(Part 2) Best products from r/Libraries

We purchased one of these super el-cheapo ($52) wireless scanners off of Amazon, and staff love it, they want more and more and more of them. They say that it scans significantly faster than our normal scanners. And they like not having a tether. You can turn them into stand alone, store only scanners for inventory. The downside is that they cannot detect when they are in a stand, to switch from trigger mode to barcode detect mode. So they don't work great as a front desk scanner.

https://www.amazon.com/Inateck-Wireless-Automatic-Handheld-Rechargeable/dp/B00IOGSZ04/

If you're looking for books to help guide the patron in using the marketplace and decisions made relating to that process this book may be useful, 'Healthcare Made Easy' by Katz.
http://www.amazon.com/Healthcare-Made-Easy-Questions-Affordable-ebook/dp/B00PMIGXU6/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1418042061&sr=1-3

We use "Chicklit", "Romance", and "Inspirational fiction" for things like that, if I'm thinking of the same kind of novel. We use other genre headings, too, like "Mystery", "SciFi", "Horror", etc, and the cozier, softer books about women and their lives and desires (Amish Firefighter, anyone?) are also divided out.

I had a family member give me this when I got my MLIS. It's more for a laugh than anything else, but might be fun:
https://www.amazon.com/Nancy-Pearl-Librarian-Action-Figure/dp/B0006FU9EG

I'm an agnostic academic science librarian. That said, I'm going to drop this here:

Library Bill of Rights (ALA, 1996). Sections I and II: "Books and other library resources should be provided for the interest, information, and enlightenment of all people of the community the library serves. Materials should not be excluded because of the origin, background, or views of those contributing to their creation. Libraries should provide materials and information presenting all points of view on current and historical issues. Materials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval."

If you're worried about children whose parents are not creationist being exposed to the DVD, one solution would be to find a way to clearly indicate that the item is creationist. You might also buy a copy of this to balance things out.

How good or important was it, compared to something like The Best And The Brightest? The library here explained that it didn't carry many books about the Vietnam War "because that was a long time ago."

We have a photography book called "Master Breasts", I find it in all sorts of interesting places. Also the art book Roman Sex, which is a excellent survey of sexual artistic works from the Roman Republic and Empire. That one wanders too.

Kind of off topic, but this is my favorite book I've ever weeded: Love and Marriage: Bill Cosby

Kazuno Kohara covered this ;)
Squirrels were kind of an issue but it was otherwise a pretty solid model.

This is ridiculous.

What happened was that a few years ago (wow, it's been almost ten already) is that lots of people read Anne Rice's latest book and hated it.



She comes back with a 1100 word paragraph. (A repost because I'm not digging through 44 pages of reviews to find the original)

As a (former) Anne fan...

She started alienating a lot of her fan base years ago. Memnoch started it, but I think the coup-de-gras was with Merrick. Her writing quality had deteriorated (lost her muse and tried to force out books? I dunno), she butchered beloved characters (literally and figuratively), and frankly a lot of her readers weren't into the overt religious themes.

At the same time there's a very active fan fiction community based around Anne's work starting around the time Memnoch came out. Basically, there'd been a fan fic community since the early days of the Internet. Around the time this book came out (or a little earlier): she sends cease and desist orders to authors.

Okay, the characters are her intellectual property, she has the right to do that. But it backfires. A lot of the fanfic was/is really good, some of the authors are professional writers. Second...how many authors do this to their fans? Not many, if any others. The main fanfic sites shut down, go underground (they still exist, you have to look for them though).

This whole time she's turning out books that her original, hard-core fans hate. What do people do on the Internet when they hate something? They give their opinion on it.

I honestly think Anne was not used to this, and took offense. And has her fan base (at least for her new work) has deteriorated over the years, the butt-hurt has just gotten worse. It's not bullying when someone in the public sphere puts out work, and gets criticism.

Do people take this criticism too far? Absolutely. There's a huge difference between saying "Your work was awful and here's why" to "Your work sucks and you should die". I also don't doubt that there are people who get obsessive about it. But this is more about Amazon and other sites not enforcing their own community guidelines when it coms to assholes than about authors being persecuted.

Here's an awesome kid's book about him!

Not an article, but this is a really good book relevant to your field.

http://www.amazon.com/Barbarians-Gates-Public-Library-Postmodern/dp/0977861716

We have these Behringer headphones at each public workstation.

We have wipes available at the desk if a patron wants to clean them. Or, if they think it's gross, they can bring their own headphones and plug them into the front of the computer. I see people using our headphones every day. They are very popular and totally worth it.

Here are a few thoughts:
Banned Books bracelet
Monogrammed stationery set
*Penguin book cover postcards

No matter what, definitely write a detailed handwritten thank you card or letter.

[edit - do bullet points not work with links?]

If you can get your hands on genreflecting it is very helpful!

Black Belt Librarian and First Time Manager were helpful for me.

The library from Beauty by Robin McKinley. It's in a castle and it has every book that ever was and will be published. The book was originally published in the 70s, so I wouldn't be surprised if Disney got some of their inspiration for Beauty and the Beast from this novel.

Not YA, but The Boss series by Abigail Barnett is the alternative I always offer people. It's a feminist, consensual, BDSM relationship, has queer characters, and is very well written. Also the first one is free on Kindle.