h a l f b a k e r yI like this idea, only I think it should be run by the government.
add, search, annotate, link, view, overview, recent, by name, best, random
news, help, about, links, report a problem
browse anonymously,
or get an account
and write.
register,
|
|
|
libraries are so boring; particularly the children's section. I think it might be quite nice if the librarians dressed up as animals. either real or characters from books. they might actually thank us for this, as public libraries are usually quite cold as well.
(?) Continuing the nonsense...
http://www.halfbake...animal_20litigation
I see a trend beginning here... [RayfordSteele, May 23 2002, last modified Oct 05 2004]
Ob. link.
http://www.halfbake...o_20_22Punbakery_22
[pottedstu, May 24 2002, last modified Oct 05 2004]
Uh oh.
http://www.ironfrog.com/libcats/lcs.html
[mrthingy, Jun 10 2002, last modified Oct 05 2004]
Like this?
http://www.docwease...01/1006gorilla.html
[mrthingy, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]
Bookshop
Proprietor: Ah, no,...it in stock, sir...
figured out how to do this I think [docweasel, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]
[link]
|
| |
I was hoping for trained chimps running the place. Would be cheaper, although smelly. |
|
| |
re mrthingy's link, maybe this was the inspiration for the librarian in the Terry Pratchett discworld novels? |
|
| |
Well, the obvious choice is (book)worms. |
|
| |
funny story....all my books (of which there are 1000s) have bookplates which say "This book belongs to (my cat's name here)" |
|
| |
after all....who's gonna' steal a book from a cat? |
|
| |
I would rfr, call me a heartless bastard but what would a cat need 1000s of books for? |
|
| |
I like this idea, perhaps all government workers other than doctors, police, and firemen could be encouraged to dress up. |
|
| |
I don't know about that. I'd like to see a string of ten crocodiles jogging into a burning building. Or, better, three big, rolypoly pigs running a random breath testing station on the side of a major road. |
|
| |
bobotf, to read of course...and to do research. He's 16 this year. He's had a lot of time to collect books. |
|
| |
Would you believe all my magazine subscriptions come to my 10 year old cat who sends money orders in her name when it is time to renew them? |
|
| |
Is it a bad thing when your dog has better credit than you do? |
|
| |
//libraries are so boring// Po! I can't believe you said that! And I voted for your Dress Code for Riding Camels idea! Sniff, sniff. Libraries aren't boring, they just have an image problem. Ok, so they tend to be decorated in forty shades of brown and orange and staffed by tight-lipped, moustachioed women of a certain age who have grown to hate children and, in fact, anyone who dares to enter their domain (I'm a librarian so I can get away with saying these things) but they're not boring! Libraries are fascinating and exciting places, *full* of all sorts of knowledge, just waiting to be explored. |
|
| |
But if I have to wear a costume then I want to be a cat, ok? |
|
| |
Or french maids outfits of course. that should boost library membership. |
|
| |
there is another week to go until half-term here, BTW.
I used to be a librarian of sorts - well I fixed the books that were coming apart and you are right sal, libraries are wonderful but I could not really validate my idea by saying - they are really cool places but they could be cooler if..... |
|
| |
Read pratchett and you`ll encounter a Librarian who is an Orang Utan. Got transformed after some kind of magic accident but likes his forms (he can hang on the shelves an dgrab books with the feet, screw the head off of people who handle books carelessly etc.) |
|
| |
is it really that good an idea? especially CATS. My cat tends to go and sit on the book i want to read. Not very handy for a library's business... or... is it? |
|
| |
funny that, I was just thinking how my favourite is a big cat. |
|
| |
Huh, Saruman, I can do all that as well, you know. Well, apart from the grabbing books with my feet bit, but I'm working on that. |
|
| |
how about this one?
http://docweasel.com/members/05/albums/12contract/15bookshop.html |
|
| |
Proprietor: Ah, no, well we haven't got it in stock, sir... |
|
| |
Customer: Oh, well, not to worry, not to worry. Can you help me with "David Coperfield"? |
|
| |
Proprietor: Ah, yes, Dickens. |
|
| |
Proprietor: (pause) I beg your pardon? |
|
| |
Customer: No, Edmund Wells. |
|
| |
Proprietor: I...think you'll find Charles Dickens wrote "David Copperfield", sir... |
|
| |
Customer: No, no, Dickens wrote "David Copperfield" with two "P"s. This is "David Coperfield" with one "P" by Edmund Wells. |
|
| |
Proprietor: "David Coperfield" with one "P"? |
|
| |
Customer: Yes, I should have said. |
|
| |
Proprietor: Yes, well in that case we don't have it. |
|
| |
Customer: Funny, you've got a lot of books here... |
|
| |
Librarians fail to stand up for their brethren |
|
| |
A bitter, months-long dispute within the American Library Association -- the largest nation-based organization of librarians in the world -- continues as to whether to demand that Fidel Castro release 10 imprisoned independent librarians found guilty of making available to Cubans copies of George Orwell's 1984 and the United Nations' Declaration of Human Rights. |
|
| |
Along with 65 other Cuban dissenters, the ''subversive'' librarians were sentenced to 20 or more years in Castro's gulag. Some urgently need medical attention, which they're not receiving. |
|
| |
At the ALA's annual midwinter meeting this month in San Diego, Karen Schneider, a member of the ALA's governing council, wanted to amend a final report on the meeting to call for their immediate release. In proposing her amendment, Schneider told her colleagues that Castro's police had confiscated and burned books and other materials at the independent libraries. |
|
| |
The amendment was overwhelmingly defeated by the 182-member council. The report was swept through by a raising of hands. |
|
| |
From Sept. 25 to Oct. 2, libraries across this country will invite their communities to the annual Banned Books Week, decrying censorship. I've spoken, by invitation, during those weeks at libraries around the country. Will any library invite me this year to talk about the burning of library books in Cuba? |
|
| |
In the final report, also passed overwhelmingly by raised hands, there was some pious language expressing the ALA's ''deep concern over the arrest and long prison terms of political dissidents in Cuba'' -- but this deep concern does not extend to asking the Cuban dictator to liberate all of the 75 imprisoned in his crackdown last spring, including the 10 librarians. |
|
| |
Steve Marquardt, an ALA member who believes in everyone's right to read everywhere, wrote to Eliades Acosta Matos, the director of Cuba's National Library (Biblioteca Nacional Jose Marti), and they discussed Schneider's amendment, which Marquardt supports. |
|
| |
In his answer, Castro's appointee said: ''I send to you the text of the report on Cuba, approved in San Diego. Ask yourself why the resolution proposed by Ms. Schneider was defeated.'' The response also -- like some members of the American Library Council -- blamed the ''aggressions'' of the American government against Cuba, ''including 'lies and subversion, such as the independent libraries.' '' But the books were sent to the independent libraries by people from many countries, including individual Americans. |
|
| |
After that final report was approved by the ALA's governing council, the association's president, Carla Hayden, said that the vote ''shows that people are able to work out differences of opinion and come together on a joint statement.'' |
|
| |
As an indication of the ALA leadership's hypocrisy, the final report of its governing council in January urges ''the Cuban government to eliminate obstacles to access to information imposed by its policies.'' But there's not a word about eliminating the obstacles to the release of the 10 independent librarians. |
|
| |
Then the governing council's report supports ''an investigative visit [to Cuba] by a special rapporteur of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights with special attention given to freedom of access to information and freedom of information, especially in the cases of those recently imprisoned.'' What freedom of information are the Cuban gulag guards ''conveying'' to those prisoners? |
|
| |
And remember, this report is going to the same U.N. Human Rights Commission that includes Cuba, as well as such champions of freedom of expression as China, Zimbabwe, Sudan and Saudi Arabia. |
|
| |
What is the ALA leadership thinking? |
|
| |
Moreover, after Castro sent the 10 librarians and 65 other dissidents into his prison, the notorious U.N. Human Rights Commission refused to pass a condemnation of Castro and also turned down a resolution by Costa Rica calling for the immediate release of the prisoners. |
|
| |
Meanwhile, on Jan. 16, the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions in The Hague joined Amnesty International in condemning Castro's new bill that places even more severe restrictions on Cuban citizens' use of the Internet. Amnesty International ''fears that the new measures are intended to prevent human rights monitoring by restricting the flow of information out of Cuba.'' |
|
| |
It's a shame librarians around this country have a leadership that mocks the ALA's Library Bill of Rights, which requires its members to ''challenge censorship'' -- but refuses to call for the release of 10 librarians in Castro's prisons who, indeed, challenged censorship. |
|
| |
Do I dare say baked by Terry Pratchett in his Discworld series, with "The Librarian"? |
|
| |
Double croissant for you, po! |
|
| |
From my experience, most librarians wouldn't know the books very well, and would probably dress according to the latest Disney incarnation of the character, or the closest thing, if the movie hadn't been made yet. How about we distribute free books to kids instead? And maybe pay a few "normal" (i.e. non Disneyfied) folks who can read well, to rock up to schools and do starter readings. That's how I learnt to read (my parents reading to me, well before going to school), and to love books. And my daughter, whom I gave up on reading to after she'd skipped a few chapters ahead a few nights running. |
|
| |