Thursday, October 25, 2007

Unreal -- A rant!

We went to the library tonight to get Anne Frank. We picked up about six other books on the topic, but not Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl.

Why?

Our library does not have Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl.

I cannot believe this! I lectured the poor librarian. I said every library in America should have this book on their shelves. This is unbelievable.

She was very polite and offered to submit an ILL request. I took her up on her offer.

Our main librarian just gave notice and will be leaving the end of the month. He came on board about four years ago. First thing he did was pull about a quarter of the books from the shelves and sell them. I stocked up big time at that sale. The library shelves are bare. Then he pulled many shelves out, including the music shelves and replaced them with cheap fiber-board crap. He then put in several couches. All over the library.

He was really into aesthetics and creating a social scene. He put in a fake fireplace, too.

Bob and I jumped for joy when we heard he put in notice. I hope we get a librarian that actually likes BOOKS.

Oh, did I mention how supportive he is of homeschoolers? Every spring he has a homeschool day where he drives up to the capital and takes the homeschoolers to meet our lawmakers. The only problem is he only tells one family. The same family has gone in the library van up there with him every year. No one but that family. The mom recently told me about this and wondered why more homeschoolers didn't go. Uh, well, maybe if he would actually tell the homeschoolers about it, more would participate.

Bottom line: It is unbelievable that my library does not have Anne Frank's diary. Good grief!

Rant over.

8 comments:

Heather said...

And why the heck are you the first person to put in a request for this book? That's almost worse.

Anonymous said...

A book for you to read since I think it would be to intense for Thomas is Flares of Memory: stories of childhood during the holocaust. Intense.

Any way you can get yourself on the selection committee for a new librarian? Our neighboring town has a hs friendly librarian and I love going there. When the read-alouds I want aren't on the shelves, passing the list to him results in the books being ordered for the library. He is such a treasure. Hope you get such a person next.

Anonymous said...

I am utterly shocked at that! Of all the books to not have! Mercy!

Appletini said...

Hey, even my teeny tiny library has a copy of Diary of Anne Frank.

I always lament having to weed books, but alas! We have so little space and I have to make room for new books somehow. I do try to maintain the integrity of the collection, but it's a real balancing act sometimes.

Elisheva Hannah Levin said...

That is somewhat amazing, but not totally so.

This week we opened our local paper to read that Sandia National Labs is getting rid of their print library. The engineers and scientists are supposed to get whatever they need on-line!

A lot of classic and very useful literature will be unavailable! Unbelievable!

Good look getting Anne Frank.

Anonymous said...

That has got to be the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. I know our library has it, so they aren't all stupid. That was a required read when I was in school, and I am just shocked the library did not have it.

Did you want to put in a request? I cannot believe they even had to ask!

Anonymous said...

Hi
My name is Lucy, I'm the Head of Education at the Anne Frank Trust in the UK. Your blog showed up on my Google alert. (Big Brother's watching!!!)

I am appalled at the lack of the Diary in your library - I'd send you one to put in there is it didn't cost twice as mush as a the book itself to get it there!

I see you're homeschooling. I thought I'd mention an online tool which has just launched its American arm you might like to use with the children:

http://www.annefrankguide.net/en-US/default.asp?resetculture=1

You don't need a library for that!

Good luck.

Lucy

Anonymous said...

Apologies for the typos in my previous post - they don't do my reputation much good!

- Lucy