It's Not Hard, Think About The Books.
It's really annoying. They are supposed to be the trained specialists. The keepers of the sacred reading grail. In fact Librarians have been known to resist the natural american inclination to censor books that don't 'fit'. As professions go, I probably wouldn't place any other profession above them, not Doctors, not Teachers because Librarians, control and monitor the accumulated knowledge that the worlds possesses and they have done this task since the dawn of the written word. Librarians have at times secretly saved and preserved knowledge for the future and risked their own lives in doing so; it even has its own laws that's how important they are. But, at a lesser level, they can also be really annoying. Though, technically this really is the fault of the County Councils, who in the UK are legally responsible for Library provision through the secretary of state, empowered by the 1964 Public Libraries Act. All great, and wonderful stuff. Here's my moan.
I don't think it's only my library, as I have checked out other libraries when I have been out and about in the UK. It involves, book series'. Such as, for example we'll take J.R.R.Tolkien's, Lord of the Rings, which can be broken into 3 seperate books and often is to milk out more money. Now, for someone who regards this book as best read as one, not three but understands that some do read the three books. If I go to the library having never read this book and I look on the shelves I would tend to find book 2: The Two Towers sat there, waiting to be read. I would probably also find, Book 3: The return of the King. What I wouldn't find is Book 1: The fellowship of the ring. A fairly crucial omission, should I want to read the Lord of the Rings. I find this problem all too often. One of the big series of books I have often wanted to read, has been the Stephen King fantasy saga; The Dark Tower. It now runs to 7 books. In ten years of going to my local library they have only ever had one of these books on the shelves, 'The Wolves of Calla', Book 5 of 7. You see my point?
1 - If, as a library, you are going to provide a series of books then please provide the whole series, as having, for example book 5 of 7 alone, on the shelves, is fairly pointless for obvious reasons.
2 - Library staff. Why do you not point out to the powers that be, this anomaly? and if you do, why do the powers that be, or the powers that provide understand just how pointless and unprofessional this makes the library service look.
And yes, as a fairly regular user of Inter-library loans, the point of, well you can order the book from another library and have it delivered, thereby completing, or beginning a series. And indeed, you are correct but there can be one, rather vital flaw in this genius system. This only works for when you have ALL the books in the series available throughout the county. If you don't then you go from the silly to the downright ridiculous.
So, to the guardians of the future I entreat you to drag all your series' together and send them in batches, or if you have a book X of however many, please, please ensure that one of these happens to be Number 1.
I don't think it's only my library, as I have checked out other libraries when I have been out and about in the UK. It involves, book series'. Such as, for example we'll take J.R.R.Tolkien's, Lord of the Rings, which can be broken into 3 seperate books and often is to milk out more money. Now, for someone who regards this book as best read as one, not three but understands that some do read the three books. If I go to the library having never read this book and I look on the shelves I would tend to find book 2: The Two Towers sat there, waiting to be read. I would probably also find, Book 3: The return of the King. What I wouldn't find is Book 1: The fellowship of the ring. A fairly crucial omission, should I want to read the Lord of the Rings. I find this problem all too often. One of the big series of books I have often wanted to read, has been the Stephen King fantasy saga; The Dark Tower. It now runs to 7 books. In ten years of going to my local library they have only ever had one of these books on the shelves, 'The Wolves of Calla', Book 5 of 7. You see my point?
1 - If, as a library, you are going to provide a series of books then please provide the whole series, as having, for example book 5 of 7 alone, on the shelves, is fairly pointless for obvious reasons.
2 - Library staff. Why do you not point out to the powers that be, this anomaly? and if you do, why do the powers that be, or the powers that provide understand just how pointless and unprofessional this makes the library service look.
And yes, as a fairly regular user of Inter-library loans, the point of, well you can order the book from another library and have it delivered, thereby completing, or beginning a series. And indeed, you are correct but there can be one, rather vital flaw in this genius system. This only works for when you have ALL the books in the series available throughout the county. If you don't then you go from the silly to the downright ridiculous.
So, to the guardians of the future I entreat you to drag all your series' together and send them in batches, or if you have a book X of however many, please, please ensure that one of these happens to be Number 1.
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