Both the libraries I use recently switched online catalog systems and now they are both being strange and unsettling. I can't find my authors...my books...my movies...
I'm lost and alone and, and... I don't know what to do! *sob*
Posts: 866 | Registered: Dec 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
I'm sorry... It is not to hard to use catalogues though... Perhaps I can show you. Also, I know most of the library of congress system too from working at the library at college.
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
I'm sorry Princess Leah! I know you'll figure it out. It's okay. My library predicament is my own fault: Where's my library card? Help?
Posts: 1056 | Registered: Mar 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
I could never figure out how quid stayed sane for that year when she was without a library she could read, AND without a computer in the home.
Posts: 1990 | Registered: Feb 2001
| IP: Logged |
I'm told that there is a library in Colombo, about a half hour trishaw ride away, and apparently, they have little or no fiction, and certainly nothing from the last couple of decades, kinda like the used book hovels. Plus it's going to be at least 1/3 Sinhalese and 1/3 Tamil, those being the national languages, but English will likely have a place there if only because of international books & reference materials. I don't go to Colombo anywhere near it to make it worthwhile to stop in. One of these days I will, if only to say I have and to talk about how bad it is.
There is no such thing as a library system and inter-library loans. Most communities here have, if they're lucky, libraries in the schools, and that would be it.
But there's another consideration. What these people do with books.
Apparently, at the beginning of the school year, each child is issued their textbooks for the year. At the end of the year, they don't return them for the next student the next year to use. Nope, they take them home and never look at them again, or throw them out. The next year, the students get brand new books. Again.
They just don't get it. That's where a lot of their education Rupees go to. It's just not necessary to spend money like that.
This goes along with the attitude of entitlement I've mentioned on previous occasions. They all think they're entitled to absolutely everything, regardless of how much it costs the government or other people, or how much it will mean Rupees not being spend on this or that. And then they whine and complain and protest and demonstrate and yell that their government isn't spending enough money on (insert pet project here).
Sigh.
If only they'd get their collective heads together and figure out the many many ways they waste money, and then stop it, they'd be able to do so much more. Oh, and yes, I do include bribes and kickbacks into useless waste of money.
I feel like knocking their heads together. But that's an awful lot of head knocking I'd have to do. Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Theca - Fahim already have a few hundred movies in his DVD collection when I arrived, plus I had a hundred or so books (read them all at least once, some a half dozen times), plus I wrote an entire first draft of a novel, did some editing on it, and started a few more.
Um, but sane? What makes you think I was sane to begin with?
Edit to add: Oh, but we did have two computers at home - his laptop and my laptop. We just didn't have internet at home. I had to go with him to his work on days off, when it worked out.
posted
Are there any books or something you would like me to send you, quid? I can't promise to be able to find them in Jerusalem, but I can certainly try. And I'd be happy to do it!! Posts: 7877 | Registered: Feb 2003
| IP: Logged |
When Fahim and I got married, his parents disowned him. Before we married, he lived in his parent's house. His books are still there. My books, on the other hand, are still in Canada. We're actually arranging now to ship my stuff over - long story! - but I have something like 20 or 25 boxes of just paperbacks, and I don't remember the titles. I have such a terrible memory! I've actually, at various times, bought multiples copies of the same book because I didn't remember that I already had it! When my books arrive, I'll be entering them into a database - with Fahim's, of course - so we can keep track of them all.
Meanwhile, until they arrive, I actually have no idea what we have!
The only safe paperbooks are those that have been published since I left Canada, August 2003. Paperbacks preferable.
I have an Amazon wish list set up for those books I know for a fact I don't have, and sadness, you'll see that I'm missing a few of OSCs.
If you or anyone else does decide to send me books, please keep in mind that used is always good - saving money is always a plus, or sending books that you're otherwise already done with and won't read again is fine. I do it, too. (I actually got rid of 10 or 15 boxes of books before I left Canada.)
But other than the wish list, I have nothing specific in mind. I'm open to good books regardless of genre. Favorite genres are sci-fi and fantasy, of course! Um, no sex scenes or graphic violence, though. I'm wussy prude girl. I do like reading literature from around the world, though.
Um, this is rather a long response to such a seemingly innocent question. Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
quidscribis, it sounds like our next Hatrack project should be to get together enough books and money to donate an entire collection of OSC's works to date to the Sri Lanka library system.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
| IP: Logged |
quote: When my books arrive, I'll be entering them into a database - with Fahim's, of course - so we can keep track of them all.
My first thought here was "dork." My second thought was that, since you'd have the database and around 400-500 books already, you should start up an English-language science fiction library of your own, thereby becoming the most popular geek in Sri Lanka.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
While I was in the shower this morning, I was thinking that actually, this would be a great idea for a non-profit: "Libraries for the Love of Books". You know, get people to donate a new or good-quality used copy of a book that made them love reading, or one of their favorites, focusing especially on kids' books and books that would appeal to young adults, and raise money to send them to libraries that don't have good fiction sections, or even, eventually, to build or re-build libraries in areas without functioning libraries. Of course, it would be harder in practice, since you'd have to deal with government beaurocracies and, as quidscribis has pointed out, people who expect to be bribed to do anything, but I think it could be done. Who knows anything about non-profit law?
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
I would donate a copy of "The Phantom Tollbooth," by Norton Juster, which was definitely a childhood favorite. Posts: 7877 | Registered: Feb 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
It may have something to do with having to read it in 5th grade, with a horrible teacher who probably could have ruined anything.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
Well, yes. Although the was because if pressed, I could probably have both spelled and defined the word without ever seeing it or hearing it used before by fifth grade. That year was a waste of my time. It was a fifth/sixth split with a mediocre teacher whom I personally did not like, who lost her home in the Northridge earthquake halfway through the year. Not a good combination.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
Also, I think I really would have enjoyed it in second grade. But this teacher insisted I not read ahead. She expected me to read the book over the course of two months when I could have finished it in two afternoons!
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
I am totally disorganized at home, but at school I am a complete dork. I have a great little library, and responsible kids are trained to enter new books in an Excel database. I have big plans to do that at home, but have chosen boxes in the garage, molding away, as a pathetic alternative.
[ February 27, 2005, 04:39 PM: Message edited by: Elizabeth ]
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
| IP: Logged |
quote:But this teacher insisted I not read ahead. She expected me to read the book over the course of two months when I could have finished it in two afternoons!
That seems rather silly. I can understand expecting a recent reread of each section before class, but how the heck could you expect someone not to finish a good story that's just sitting there, waiting for you?
Sheesh. Might as well expect kids to stop a sneeze halfway. Posts: 14017 | Registered: May 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
Exactly! And we had no class discussion that wasn't on an absolutely moronic level. Mostly, we did worksheets, on grammar, vocab, and spelling, most of which I couldn't even remember learning, it had been so long and they were so basic. Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
It is no picnic being a reading teacher. If I were on my own I would be fine, and just give the kids individual work, or do smaller literature circles with a choice of books. I had to work with the Reading Specialist, though, and she was into the whole class doing the same thing. So crazy, when some kids are reading at an adult level, and others at a remedial level.
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
I suspect that donating good fiction would be a great idea, in theory.
In practice, the government's wacked.
Because of the tsunami, there are all sorts of aid agencies here who are trying to help out and many of them shipped goods into the country. The government is insisting they pay import duty, taxes, and VAT on the resale value of the products. Some of the aid agencies have refused to pay on the grounds that it's relief goods, going directly to the victims of the tsunami, and why should they? The government has held their containers - a total of about a hundred - until all the taxes and whatnot have been paid. Which didn't happen. So they were given a deadline, which passed, so the government opened all the containers and held public auctions.
Yep, that's right. The government confiscated and sold all the goods these relief agencies brought into the country for the benefit of the victims of the tsunami, and sold it, thereby padding government coffers.
Am I the only one who has a problem with this?
I've also spoken to some of the LDS charities missionaries here, and I've been told that the only way they could bring goods into the country without paying duty, import taxes, and VAT was to donate the goods directly to the government and hope that the government used or distributed the goods properly.
posted
I'd have to find a way to make it make sense.
See, anything that's shipped/mailed/otherwise sent to me, unless it's small enough for my postal carrier on bicycle wheels to drop it off, I have to go to the central post office downtown. A half hour trishaw ride each way, plus at least another half hour in the building. Then pay whatever they decide to charge for whatever I'm receiving, which might only be 100 Rupees, or might be much more. If I'm receiving a box of paperbacks, let's use an example. Let's say 50 paperbacks per box, at $8 US per book, we're looking at a value of about $400 US for the box - even if they're used, because they can be resold here. They'd probably charge me whatever the import tax is, plus duty, plus VAT of 15%. So this box of free books now has a cost of possibly up to $100 US, which has to be paid on this end in order to get donated to a library, owned and operated by the government, mind you.
So I'm not sure. It's an excellent question, and what can I say? I love the concept behind this and would love to make it work. I'm going to look into this and see if there's something I can figure out that would make this make sense.
I love the idea of people donating fiction or other books to a library. I love it, I tell you! Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Let me find out the cheapest way of doing this, first of all. See what I find out. Then I'll report back and let y'all decide from there.
What kind of quantity of books are we talking about? Also, I would prefer to donate the books to a school that was destroyed, for example, because they'll have no books at all, and this would at least start their library.
Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Grumble]](graemlins/grumble.gif)
![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
![[Angst]](graemlins/angst.gif)
![[Dont Know]](graemlins/dontknow.gif)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Frown]](frown.gif)
Third try finally got me connected to it. But guess what does work? ![[ROFL]](graemlins/rofl.gif)
![[No No]](graemlins/nono.gif)
No telling!![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
![[Confused]](confused.gif)
![[Wall Bash]](graemlins/wallbash.gif)
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
![[The Wave]](graemlins/thewave.gif)
![[Kiss]](graemlins/kiss.gif)
