It was the day that was supposed to change the world of publishing, the world of books forever! D-Day! Dan day, that is. Dan Brown. And so, a couple of weeks on, how was it for you, dear reader? Did you have borrowers breaking down your doors to download "The Lost Symbol"? Were they rushing in to plug in their new Sony Readers, while your book stock sat wilting on the shelves? No, me neither. We have (at last count) sixty reservations. And rather fewer copies. So people will either have to wait patiently or go and buy it along with their groceries at Waitasmorritescobury's.
We have yet to get rid of all our cassette audiobooks - a new MP3 collection has been treated with suspicion in some quarters, enthusiasm in others. So what, fellow librarians, are we for? Do we slavishly follow the New Book World, as per the Bookseller and the literary chit-chat columns, or do we do what we do best - look over our spectacles (metaphorical or otherwise) and do a bit of cross-referencing before we decide that it is all over for the book. I won't light my bonfire just yet!
Speech on ending the Right to Buy, 17.1.2023
3 months ago
I'm answering a blog which came round Derbyshire Libraries asking for stories for your Shhh event! Yes, we have some strange requests here in Derbyshire too, like the lady who asked for a book by the author Kate Verdi. Being such knowledgable library people we all looked suitably sure we knew who that was but couldn't find any author by that name or anything similar. The lady was insistent she had been told there was a copy of this book in our library.... it later came to light that she wanted a travel book on the Cape Verde Islands.... The one other strange exchange that stands out was the lady who handed a supermarket bag over the counter with, not only a book inside, but also a cod fillet (unwrapped and slimy). Upon exclaiming "there's a piece of fish in here" (as you do) she replied "it's not mine" and walked away, leaving us with a stinking book and a fast developing stinking library!
ReplyDeleteI can only conclude that this job is full of surprises!
Ida Shelving