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Sep. 3rd, 2019 07:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
roselightfairyPSA: If you are in a library and you take a book, magazine, or any other material off the shelf for any reason, please do library staff a favor and don’t try to reshelve it! The library should have shelves or carts where you can put your “browsed” books - please use them!
This sounds like a condescending “you probably don’t know what you’re doing so don’t even try,” but it’s actually not. Libraries (and I’ve only worked in a few, so I’m generalizing, but I’m sure they all do this) keep stats to see how and how much their resources are being used. Those extra stats on that one book might be enough to save it from being removed next time the library staff weeds the collection!
Also, libraries are pretty much always underfunded and under attack from people who want to see their taxpayer dollars being put to good use, and having those statistics gives them something to show people: look! people are reading our books! we’re useful and necessary! please don’t stop giving us money! By doing (or not-doing) something as simple as not reshelving your own books, you are helping your library stay afloat!
TL;DR: don’t reshelve books yourself at your local library. Leave them out for library staff to do instead.
(The staff probably need more things to do anyway.)
This sounds like a condescending “you probably don’t know what you’re doing so don’t even try,” but it’s actually not. Libraries (and I’ve only worked in a few, so I’m generalizing, but I’m sure they all do this) keep stats to see how and how much their resources are being used. Those extra stats on that one book might be enough to save it from being removed next time the library staff weeds the collection!
Also, libraries are pretty much always underfunded and under attack from people who want to see their taxpayer dollars being put to good use, and having those statistics gives them something to show people: look! people are reading our books! we’re useful and necessary! please don’t stop giving us money! By doing (or not-doing) something as simple as not reshelving your own books, you are helping your library stay afloat!
TL;DR: don’t reshelve books yourself at your local library. Leave them out for library staff to do instead.
(The staff probably need more things to do anyway.)
