Rant of the day

Actually, this is technically yesterday's rant. No, it's not that I have far too little to do these days with my abundant free time. It's just that now I have time to organize my peeves more properly

Basically, everytime I visit my friendly neighbourhood library, I feel this desperate need to scream "WHYYYYY??"

I can break this down as:

1. A constant need on their part to adopt new technology (RFID tags instead of good ol' barcodes), despite unreliability of the shiny new stuff (hangs are common), and the fact that they need to assign a staff member for months on end to show people how to use it. Self-serve, my ass. Those are my tax dollars you're flushing down the can.


2. A fixation on renting out^W^Wlending out DVDs. Honeestly, there are other places in the neighbourhood that do this better. Bigger selection (though yes, the selection at the library is quite respectable). Longer lending periods (more than a day). No late fees. And I have other options, besides.
   
   No doubt, this attracts a lot of people into the library than you'd otherwise get, but a lot of them leave without looking at what I think (yeah. Call me a traditionalist) should be the main attraction at the library...books. At least shove the DVD racks somewhere where they'll have to walk by an interesting display of books or something.


3. Graphic novels. While it's a great way to attract readers of a certain age and demographic, and I'm enthused about getting to check out works by Neil Gaiman and Frank Miller and Jeff Smith, the way this library has adopted the graphic novel is just dumb. The average work which they're cateogorizing as a graphic novel can be found in any one of:
   
   • a special section dedicated to graphic novels
   • a special rack next to the shelf (and don't get me started on this) of young adult books (just around the corner from the section I mentioned above)
   • on the shelf of young adult books
   • shelved upstairs with mainstream adult fiction
   • shelved upstairs with adult science fiction/fantasy fiction
   
   Would it be wrong to just pick one section, and PUT THEM ALL THERE?
   
   (Why put Frank Miller's Sin City works upstairs in adult fictions, while you can get the DVD of Kill Bill (both volumes) downstairs, definitely within sight of little kids? Aren't we being a little hypocritical here?)
   
   Also, the term "graphic novel" should be reserved for works that have a well-defined narrative structure. Otherwise it's not really a novel, is it? So graphic novel != collection of comic strips. Seeing Dilbert shelved next to the Sandman really kills me. It does. Especially when there's a proper Dewey Decimal number for Dilbert. No, trust me, there is.


4. Books. I might be unfair here. But I hate seeing the new additions to the collection tucked away in a shelf nobody looks at. I hate seeing great books discarded well before they're in bad shape (and honestly, my value of "bad shape" basically begins with missing pages or complete inability to open the book). I hate seeing Book 3 of a series being sold off because nobody has read it since Book 2 isn't being carried by the library, though weirdly, Book 1 is. I hate seeing the paperback racks empty, while five paces away, there's trolleys full of books they didn't get around to shelving.
   
   I hate that they're treating books as an afterthought.

Ok. All done.

Have a good Easter everybody. I at least managed to squeeze some loot out of the library today while collecting fodder for my rant...so that's what I'll be busy with.