Not Libraries

I keep reading stuff from people who aren't librarians that want libraries to be community education and makers workshops. I'm fond of Make and Makezine and Makeblog. After all, it was founded by the younger brothers of my high school classmates. That's literal, actually. The thing is, a library really IS a book warehouse. While its become a sort of education center for baffled owners of Kindles and iPads because their grandkids got them and they turned off the help menus first thing, even then that should be as far as it goes. Libraries are about books, and about information searching. I did an assignment yesterday elaborating my views after watching several videos by extremely young, extremely idealistic, extremely rich children who have no clue about budgets or having to accept NOT having something in order to have something else. They don't make hard choices because they're too rich to know those exist for everyone else.

I like community education, but that should happen at the Community College, which is in town and has fairly reasonable rates for classes. So does the Veterans center, and the local catholic church. There are tons of clubs with lots of facilities to hold them in which does not require use of the library rooms, nor does it suck money and time away from folks who are overworked as it is. Librarians are busy enough with cataloging (which I now know is a difficult task), book prep, and shelving, much less minding a desk and the fact that there's no reference librarian anymore. That's the one you ask "What books do you have on this subject?" and they pull up a list of things for your book report. A very useful person when you have a problem that takes a lot of information to solve. That is something that should exist, but isn't funded anymore.

I object to well meaning mandates that try to turn a library into a catch all building. It is a book warehouse. Stop trying to turn it into a baby sitting service, a college, and now a workshop. It isn't those things. Those things deserve their own buildings, and their own staffs, and their own time off. The current library staff works almost six days a week, and they're pretty exhausted by all the conflicting demands so they aren't giving their best to any one thing. They can't. The cataloging is behind. The book prep is behind. The shelving stacks up. People who know HOW to polish DVDs don't because it is a thankless job, and there's always more to do. I do it because I don't care about being thanked, and I've got Discworld to distract me. Very important, laughter. Life is seriously ironic.

All this said, I've love to see cheaper community classes on things like RV maintenance and motorcycle servicing. Might have saved the leg of the lawyer whose engine seized yesterday. Shattered his leg in a couple places when the back wheel locked and it threw him off and landed on him. Had to crawl off the road. The Houston Motorcycle collective, which mostly restores Honda 350 bikes, would be a useful resource if there was one of those here in town. They're safer than scooters, since they can go through potholes, and have better brakes. And even climb Highway 20 or 49, if need be. I sometimes think my blog is getting read by the local trimmers because the stuff I discuss turns up not long after. I don't have local friends, mostly because the locals are either retired rich people or skanks with no prospects and several children and diseases and drug problems, or married and poor and desperate enough to be a scam threat. Desperate people do desperate things. It is safer to keep your distance socially. You don't get entangled that way. I'm glad there's a couple cooking schools locally. Good. I'm glad there's a place with a classroom on cheesemaking. I'm glad there's a local that makes yarn from alpaca wool. Good. I'm glad there's all sorts of crafts growing into very small businesses. Even if they don't hire anyone, at least they're doing something useful with themselves rather than make trouble for everyone else. Even that nutjob with the perfumes. He will kill a few people with those poisons, but few of them will be here at least.

I'd love for the local semi-retired machinists to start a machinist apprentice craft-house. Masters taking apprentices, teaching them. It would be useful, locally. I'd love for the local motorcyclists who ride around here to teach maintenance and repair and restoration at the high school. Motorcycles cost less than cars, and get better mileage than a Prius for a fraction of the cost. If you ride slow, you are at far lower risk, though the guy above was only going 20 mph when the engine seized. So its not a guarantee. Oil in a bike engine gets pumped a little too fast, apparently, so it breaks down faster. It doesn't have to be this way, but it generally is. Its one of those things. Still a think you can read about at the library. There are books and web pages and videos on repair, but that doesn't mean a classroom is a garage for working on your bike. And it doesn't make a librarian qualified to do the work or teach it. And there are people in govt who think "just make the library do it" and then don't fund their dumb experiment. And that's really frustrating for the ladies there.

I do wish I had a Honda 350 to restore though. And a teacher who could help me do every step of the project, engine and wiring and fuel mix in the carburetor. All of that requires knowledge I don't have. Imagine if the students commuted to school that way. Then took classes on restoring or building something like a BugEye Sprite convertible, one that's so simple it doesn't even have a trunk lid, or shock absorbers. Its on springs. And drum brakes. And still gets 60 mpg because it is so light and has a tiny engine. Is this interesting to the community? Hell yes. Is it something that should be worked on in the library? No, of course not. I do hope that someday when I can see the politics are little more clearly, I'll understand why they even bother with stuff beyond the scope of their agency. Right now it is just loony.