Our local library has required pins to use the online services for years now - certainly all the nearly eleven years we've lived here. And it's a few years since self-service came in. I also regret the loss of the personal contact - when I worked one summer in the local library, the staff knew pretty much all the regulars by name and what was going on in their lives - but my 3-year-old loves being able to scan her own books. I suppose that's no different to the way I always wanted to use the date stamp myself!
I do think it's a loss not to have even the briefest exchange with a real person. Society seems to be moving more and more in that direction, which is a great shame.
I longed to be one of the library 'helpers' when I was a child. Like many children, I made my own books look like a library. That meant taking off the dustwrappers, woe!
I had mostly paperbacks, so it wasn't an issue. But the ex-library books I had mostly had dustjackets anyway, so it might not have occurred to me to take them off.
The advantage of going to the library with a small child is that I almost always do get to have a brief exchange with a real person, if only to apologise for her behaviour ...
I feel sad about libraries too. For so many years the local library was somewhere I visited regularly. My mother was a huge reader (but not much of a book buyer because she never re-read books) and the weekly ritual of changing her library books was something she loved. The staff all knew her tastes and would recommend books and chat about their favourite authors. Now I rarely visit our library and often leave empty handed when I do.
Oh, so do I. Very different from when I was a child and took out my four book ration every single week. I know this is a sign of age, but I don't like the racks of CDs and DVDs or the noisy children having a play session.
I went to a talk at the Felixstowe book festival given by Martin edwards and a man from the British library. He said the covers are the things that have been selling the crime classics and they are now commissioning their own "railway" posters to use as more books are set in places where there wasn't a poster.
I enjoyed the Rachel Hore but her new one is very poor I thought
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"All shall be well, and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well."
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I do think it's a loss not to have even the briefest exchange with a real person. Society seems to be moving more and more in that direction, which is a great shame.
I longed to be one of the library 'helpers' when I was a child. Like many children, I made my own books look like a library. That meant taking off the dustwrappers, woe!
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The advantage of going to the library with a small child is that I almost always do get to have a brief exchange with a real person, if only to apologise for her behaviour ...
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and the weekly ritual of changing her library books was something she loved. The staff all knew her tastes and would recommend books and chat about their favourite authors. Now I rarely visit our library and often leave empty handed when I do.
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Oh, so do I. Very different from when I was a child and took out my four book ration every single week. I know this is a sign of age, but I don't like the racks of CDs and DVDs or the noisy children having a play session.
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I enjoyed the Rachel Hore but her new one is very poor I thought
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You're the second person to comment here that Rachel Hore's latest isn't much good. Perhaps I'll give it a miss.
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