Thursday, January 1, 2009

Happy New Year

I have found quite a few titles that fit my criteria and have created themes for each month. As a librarian I am starting with the theme of Reference books. The first book is called Reading the OED: One Man, One Year, 21,730 pages by Ammon Shea. When I finish it I will read The Know it All: One Man's Humble Quest to become the Smartest Person in the World by A.J. Jacobs.

I purchased a used copy of Reading the OED through amazon.com. I did attempt to get a library copy, but a few things got in my way. The library I work in does not own it and it is closed for the holiday break, so I knew that I would not receive an Interlibrary loan copy before the shut down. Further complicating the matter of me getting a library copy is the fact that my local public library does not own a copy, and due to the fact that my town will not support the public library as it should, the library has been decertified by the Massachusetts board of Library Commissioners. Because of this, the Bridgewater Public Library can no longer get interlibrary loan from other libraries, and people who live in Bridgewater can no longer go to neighboring towns to check out books there. My town library has had to discontinue all programming and has reduced its hours to about 25 a week. In economic times, such as these people should support their public libraries. I do not think it is a coincidence that in Bridgewater just after the library drastically cut hours we had a bit of a crime wave which included house and car break-ins. If you are in doubt as to how much your library is worth to you, find out here: http://www.bridgewaterpubliclibrary.org/library_calculator.htm

1 comment:

  1. As Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Carnegie knew, libraries are fundamental in a democracy, and the plight of the BPL is a sad one. It was axed by voters, by the way, BEFORE the downturn in the economy: http://webhost.bridgew.edu/jhayesboh/library.html.

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