Aussie Readers discussion
Archives
>
What do you think of libraries?
message 101:
by
Brenda, Aussie Authors Queen
(new)
Jan 27, 2012 12:09AM
Mod
reply
|
flag
I never joined anything to do with books...I've only joined online communities for it. I could of gotten into the comic scene way more but I REFUSE to pay the rates they asked therefore I only go to my LCS when I need boxes/bags.However, I love thumbing through books when I venture into a lib...I used to work in the school lib quite abit so when I got bored/drew a blank I'd go looking through their goods..Loved it!
Sutherland Shire Council run the libraries in my area and they have visited my school to talk to students about internet facilities and access etc. Whilst the two libarians may not have been totally familiar with my particular subject area (as a teacher) it really showed that they have been doing the research and purchasing, according to suggestions etc which is greatly appreciated from a teachers point of viewl. Also know that they have been compiling what I call booksets of novels such as The Help specically for bookclubs, recognising the huge growth in my area of bookclubs and their popularity. Cant ask much more from a library
Renee wrote: "Don't like them and I no longer see a point in having them. Everything is online. Ebooks are amazing. Such a less invasive wasy of reading. And you can have prettier things on your bookshevles.I ..."
Yes, I agree. Buy hardcopy and e-books on line but that is because a) I can afford to and b) I am lazy. Talk to a lot of students and parents who cant afford to do what I do. (Nor are they as obsessed, reading as much as I do.) Libraries are trying to keep up with the new demands of readers. My local is going to be able to e-lend very shortly. Even if it doent suit me, I am grateful because I love to think of people reading, accessing escapism economically. Still think there is a place for libraries. But, thank goodness for those obssessed with reading like me, for GOODREADS. Yay!
I love my local library. I have to confess that I work with ebooks all day and for recreation I read real ones. OOps. But I also buy them by the box full in my libraries regular clearance sales for about 50cents each. Which is cheaper than ebooks. When I want a read I dig through them and pick one out and if it doesn't appeal I pick another and when I am done with a book I give it to the local Salvos or the local second hand book shop, so they get very recycled.I couldn't stand reading books for fun on a computer when I work on one reading books all day and an ereader is a bit the same as well as me having a house full of dogs who'd chew it up and I am also rough with things and would drop it and they are too expensive to have chewed or broken. I also have books I only read at the gym on the treadmill and that is easier with print too I think. And the book can survive sitting all day in summer in a 50degree plus car but I doubt an ereader would.
So those are my reasons for sticking to print and for loving my local library. I also occassionally order books I really want to read through them from other branches.
Mod
I love my local library, they have a great range of audio books, e-audio books, they also have e-books but so far I cannot borrow any of them because I have a kindle and I can't download from the library onto that at present. It's the audio books I keep going back for at the moment and every now and then real books as well. I am co-ordinator of a book club that is run through the local library as well. When my children were young it was a good place to go to sit and read.
Bronwyn wrote: "I love my local library, they have a great range of audio books, e-audio books, they also have e-books but so far I cannot borrow any of them because I have a kindle and I can't download from the l..."Yes, audio books are a bit too expensive to go buying. And a blind friend gets her Audio descript DVDs from her local library. Very useful places for all kinds of reasons. Peopple in my writer's group have held thier book launches in one of the library meeting rooms also.
Mod
I LOVE that my library now carries eBooks (very few but they promise the collection will grow). I'm not sure how many other Aussie libraries are doing this, but my library and the group of them it is associated with have outsourced the management of eBooks and their lending program to Overdrive, an international company that specialises in this.Here's my library link to ebooks. http://shorelink.lib.overdrive.com/1D...
It's been a long time in coming, but it's finally here!
Mod
My local library are still in the trial stages for ebooks but have audiobooks up already
Whilst I am still fascinated by the ebook concept and am reading a lot more books since owning a Kindle, I would not wish to see my Brighton (SA) library dissapear. This has actually been discussed in Council and so I will use the Library more if I can, to help stave off such an occurence.Why pay for quality books when the Library alows me to borrow them for free?
There is still an allure to holding a printed book that a eReader can not replace.
Ace wrote:I think all libraries should have coffee shops inside, where you can buy coffees and read books...,I agree with this concept and will put it into a suggestion box at our library. Hopefully the proceeds could go some way to silencing those Councillors who want Everything to pay its way!
I LOVE libraries! I'm a student - I couldn't afford to buy all the books I want to read :) I moved out last year and only just got around to joining my new local library yesterday - I love their set-up and catalogue format. They have a number of e-books that you can borrow, but a really good selection of physical books too. And my library card gives me access to about 10 different libraries around the area. In terms of e-books: I have to say that while I'm all for technological reform in many ways, I don't think I will ever move away from physical books. Reading is a time for me to shut off from screens, I don't need more of them in my life. Plus I love physically holding a book and flipping through the pages. I do agree that e-books are quite convenient though, especially if you wanted to carry a lot of books around with you at the same time!
Oh and I COMPLETELY agree with having cafes in libraries! My two favourite things: books and coffee :D
Mod
I suspect our library can't do that because there are cafe's near by and it would be seen as unfair competition. But maybe I should suggest it and let them reach that conclusion because I think a cafe inside would be a great idea.
For anyone in or passing through Sydney come and see the newly refreshed State Library of NSW. What's not to like? Free WiFi, access to databases remotely, information professionals to help you find what you are looking for, comfy chairs (especially beside the travel books!) specialist legal information, tours, educational sessions, children's activities, vast collections, heritage building, cafe, bookshop ... I could go on!
Mod
Wow Cathy, lucky Sydney people!!! Sounds brilliant!
Cathy wrote: "For anyone in or passing through Sydney come and see the newly refreshed State Library of NSW. What's not to like? Free WiFi, access to databases remotely, information professionals to help you fin..."Wow - can you transfer to Melbourne? That sounds fantastic! I like the cafe part the best though :P
Mod
I have found one of the most progressive steps that my local Libraries have introduced is their online catalogue. Now a short trip to their website, visit the Online Catalogue, select my choice, request the item and the next day I can drop in and my selection is there ready for me. No browsing, no waiting! A great service.
Online catalogues are the best, Pete! I love that I can request for a book to be put on hold and they will deliver the next available copy to my preferred library. Plus there is an option to request books for purchase that the library doesn't have yet - this is great because there are plenty of books on my TBR that no library in my area owns at this stage.
I agree that online catalogues are great. The problem with my library is they charge $2.50 to request a book to be held for you. I know it's not enough to make the library profitable but it discourages me from making any reservations (a lose-lose situation). At $2.50 you can buy a used book at Vinnies or get a cheap eBook. So for books I really want, I have learned to be patient. I still check the online catalogue before heading out to see if one of the ones I'm waiting for is finally avaialble, but no more hold requests for me.
Mod
I love my library but feel sorry that their hands are tied. I've been reading the Rebecca Lim Mercy series, the library has Exile Fury, Mercy but they don't have book 3 Muse so I brought it so I could read it and when I finished it I took it in so they could have it. But they couldn't take it to put on their shelves. Apparently it doesn't work that way, they have to buy them.
I'm not happy about my library charging but they aren't going to change so I put up with it.Interestingly, they don't charge if you reserve an eBook. Maybe that will come in time. eBooks are new for them.
As for accepting gifts of books from readers, I tried giving my library a copy of a book I've written in an eBook format. They only have about 350 eBooks right now and I figured they'd be keen to start growing their collection. I also got a thanks but no thanks.
I can not, for the life of me, figure out why this is a problem for libraries. Is it something to do with royalties? If so, surely if the author (me, in this case) donates, that shouldn't be a problem. Does anyone have any idea what the problem is?
Um, don't know. I think I'm going to have to ascertain what they think if me before forming an opinion. :) Seriously, though (having now read some of the proceeding posts), I used to frequent university libraries all the time, but with the advent of retirement, my general indolence and disinclination to go out, and the paucity of offerings available at the public branches, I tend more immediately to download anything I want to my kindle. Can't really afford it, though, so I'm going to have to look into the feasibility of ebook borrowing in this book-bereft locale.
Oops... that's "of me" and "preceding posts" Can't get used to this "self-correcting" keyboard.
A rained-on library, hmm... I guess that would be an application for the "Dewy Decimal System."
My Brighton SA library do not charge for holding requests - YET! One of the benefits of a slower state like South Aust.?
Both groups of libraries that I am a member of in Victoria don't charge to hold books. I didn't realise that this was an issue for other libraries! I agree that it would be more worth picking up a 2nd hand copy somewhere or just hoping that the book will be available on the day you go in if they were to charge. Hoping that holding fees never come in!!
Mod
http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2012/06..."
That's unreal Carmel...thanks for sharing! Hopefully they would have something up their sleeves for sudden rain showers!
Carmel wrote: "Interesting location for a library!http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2012/06..."
That is a cool artist that thought of that. I wonder where he got all the books from?
David wrote: "My local library charges $2 for reservations, but I don't really place reservations so it doesn't matter to me. You can pay right then or when the item comes in. What amazes me is the amount of peo..."Yep, it's Overdrive that manages the eBooks for my local library. I got on their site looking for someway to donate a book but I couldn't find it and it all just got too hard. I wish my local library would have said they'd contact Overdrive with my offer or had given me the contact details of someone there or taken some interest in growing the collection beyond saying it is all out of their hands.
I hope this isn't a sign of things to come - as libraries go electronic, do the local librarians lose interest, control and input?
Another good thing our library does is the holiday programs. I just booked my daughter into a Capoeira Workshop and an Asanti Dance theatre workshop during the holidays. Maybe that's how the libraries a going to survive they have become the YMCA's or community centres of our nieghbourhoods. They supply everything from computer games, social groups, internet access and video games.
I went to one of my local libraries for the first time (moved to a new area last year) and it's AMAZING! It was built in 2002 for $8 MILLION!! It looks like a space ship or something, very modern and fancy. I love it - it gives libraries a super-class name. There's a couple of pictures on their website http://yprl.vic.gov.au/about/hours-an... and a virtual tour you can take. I waltzed in there today to pick up a book that was on hold for me, that I'd reserved using their online catalogue the other day. There it was on the shelf filed under my last name waiting to be picked up and using the self-checkout I was able to borrow it in about 2 seconds flat. I love the future of libraries! :)
Wow Monica we're almost neighbours. I frequent Watsonia library. Doesn't look as new as that one but same council.
Ah wow! I haven't been to Watsonia yet, but it's close-ish to where I work so I might drop in there to check it out some time. I'm absolutely stoked with YPRL - the last library I was a member of was kind of outdated with their services so I'm loving all the 21st-century features of this one :)
David wrote: "Laura wrote: "David wrote: "My local library charges $2 for reservations, but I don't really place reservations so it doesn't matter to me. You can pay right then or when the item comes in. What am..."David,
Thanks for this info. It does make sense that each library couldn't set up a new system to manage the eBooks. But you'd think they'd be able to purchase their own and have Overdrive do the management. Maybe with time.
In my mind eBooks have been around for ages but lending of them is still a fairly new concept. I will do my best to be patient (not my strong suit) and trust the libraries to work it out.
I forgot to mention that in 2 weeks my library is hosting a talk on eBooks (that's how new thier lending of them is). I plan to go along and maybe I'll find out more about their plans for their eBook collection. Another great thing about my local library - they host all kinds of interersting and/or informative talks. They see themselves as a real community resource, not just a place to borrow books.
I've recently discovered (much to my surprise, 'cause it's, you know, Texas), that some unacountable benefactor caused a *really* nice, attractive and pleasant library to be built locally (only about a mile away). I'm not conspicuously mobile, so I'm still pretty much reliant on my kindle app, but they do have some provision for electronic borrowing. Wish I could get out and spend more time there, even if the holdings are somewhat de minimis>, but it's always nice to have something inexplicably positive happen, that totally violates your conception of the world.
Mod
Having only recently returned to Adelaide after an absence of 25 years, I was pleased to see the services offered at my local Library, Brighton SA. Libraries are doing it tough today and they are fighting back by providing an excellent experience when visiting. I would be devastated to lose it and yet who can tell?
Thanks so much, Brenda. I've actually been there, and I'll doubtless eventually go back. It's just that it's become somewhat more problematical for me to venture out, other than for groceries and doctor appts., and the like. And cabfare here exceeds the cost of transatlantic travel (which is a much more attractive proposition, actually :)). I do love the idea that it's technically close to my apt., though. I guess all GR folk are instinctively... um, bibliotropic, though? Bibliotechnotropic? I don't think there's really a word for library-tropism, because I can't think of one for "fear of libraries," and they ought to have the same root. :)
Mod
Computing the cabfare here requires new theories of transcental arithmetic, plus maybe a bit of quantum physics, 'cause there's a certain indeterminacy about whether you'll arrive, or in what universe. Just as there's a certain indeterminacy about my making sense. I don't thing anybody in GR is likely to have a clinical fear of libraries -- just the reverse, in fact. I think we are strangely, ineluctably drawn to them, sort of the way that flowers are drawn to the sun ("heliotropism"). So I thought there ought to be a word for "library-tropism," but I needed to find a root to replace "helio-," and I naturally thought about phobia words that tend to have roots for fear of practically anything, but I didn't know one for "fear of libraries" (because there probably isn't one), and the French for library is "bibliothèque," and the Spanish "biblioteca," so I was borrowing and squishing-in something like that, and boy, that made a lot of sense! Aren't you glad you asked? :)
Oops... that's "transcendental arithmetic." I don't know what "transcental" means, but it probably describes my typing. :(
Mod
Ummm!! I'm more confused than ever now!!! LOL
Aussie Readers
Books mentioned in this topic
Hatched: Tim Winton Award Winners 20th Anniversary Collection (other topics)Exile (other topics)
Fury (other topics)
Mercy (other topics)
Muse (other topics)
More...
