1.25.2006
Behind the curve @ your library
I love it when people ask for really technical, highly specific, academic or scientific material. (Not.) We never have it, and they just cannot fathom why. Tonight two guys asked me if we had any books on "experimental gopeds" or "just 'experimental'" or, failing that, "power boards" (which are apparently motorized skateboards. No, no, and no. I told them, "yah, well, we're not very cutting edge." They looked at me in disbelief, wondering how on earth could we NOT have books on such important topics.
In order to try to defend the system, I looked on Amazon. They don't have any books on power boards, either as far as I could tell. People don't seem to understand that it often takes awhile for books to even be published on most new technology and fads. It takes even longer for our library at least to wake up and smell the coffee, before running out to catch the train that left the station a long time ago.
OK, enough with the terrible mixed metaphors. Ugh. I'm embarrassing myself.
(Now that I think about it, we proably would have something on "experimental" if I had only been able to figure out what the heck they meant. But seriously. Have you ever tried to achieve meaningful communication with someone who requests books on "just experimental"? It's not easy.)
In order to try to defend the system, I looked on Amazon. They don't have any books on power boards, either as far as I could tell. People don't seem to understand that it often takes awhile for books to even be published on most new technology and fads. It takes even longer for our library at least to wake up and smell the coffee, before running out to catch the train that left the station a long time ago.
OK, enough with the terrible mixed metaphors. Ugh. I'm embarrassing myself.
(Now that I think about it, we proably would have something on "experimental" if I had only been able to figure out what the heck they meant. But seriously. Have you ever tried to achieve meaningful communication with someone who requests books on "just experimental"? It's not easy.)
