of content.”.
Eventually I managed to get to the main library, grab the book off the shelf, and try to borrow it. Only for my card to be declined [speaking of cards – £7 / $10.55 for a replacement?]. After asking to speak to a manager – who dragged herself over eventually, I was told that there’s a security feature that prevents people with “adult” library tickets, borrowing books that have been flagged as for children.
And then the kicker:
>Besides, why would you want to borrow a *Children’s book?*
I haven’t stepped foot in that library since. And having been accused in a separate library of being responsible for libraries across the country closing [Kindle owner – apparently that makes me a cunt to some people.] a week later? That was the last time I stepped into any library.
I now get 80% of my books from Amazon, with the other 20% coming from secondhand bookstores, and supermarkets [if I want a chart book – typically Tesco throw them out cheaper than Amazon.]
That their numbers are dwindling.
The hours that they are open. I understand that funding is low, but I would rather see the hours of operation be better than 10am-5pm except for one evening and then only 4 hours on a Saturday. Would much rather have the hours be on weekends when more people can get there.
My local library got renovated last year, and since then I have moved to a new library. Yes, I hated the renovations so much that I switched from a library 20 minutes away to an hour and a half away.
My old one is now “modern”. When you walk in through the glass doors the first thing you come across is the book check in/out desk which is also used to help those fill out forms for benefits. My family needs benefits to stay in a house big enough for us, and to help with my brother’s autism and I most certainly don’t like having it out front of a building for everyone to hear and see my business.
Next to the desk is the cafe which you have to walk through to get to the where the books are actually kept in the back. The first section of books you come across are celebrity diet/exercise and biography books, then behind them is the book collection which is roughly 1/4 a size it used to be.
Also, on a regular basis there are “mummy groups” where 30 mums and babies come to sing “The Wheels on the Bus” together and take up half of the back of the library, leaving you to step around them if heaven forbid you actually want to read a book.
Plus with the renovation they got rid of the old library staff that have been there for years to replace them with younger woman who constantly snub you, especially if you are there for benefits.
I much prefer my new one.
Homeless dudes masturbating in front of the computer.
I totally get that you need to watch porn sometimes, but like…it’s like 4 in the afternoon and kids come here to do their homework man…
When I find the Library selling a book they don’t have in their system that I wanted to check out. I look at it and say why don’t they just keep a bunch in a warehouse so that when people want to order the book on the website the library can pull it and then the public can pick it up?
Or when they only have one copy of a book that was checked out 2 years ago and never returned but won’t accept a new one. Because they already “have” it, true story.
Fellow librarian here (academic and public) and I say it all depends on where you are. Public libraries are PUBLIC, so the biggest problem I have is with the public in general – most of whom are nice and fine. The outliers will ruin your day, but 99% of the people will be great. I work in mainly suburban public libraries, so its good most of the time. I used to work at a more rural PL (town about 18,000) and I spent a lot of time being bouncer (the only male working there) in addition to being the reference librarian. I’ve got stories.
Parents using it as a daycare.
The fact that other people sometimes check out the books that I want? (That’s the worst I’ve got.)
I don’t know if this is a thing everywhere…But, all the people shooting up in the bathrooms really makes a trip to the library a much more somber experience.
My library is pretty decent. They have conference rooms that you can reserve online, you can check out laptops, they have lots of books. They also have a bookmobile that goes around and I like seeing that.
I think I would change the hours of operation, though. Budgets demanded some hours be cut and I would rather they had cut hours out of the morning rather than the evening. Same goes for the rest of the downtown area, actually. Everything closes at 5, which happens to be when I and a ton of other people get off work. It’s like the small business owners don’t want to cater to people who have money.
Staff members who talk to everyone in a loud voice. And there are more and more of these all the time.
When I’m looking for a book that the system says is out on the shelf….but it’s nowhere to be found. Then you go check with reference and they say it’s missing. For all you selfish bastards out there that steal books from the public libraries….I HOPE YOU GO BLIND!!
Only having book 3 of a series, yeah I know budgets and all, but arrg!
Limit on the number of times you can consecutively check out a book. Two weeks is not enough for some books, especially nonfiction.
The hours. It’s hard for me to get to the library during the work week when I’ve put something on hold and it comes in on a Monday or a Tuesday. By the time Saturday rolls around the book has invariably made it back to the stacks. Can be a bit frustrating, but otherwise I have no complaints (Brooklyn Public Library system is pretty fantastic).
People who come to use the free computer and internet to watch pron. Yeah, i’ve seen it.
I’ve met a number of pretentious or DGAF librarians. A few of them have this “holier than thou” attitude going because they’re supposedly book experts, and then some of them just seem to be in it for an easy desk job.
I did have some sympathy for my high school’s librarian though, she spent a fuckton of time getting grants so that she could add research materials and other books to the library, but most of my high school’s students were a bunch of immature kids that just played flash games all day on the library computers and the books just sat there.
I am bucking the trend here because I really like my public library. For instance, tomorrow they are having this year’s first 25 cent book sale. The bookstore in the library has an excellent selection at great prices. The computer lab is segregated upstairs. I can put books on hold or have them transferred from one branch to another. Overall, I really enjoy my library and have no major complaints.
This might not be a multi-library pandemic, but–if possible–please be mindful of where you put those stickers that indicate the book is from the library. It drives me crazy when I’m browsing the graphic novels and the sticker is right over the volume number. I have to slide out every one to figure out which is the volume I’m looking for. It seems like a small thing, but the small things count.
Also, it’s been mentioned elsewhere, but the graphic novel collection at all but the larger libraries I’ve seen isn’t that great. There are lots of random things that no one would want to read, and not too many actually interesting things.
Side note: Libraries are awesome! Please keep doing awesome things!
The fact that I’m in one now and I’m still somehow able to procrastinate.
My mom was a librarian and I have always loved the library. I took my own kids once a week when they were young. However, I took my grandaughter on a holiday friday recently and it was full of homeless people and other people just hanging out. Not reading just hanging out. It was sad and depressing. People were letting thier kids run around it was so unpleasant. The librarian told me that the non homeless hanger arounders were people who shared homes with other families, maybe 3 or 4 families to a home or apartment and they just need to get away for a while. I was in the WTF zone after that.
I hate not being able to check out the best books in the library: The Reference Section.
I love our library system! Hello, free books anyone? Also the librarians always seem to be really friend at the one I go to (the Seattle Public Library has a ton of branches). I don’t ever actually go to the library to browse for books, I usually just use their online system because I can find things easier that way. The only thing I find frustrating about it is the lack of electronic books available. I’ve been looking into getting a kindle or nook but the fact that almost nothing is available for the books I want in e-format is discouraging. It also could be that I’m not just looking it up the right way! That or the available materials for e-books are significantly less than actual books themselves.
I’d really like to see libraries transformed into a safe place to hang out quietly. I’m just not sure how to make a library fun and still maintain a low volume for those that want to study or read.
I have this quassi-sorta idea in my head about libraries being that place people talk about wanting to go and hang out at like a cafe with books, computers, movies, etc… I’m just not sure if that’s really feasible.
It would be nice if libraries offered coffee, tea, and hot cocoa, as long as you keep them away from the books. Also, lots and lots of computer terminals with headphones for web browsing, watching movies with friends, listening to music, etc…
This thread makes me realize how lucky I am to have my library, because we don’t really have all these problems. The staff are laid-back and nice, the public doesn’t behave inappropriately (probably due to the ever-present security dude), it’s a quiet, comfortable place to be with a lot of different reading areas and museum-type displays, and every section is diverse and well-stocked, from e-books to comics to poetry to movies. I can keep stuff out for up to two months and they even give a grace period if you have a good record. My town loves this library so much that twice a year we hold one of the biggest book sales in the country to benefit it. It’s the kind of thing that made me want to live here.
Before this I’d lived in ghettos and boonies where we were grateful for a one-room library of mostly old paperbacks. I’ve also been to places where the public libraries totally vanished and people started their own, take-a-book / leave-a-book style. It’s inspiring but sad. I’ve always felt that libraries should be a much higher municipal fiscal priority than they are. They are an important institution, not just for what they provide, but for what they symbolize – free, democratic cultural enrichment that knows no exclusions or bounds. It would be impossible to calculate how many lives have been changed by them. I’m slipping into rant mode, but if you have a library, please support it!