Too Often Annoying

But sometimes an engaging examination of library issues and sometimes witty and entertaining. I enjoyed this bit:

What's so bad about librarian stereotypes? In some cases it's absolutely true. When I remove my glasses and shake the bun from my hair, I am a sex goddess, and a tattoo would only ruin the effect. How many professions attract sexual fetishists, after all. It's not like people conjure up images of engineers and say, "when he removed those coke-bottle glasses and that pocket protector, he was like a god!"

And cheered this:

"Part of the transformation involves physically restructuring the library by subject." Restructuring the library by subject? No why didn't librarians think of that! One wonders how the library was structured before. Perhaps by book size or color? Lots of library patrons would be happy with that, since they want to see that book again, the big blue one, the one that was near that other book on that subject that's just on the tip of their tongue. But in general, that would be a bad way for a school library to be organized.

"It will more closely resemble the layout of a Barnes & Noble bookstore, so all math resources will be in one section, all science in another, for instance, Light said."Hmmm . I've never been in the Franklin High library, but maybe you have. Were the math resources not together before? What sort of library has them scattered all over the place! I think Principal Light should be thanked for finally organizing that collection! Or else he should be criticized for not setting foot in the library before, or else not noticing that it already was organized. This is an empirical question. . . .

That's not how Barnes & Noble bookstores work, not even in Massachusetts. Bookstores put sale items, bargain books, journals, coffee mugs, and other random crap in the front of the store hoping you'll buy things on impulse. And just try finding a specific history book, even if the store has it.

. . . There's nothing intuitive about the organization of a bookstore for research purposes, and one has to wonder if anyone who thinks that has ever done any actual research. But what can you expect when two bureaucrats and a theater teacher design the place.