Quotulatiousness

April 20, 2010

No wonder that “sexy librarian” meme got started

Filed under: Randomness — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 09:10

It’s all there in the 1992 study, recently made available on the web:

A 1992 survey of 5,000 U.S. librarians, long withheld by a professional journal, found one in five respondents had engaged in sexual trysts among the stacks.

Will Manly, who said the New York-based Wilson Library Bulletin withheld the results of his survey in 1992, published results recently on his Web site indicating 51 percent of librarians in the early 90s were willing to pose nude for money and 61 percent of respondents admitting to renting an X-rated film, the New York Daily News reported Monday.

H/T to Radley Balko for the link.

September 26, 2009

British libraries now afraid to lend scissors to patrons

Filed under: Britain, Bureaucracy — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 16:13

The staff at the Holborn Library in London are apparently very worried about the risk of being attacked by library patrons, so they won’t even lend scissors:

Lorna Watts, 26, a self-employed dressmaker, was turned down at Holborn Library in central London.

She said: “It’s ridiculous — public libraries are supposed to be supportive of small businesses.”

A spokeswoman for Camden Council, which runs the library, has apologised and said it would investigate the incident.

Ms Watts, from Islington, north London, said: “I asked why I couldn’t borrow a pair of scissors and she said, ‘they are sharp, you might stab me’.

“I then asked to borrow a guillotine to cut up my leaflets but she refused again — because she said I could hit her over the head with it!”

The way Britain has been going, I’m surprised they didn’t hit Ms. Watts with an ASBO for the implied threat here: “It’s absurd — there are plenty of heavy books I could have hit her with if I wanted to.”

« « Those confusing/conflicting Arctic ice stories| You know the stories about “they built ‘em better in the old days”? » »

Powered by WordPress