Midweek frenzy

[altivo]

Received a memory upgrade chip and an enhancement ROM for the Model 100 today, which I duly installed. This gives me enough memory to edit my typical length story or one chapter of a longer book. It also adds a more sophisticated word processing program and a display manager that increases the screen space by using a slightly smaller but still quite legible font. I think this will make the little machine quite practical for my use.

Sifted through a huge pile of donated books at work. I don't know why people think we can use 40 year old textbooks, random encyclopedia volumes, and paperbacks that have been stored in the garage for decades (judging by the dirt and mildew.) Obviously this is stuff left over by their parents or something, because if they were readers themselves they'd know better. Most of it isn't even suitable to put into our used book sales room.

The scarf made from Solomon's knot stitch is progressing. Once I got the stitch figured out, it's not difficult and goes quickly. I may even get it all finished in time for Thursday's meeting, which would be nice.

Half way through Thud!, still laughing. Under the surface Pratchett is quite good at making a parody of human governments and society. Even though he's British, I could swear he's making fun of the US administration and politicians quite specifically. I imagine that readers in other countries see their own governments instead. They're really all pretty much the same, I suspect.

Snow last night added up to a full five inches. Now it's clear and cold, temperatures dropping down to near zero F. tonight and tomorrow night with more snow possible tomorrow. The full moon rising tonight was spectacular. Huge, orange, and rather baleful, as the Wolf Moon should be of course. The weather fits.

Comments

[drgnkiyo.livejournal.com]

Yay old computer, snow, and wolf moon. <33333

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I don't mind the snow, but I do mind the cold. Down to -5 tonight again, they're saying. I've had enough of that.

[hartree.livejournal.com]

As to the books, a library donation is the guilt free book disposal service. They feel kind of weird tossing out mom's books, but feel fine at donating yet another mildewed copy of I'm Ok, You're Ok for you to toss out. ;)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Yes I'm aware of the "I can't throw it away, here you do it for me" attitude. That's bad enough. But we often turn away donations of this kind of junk from people who don't want to leave it here unless we swear on the unabridge dictionary that we will keep every one of those books on the shelf forever.

You can usually tell that the would be donors never read any books themselves.

[gabrielhorse.livejournal.com]

Heh, I've had to tell family members -we have former teachers in the family- that ancient textbooks serve no active purpose anywhere in society, even the library :P I mean, if information is outdated, why spread it around?

In other news, we've finally gotten decent weather... actually fairly nice.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

It's snowing here again, and only about 12°.

Not quite so. Old textbooks have a place in the libraries of universities and colleges where education is taught, or the history of the subjects covered by those textbooks. In fact, they can have a very important place. Medical schools NEED old textbooks as well as new. So do law schools.

A public library, on the other hand, usually just has no space to devote to outdated materials kept only for the sake of history. Even there, however, some historic materials are valuable. No one is going to be allowed to take away Webster's Second Unabridged from here under my watch, even though the third and fourth have long been considered to supersede it. The reason is simple. The Second has almost twice as many words as the Fourth. Those words haven't gone away, they just aren't used as much as they once were. Anyone reading a book written in 1910 or 1920 could well need that older dictionary. ;p

[gabrielhorse.livejournal.com]

Heh, well fortunatly it was in regards to a public library... I must confess mild amusement at the thought of you glaring at some kid who ventures towards the dictionary :P

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Oh, no danger of a kid stealing it. The Second Unabridged is about ten inches thick and weighs something like 25 pounds. It's the reason that dictionary stands were invented. I just meant that I've twice had to explain why we don't throw it away, since it looks so old and worn.

[gabrielhorse.livejournal.com]

That's why I found it amusing ;) So you have to watch the adults more then...

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Yeah, especially the people who think "everything is on the internet now so why do we bother with books at all?"

[gabrielhorse.livejournal.com]

Is it me, or do adults act more like children than children? :P

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Often, yes, they do.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

I guess most people don't know what can and can't be accepted, plus they may not want to throw books out. To me destroying or throwing out a book is taboo, unless it is completely ruined. I would always only give good books to the library for donation however I'm sure I've given my share of junk to the lifeline donation bins but its stuff I didn't want to throw out and if someone could get some use from it then by all means.

If the books were as you say very dirty or mildewy that is a bit off, but they may have respected the books enough so as not to just throw them out but see if somewhere could use them and well the local library is a natural choice :) I've got an encyclopedia from 1962 and its an amusing read.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

We get a lot of books that are in such bad condition that I don't even want to touch them. Or they are so old that even a museum in need of props for displays wouldn't want them. You do a brave job of trying to give the donors the benefit of the doubt here, but the truth is they just don't think at all.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't they just dump them in the bin in that case? *scratches his head* I saved some books from being thrown out, they were put out for a big rubbish collection we have everyso often. I picked the best books out of the lot, kept a couple that looked interesting (which I still have) donated the rest and the very bad stuff well I put them in for recycling. I got some good ones out of that lot :)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

That would be the rational thing to do, but I don't think this behavior is rational. Given all the statistics on declining literacy and reading, I think what is going on is more like this: People who do not read by choice, because reading is a great painful effort for them, regard printed books as some sort of strange and magical thing that they don't understand. They are still aware that there are other people who do read and understand books, and they have enough awe for the process that they are unwilling to throw any books away. Instead they bring them to us "because we'll know what to do with them."

It's sort of like turning in unwanted guns to the police department, or religious objects such as rosaries and crucifixes to the nearest church. It's almost superstitious behavior. Like people in simpler times would have brought anything strange that they didn't understand to the local shaman or medicine man.

Years ago what we used to see was people who would bring in very old books to the library (most typically old bibles or dictionaries, because those are the things most likely to be kept around in everyday life apparently) and either want to sell them to us or have us tell them what the book was worth. They invariably believed it MUST be valuable because it was a hundred years old. Of course that isn't true, and bibles and dictionaries of that age are particularly uninteresting to book collectors and dealers. Now if they were 400 years old it would be different... ;p

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

Has someone every brought in a very old book that would've been worth something? Like a first edition of something?

[altivo.livejournal.com]

It does happen. I've heard stories about it, but I've never actually seen it myself.

One or two libraries in our area have received such things mixed in with boxes full of discarded books, and recognized them for what they were soon enough to pull them out and put them up for auction. It's not a common event, though. As most people have fewer and fewer books in their homes, it will become less and less frequent, too.

I do sift through most of the stuff that is donated to us, and I would recognize some, if not all, such rarities. So far, nothing. ;p