Happything, 12th January - pre-loved books
Today's #happything: a donation of books to the Library.
This is quite an unusual thing for me to be so pleased about, because usually when one of our lecturers is retiring or leaving or having a clearout and says "I've got some books for you!" my heart sinks - a load of old tat which has been on their shelves for years, is several editions out-of-date and which I will nonetheless have to spend time sorting through before I either send it to the book recyclers or (if it isn't too dreadfully dated) put out on our Withdrawn Stock shelves for students...
So when this particular lecturer had diffidently asked if we would like a few books, I had smiled politely and said all the usual things.
However, when I started going through what turned up I was delighted! - all relevant to the subjects we teach (theory and philosophy of education, general philosophy, and theology, in this case), all quite recent (mostly published between 2000-2007) and in nearly mint condition. My team member who looks after philosophy and theology was equally delighted! I sent Ian, the lecturer, a proper thank-you email saying how glad we were to have them, especially since our book budgets this year are really tight, and he replied saying "more where those came from!" I even wondered briefly whether he is OK - he seemed to be giving away so much that I thought "goodness, I hope he isn't being made redundant, or giving away all his possessions and retiring to an ashram, or something!" - he is such a lovely, unassuming man that he would never make a fuss if he were leaving. But I think he is just an inveterate book-buyer who is having a periodic clearout!
It also gave me an extra insight into him personally, because while I would have expected to see the theory and philosophy of education, and therefore wasn't particularly surprised to see the philosophy books either, the theology was not something I associated him with academically so must be a personal interest. A Man With Layers!
Anyway, going through lots of lovely books (although it's a cliche, if you press them most librarians will still admit that they really do love physical books) which I can add to stock.
And the last two aspects of the #happything will probably only make sense to those of you who, like me, are slightly obsessive completer-finishers:
I wanted to finish going through them by the time my stint on the Enquiry Desk finished at 1 pm and I went for lunch - and I finished at five minutes to; and I realised as I got towards the bottom of the pile that I was getting near the end of the special paper instruction slips I needed to put in each book for our Cataloguing department - and the last slip went in the last book :-) Silly, I know, but pleasing.
I hope you've all had a small, unexpected pleasure of some sort today!
This is quite an unusual thing for me to be so pleased about, because usually when one of our lecturers is retiring or leaving or having a clearout and says "I've got some books for you!" my heart sinks - a load of old tat which has been on their shelves for years, is several editions out-of-date and which I will nonetheless have to spend time sorting through before I either send it to the book recyclers or (if it isn't too dreadfully dated) put out on our Withdrawn Stock shelves for students...
So when this particular lecturer had diffidently asked if we would like a few books, I had smiled politely and said all the usual things.
However, when I started going through what turned up I was delighted! - all relevant to the subjects we teach (theory and philosophy of education, general philosophy, and theology, in this case), all quite recent (mostly published between 2000-2007) and in nearly mint condition. My team member who looks after philosophy and theology was equally delighted! I sent Ian, the lecturer, a proper thank-you email saying how glad we were to have them, especially since our book budgets this year are really tight, and he replied saying "more where those came from!" I even wondered briefly whether he is OK - he seemed to be giving away so much that I thought "goodness, I hope he isn't being made redundant, or giving away all his possessions and retiring to an ashram, or something!" - he is such a lovely, unassuming man that he would never make a fuss if he were leaving. But I think he is just an inveterate book-buyer who is having a periodic clearout!
It also gave me an extra insight into him personally, because while I would have expected to see the theory and philosophy of education, and therefore wasn't particularly surprised to see the philosophy books either, the theology was not something I associated him with academically so must be a personal interest. A Man With Layers!
Anyway, going through lots of lovely books (although it's a cliche, if you press them most librarians will still admit that they really do love physical books) which I can add to stock.
And the last two aspects of the #happything will probably only make sense to those of you who, like me, are slightly obsessive completer-finishers:
I wanted to finish going through them by the time my stint on the Enquiry Desk finished at 1 pm and I went for lunch - and I finished at five minutes to; and I realised as I got towards the bottom of the pile that I was getting near the end of the special paper instruction slips I needed to put in each book for our Cataloguing department - and the last slip went in the last book :-) Silly, I know, but pleasing.
I hope you've all had a small, unexpected pleasure of some sort today!