Saturday, August 15, 2009

Library Science 101

"Today's lesson, boys and girls, is on the proper shelving of books. We could hardly call ourselves professional librarians if we merely placed the books haphazardly on the shelves (the Professor B. Worm Method), or God forbid, just hurled them on the floor in a huge pile . . ."



Liar, liar, pants on fire. This is the Newton Library in Massachusetts, which had an overflow after being closed for a three-day holiday weekend. "Overflow." That's a good one. It looks more like a tsunami to me.

I have a feeling that tomorrow’s lesson will have something to do with two-hundred-book-pick-up—and placing the empty return container (in the lower right corner of the photo) under the return window.

Then again, since I’m not a librarian, what do I know.

* * * * *

I permanently borrowed (instead of stole) this photo from Peter S., who found it at the online New Yorker.

11 comments:

Wandering Coyote said...

LOL!

Barbara Bruederlin said...

Don't those librarians in Massachusetts know that they closed on the annual Return Your Library Books long weekend? Imbeciles!

Pat said...

I have to confess we have piles - not on floors but on flat surfaces.
I do know a librarian who is also very funny: http://helminthdale.blogspot.com/
I think you'd like Kevin.

Kim Ayres said...

When I was growing up, the bookshelf was a constant source of friction between my parents. My mother (an ex-English teacher) would arrange them all alphabetically by order, and my father (an artist) would arrange them by size. I always arranged my bookshelves by genre

Attila the Mom said...

Holy Crap! LOL

savannah said...

after looking at the picture, i no longer have any guilt over the condition of our bookshelves! :~D xoxox

kara said...

you probably know all that other stuff that librarians DON'T know. like how to tame a cougar.

Charlie said...

WC: You won't be LOLing if the book you want is on the bottom of that mess.

BARBARA: You must be referring to a weekend when no fines are imposed for overdue books.

PAT: I'm sorry to hear about your piles--I've not had them, but I understand they are very painful. You must do a lot of reading standing in an upright position.

KIM: I would have pegged you for an alphabetical man. Genre is good, though: you can shelve your romance genre in the rubbish bin.

MOM: I believe you'll find what you need in the religious section.

SAVANNAH: As long as they're shelved, no worries.

KARA: Yes, yes I do know a lot about training cougars. I learned from a book I got at the library.

stinkypaw said...

Almost what our entrance looked like, from a week's mail, when we got back!

Kevin Musgrove said...

Charlie, that is a classic of the form!

Actually, anybody who ever visited Foyle's Bookshop on the Tottenham Court Road in the 70s or 80s would recognise this immediately as their modern history section. (No exaggeration!)

Charlie said...

KEVIN: We all, in one form or another, make our likes and dislikes known. Foyle's dislike for modern history was a quite effective statement.

Thank you for your reply.