Mer, rhymes with bear (merriehaskell) wrote,
Mer, rhymes with bear
merriehaskell

The Laws of the Library

At Excelsior the other night, Sarah was telling a childhood story of the Evil Censoring Librarian, who would not pull a Victor Hugo novel off a high shelf for her "because you'll never finish it." Lawrence (a librarian) and I both gasped. "That violates one of the Laws of Library Science!" I shrieked.

Sarah said, "What are the other Laws of Library Science?"

And Lawrence and I looked at each other. "Uh... Well, they're good rules," we mumbled, "and that definitely violates one of them."

Without further ado:

The Five Laws of Library Science


by S.R. Ranganathan

  • Books are for use.
  • Every reader his (or her) book.
  • Every book its reader.
  • Save the time of the patron.
  • The library is a growing organism.


I got my Field Guide to Surreal Botany entry out of the last one, plus a short story no one has published yet.

----
Also, for IBARW: That which everyone else has already linked to, I feel, but the author is a librarian, Aryan Elves and Damsels Distressed: a Librarian-Writer’s View of Bias in American SF

God, I love librarians.
Tags: libraries: things people don't know
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  • Meme

    Via beth_bernobich: Post your work in progress, page 77 or page 7, lines 7-14, no cheating. Here is mine, from page 77 of the current…

  • NoNaNo

    Did not win NaNo. Did not get past about 2600 words, in point of fact. On the other hand, I rewrote an entire book between October 8th and November…

  • Ressurecto Livejourno

    Kicking the tires. I think it might be time to come back to the long form. Step 1: think really long and hard about an entry that would be a worthy…