This is why college libraries are dying. A professor checked out more books than the library stuff thinks is appropriate and drama ensued:
Reakes said that the excessive amount of books that were checked out had led to hours of wasted staff time and confusion.
“Keeping track of that many books, along with the recalls by other patrons, became unwieldy,” said Reakes. “Both the patron and our circulation staff were wasting a lot of time searching for books that hadn’t ever been returned, etc.”
My favorite part is “wasted time.” Librarians’ time is wasted by keeping track of books. They could be curing cancer instead!
Of course, it’s all baloney because nobody “keeps track” of books manually. It’s all automated, and the system doesn’t care if books are distributed among 2 or 1,002 patrons and in which proportions.
But the pouty librarians will definitely see their jobs automated away soon.
I read that article this morning and it prompted me to check the lending limits at my own campus library. I am allowed to check out 1,000 books and 25 media items at a time. I currently have 30 out and I don’t think I’ve ever gone over 50 or 60.
I think the only issue with him having so many books is that it sounds like lots of them are getting recalled and he is inconveniencing others by having so many out.
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I wonder what my limits are. I don’t even know.
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I had never thought about it either, but I’ve clearly never gotten even close to exceeding the limit here. I honestly don’t know where I would put 1,000 books if I checked them out. My office is a decent size, but that is a lot of books.
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I have about 1,000 books in my office, and I do have a decent amount of shelf space.
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I barely have 30 at the office. But that’s because I don’t spend any time there. That will all change when I become chair.
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I just checked, and there are no limits on the number of books either faculty or students can borrow at my school.
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