What has happened to public libraries?

[Deleted]

I remember as a child, being intimidated by the books in the local library, and how they were filled with the great works of literature, and the occassional Danielle Steel. Now they appear only to be good if you want to self diagnose a cold, or browse the internet with the pensioners circle.

Don't get me started with the staff! I remember the women who used to run them, tall, imposing, vastly intelligent and could scare a child with a mere glance. Not now. I went in yesterday to get "The Picture of Dorian Grey", so I had a look around, and couldn't see it so I asked at the desk. I got "What does she write?" So I explained that it was the title of the book by Oscar Wilde, and then she asked me how to spell "Dorian", and then "Grey" and then totally ignored me and very slowly, typed in "Dorien Gray". When suprisingly that yielded no results she then tried to search for "Oscar Wild". When that failed she then told me that I must be mistaken as they don't have a book of that title or anything by that author. I said that I know it exists and asked if I could use the search, within two seconds I had the book up and she said that she'd never heard of the book, or him. I could've strangled her. She is the first person that I have ever met who has not heard of Oscar Wilde. Even my little brother has heard of him from primary school for crying out loud. Yet she still managed to get a job in a library, surely you have to have a least a passing interest in literature to work in a library these days?

[Rad]

That was obviously a rare thing - a library without an LC member of staff! Quick, someone apply there!

[Deleted]

Jun 18, 2008 10:33:11 GMT Rad said:

That was obviously a rare thing - a library without an LC member of staff! Quick, someone apply there!

You wouldn't want to! HALF of the library was a section consisting entirely of "Home Medical Care", "Cookery" and "Gardening" with a tiny section for fiction.

[Chris]

For what it's worth, my old local library is the exact opposite. I went in about 11 months ago for a job interview and the children's literature section was full of actual books with an actual narrative, as opposed to the endless rows of "Fighting Fantasy"and half-dead copies of "The Magical Faraway Tree" with the odd Gillian Cross strewn about seemnigly at random that I remember from going there as a wee'un.