Thomas A. Horsley <tom.horsley@att.net> wrote:
> I was in Grady Elementary school in Tampa many long decades ago. The
> school went through 6th grade, no higher grades around. I was also in
> 6th grade, highest grade taught at the school. I tried to check out a
> Sherlock Holmes book from the library, and the librarian wouldn't let
> me because it was "too hard" for a 6th grader (not true, by the way).
> What was it doing in the library if 6th graders shouldn't be reading
> it? More important, why would a librarian object to a kid attempting
> a little brain stretching even if it was too hard?
I went to two high schools. My first high school had an enormous
library, with a librarian who would not only point students at books
but would get books from the nearby college library for them when
needed. And journal articles. They had the whole UN Atoms for Peace
series, which was my introduction to nuclear physics. They had a
whole section of fine electronics books that was better than some
college libraries I have seen. Anybody in the school, even a
first-grader, could check these out.
Then my parents moved, and I went to a different high school for my
past two years. The librarian there was a Mrs. Ianuzzi, and talking
with her, she basically told me that she considered her job to be
protecting the books from students. She considered herself a saviour
in the wilderness of book-destroying children who might want to read
books. (Also, the library was dreadful ... my father actually owned
more volumes of fiction than the library did and I did not hesitate to
point this out).
> Thus began my lifelong love affair with bookstores and shunning of
> libraries (perhaps the real story behind the librarian's actions
> involved some kind of guerilla marketing campaign by bookstores to
> turn kids off of libraries while they are young and impressionable
> :-).
This is a sad thing. Some of my best times were spent in libraries.
I sort of maybe lost my virginity in one of them, even. And I think
the job of the librarian is a very important one, because bad
librarians can scar children forever.
--scott
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."
Scott Dorsey (kludge@panix.com)