3/18/11

E-smoking in bed

Library patrons recently returned a stack of books with a tale of woe.  Some of the books were damaged when Reader #1 dozed off while smoking in bed.  Other books were damaged when the smoking reader's spouse, Reader #2, attempted to put out the fire with water.  Water is not much better for library books than cigarette ashes.


The couple owes about $135 in library fines.

Dogs and babies chew lots of library books and videos.  Kids in the car spill lemonade onto whole bags of books.  Parents think, if that is the correct word, that reading books at the edge of the swimming pool is a good idea. Even this blogger dropped the New Orleans Frommers travel guide into the hotel bubble bath.

Pressure is high for librarians to add e-books to their collections for all those people who received Nooks and Kindles for Christmas.  Publishers don't know how to price their product for libraries, as reported in the New York Times this week.  Libraries aren't sure how to manage circulation for e-books.  It all makes my head hurt, but one thing stays the same:

Don't smoke in bed!

© 2011 Nancy L. Ruder

2 comments:

Kathleen said...

You made my head hurt, too, until you made me laugh!

Also:

Don't Smoke at All!

But, hey, it's a choice, so it's up to the general You. Actually, I've circled back to:

Don't Smoke in Bed...

along with the school librarian's advice:

Do Not Feed the Library Books

Genevieve Netz said...

When I was little, I left "Freddie the Pig's Perilous Adventure" in the window sill where he got soaked with rain. My mother had to buy that library book, and she didn't take me to the library again for quite a while. It was terrible for me.

Anyway, I hope your library has some method of recouping some of the cost from the patrons who abused the books -- or at least suspends their take-home privileges.

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...