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18/7/06 19:10![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
owlectomyThis week I am carrying out the mind-bogglingly stupid policy of the county library system, whereby if we only have a single copy of a certain book, we get rid of that copy.
The idea is, if you get down to a single copy, and you haven't bought any more, then it's not worth keeping; and it's inefficient to just keep a single copy. I assume/hope that some system is in place for not deleting our single copy of Extremely Rare Valuable Book.
Admittedly, we're not losing much by deleting our copies of Eat Cheese and Barf, by R.L. Stine (actual book title!), or Wild Sweet Ecstasy. Nor do we really need a book on Mac OS 7. And, hopefully, it frees up space for other, better books. But it's still kind of dumb.
Speaking of 'kind of dumb,' I really don't have much of anything that's useful to say about Blogging Against Racism, like the rest of Livejournal. On any given day, I'm one of perhaps three white people who sets foot in my library, which generally makes me feel just a little bit clueless; and one time, well.
It was about a week after I'd started my job, and I was still getting the hang of things. The procedure for signing up to use a computer, if you don't have a library card, is that you go to the desk and ask for a reservation; and then I ask for your name and sign you up. On this particular day, I was really tired of asking "Excuse me, what's that? How is it spelled?" and I wrote down the kid's name without asking. He, meanwhile, had come behind the desk, and informed me that I spelled it wrong.
"Oh, well, it doesn't matter," I said, by which I only meant: the computer isn't going to check to make sure your name's spelled correctly. But, he was indignant about it, in the way that children are when you misspell their names; he was right to be; and it took me about five minutes for me to realize how badly I'd inserted my foot into my mouth.
I was already very much aware that you can have an environment with de facto discrimination even without any people who are openly or consciously racist or misogynistic. Good intentions are not enough. But cluelessness is a curable condition.
The idea is, if you get down to a single copy, and you haven't bought any more, then it's not worth keeping; and it's inefficient to just keep a single copy. I assume/hope that some system is in place for not deleting our single copy of Extremely Rare Valuable Book.
Admittedly, we're not losing much by deleting our copies of Eat Cheese and Barf, by R.L. Stine (actual book title!), or Wild Sweet Ecstasy. Nor do we really need a book on Mac OS 7. And, hopefully, it frees up space for other, better books. But it's still kind of dumb.
Speaking of 'kind of dumb,' I really don't have much of anything that's useful to say about Blogging Against Racism, like the rest of Livejournal. On any given day, I'm one of perhaps three white people who sets foot in my library, which generally makes me feel just a little bit clueless; and one time, well.
It was about a week after I'd started my job, and I was still getting the hang of things. The procedure for signing up to use a computer, if you don't have a library card, is that you go to the desk and ask for a reservation; and then I ask for your name and sign you up. On this particular day, I was really tired of asking "Excuse me, what's that? How is it spelled?" and I wrote down the kid's name without asking. He, meanwhile, had come behind the desk, and informed me that I spelled it wrong.
"Oh, well, it doesn't matter," I said, by which I only meant: the computer isn't going to check to make sure your name's spelled correctly. But, he was indignant about it, in the way that children are when you misspell their names; he was right to be; and it took me about five minutes for me to realize how badly I'd inserted my foot into my mouth.
I was already very much aware that you can have an environment with de facto discrimination even without any people who are openly or consciously racist or misogynistic. Good intentions are not enough. But cluelessness is a curable condition.