a question for nomo - and topic for discussion

maybe this is rhetorical, i dunno.  but i want to know: what kind of person feels entitled to write in library books?

A-holes, that's who.  I work at the graduate library at my university, and we see this all the time.  Every day we get books returned that are full of writing, spilled coffee, other fluids we don't want to identify, missing pages, and all kinds of other crappy problems.  Students get used to writing in their textbooks, and they find that it's handy, so they write all over their library books, too. Sometimes we can catch them, like with wet books and stuff, but when we try to bust them on writing in books, they can appeal the charges, saying that it must have been someone else.  We don't have time to flip through every book that's returned to us.  I do write in books that I own, which some people are categorically against.  But when I use a library book, I put my notes on this wonderful little invention called the sticky note.  Then I remove my sticky notes before I return the damn book.

I'm closing my pressure release valve now.  

Did you have a bad book experience, pg?

Stupid people that lack respect. 

Destroy or personalize your own property,k. Thanks.

People who feel entitled to do whatever they darned please, no matter how stupid or wrong it might be.

Also.. teenagers who question authority while, and at the same time, often being selfish enough to have entitlement issues.

medved, i just opened up a copy of the sage handbook of qualitative research.  big book, expensive book.  the kind of book that deserves respect (more than--say--harry potter).  someone has written all over the table of contents: stars and question marks, mostly.

what's especially annoying is that the asswipe starred many of the same chapters that i've flagged.  meaning we have something in common.  frakker.

hk, judging by the book, i don't think it was a teenager.

it's an age-old conflict, pg

and medved is right - the debate extends to whether it is ever proper to defile write in any book, even one that you own

even though a lot of librarians might be tempted to blame a culture that no longer respects books, the truth is that marginalia has been around for almost as long as moveable type

who writes in library books?

probably

• people who lack the organizational skills to find with another way of making relevant notes for him/herself
• people who are selfish and have no respect for other people's property
• people who are oblivious to anything beyond their immediate needs
• other people not specified

Original Post by pgeorgian:

what's especially annoying is that the asswipe starred many of the same chapters that i've flagged.  meaning we have something in common.  frakker.

 Now this is funny.

nomo: thank you.  that's immensely satisfying ;)

tom: i know, hey?  it pisses me off that it could very well be a friend/classmate/prof of mine.  i wish i could believe it was some biopsych student on crack, but the combination of qualitative research, social activism, autoethnography, and narrative inquiry definitely sounds like a social worker.

I feel your pain.  It's somehow less disturbing to see writing all over a freshman biology textbook than it is to see it in a work of literary criticism on an obscure 17th century Russian author.

but what if you found out that those annoying margin notes were added by someone famous?

then your book might be worth more $

also, margin notes at least might provide some value whereas stars, underlining and odd doodles are just a sign of laziness/disrespect

i encourage my students to take pictures of pages of books that they can't check out with their digital cameras (because we're a school, this falls under fair use and would be the same as making a copy, but without using up all that paper)

It depends, if you are like me and suck at reading a text properly if you can't interact with it, and you need to read more than 1 chapter or 5% (these numbers may vary from country to country) of the book you are faced with a choice of committing either a crime - copyright infringement, or a breaking a norm - of marking the book. Relax the copyright laws or give me a photocopy room without huge signs threatening fines and the end of the world and I'll never mark a book again, until then, it might happen occasionally.

Personally I never write in a library book more than underlining in pencil, and wouldn't be okay with people scribbling all over it in ink, but putting dots next to the relevant chapters in the table of contents I probably wouldn't be offended by.

This idea of books as scared cows that must never be desecrated seems a little outdated these days. And I firmly believe this idea you couldn't write in things severely hampered my university studies until I got over it. Books (especailly your own) deserve to be interacted with, and that includes by marking if that helps you interact with the ideas more effectively.

^ see?  age-old conflict 

This seems appropriate to the occasion.

I make notes in my own books, sure, but library books are not your personal property and people really shouldn't do it.

In Arizona it was not uncommon to find the few occult books my library branch carried had Bible quotes written over the text in bold black marker, making them unreadable. Don't know if just one person was doing this or several, but I'm sure whoever it was wouldn't appreciate if I got the Bible and covered it with Aleister Crowley quotes or whatever!

^ Do it.

Original Post by nomoreexcuses:

and medved is right - the debate extends to whether it is ever proper to defile write in any book, even one that you own

 Why would it be improper to write in a book that you own?

A library book - no, there's no excuse for that.  If I might eventually try to sell it back to to the bookstore (like with college texts) or donate it to a library, no it's not ideal.  But something I'm keeping?

No, don't do it!

Just bring it to the attention of the librarian and ask them to order another copy and to reserve it for you so you can actually read what you want to read.

They probably will.

That kind of thing is why certain categories of books sometimes tend to be kept in closed stacks, or limited access stacks.

That and those certain categories of books tend to get stolen more frequently.

Original Post by coffincritter:

In Arizona it was not uncommon to find the few occult books my library branch carried had Bible quotes written over the text in bold black marker, making them unreadable.  

I once checked out a book about witchcraft, and throughout the book, about every 20 pages, it contained gospel tracts.  A little more respectful than outright defacement, but irritating nonetheless.

who writes in library books?

probably

• people who lack the organizational skills to find with another way of making relevant notes for him/herself
• people who are selfish and have no respect for other people's property
• people who are oblivious to anything beyond their immediate needs
• other people not specified

 ...and what kind of people become librarians? :>

Original Post by santonacci:

Original Post by nomoreexcuses:

and medved is right - the debate extends to whether it is ever proper to defile write in any book, even one that you own

 Why would it be improper to write in a book that you own?

A library book - no, there's no excuse for that.  If I might eventually try to sell it back to to the bookstore (like with college texts) or donate it to a library, no it's not ideal.  But something I'm keeping?

obviously a book that you own is your legal property and so anything you do with it is legal (except for throwing it at someone's head, especially if it's very big and heavy)

but the consideration of keeping a book pristine has to do with respecting the author's intent - some people are real sticklers for that and they hate to see people alter what to them is a work of art that ought to be kept in tact and respected exactly as its made

of course, with mass market printing... a lot of people don't feel that books are as valuable as they once were -- the purists think that the content is what is valuable and they believe in preserving it -- marginalia distresses them

 

Original Post by dnrothx:

who writes in library books?

probably

• people who lack the organizational skills to find with another way of making relevant notes for him/herself
• people who are selfish and have no respect for other people's property
• people who are oblivious to anything beyond their immediate needs
• other people not specified

 ...and what kind of people become librarians? :>

um, highly intelligent, incredibly attractive women with long hair worn up, and stylish glasses, mostly 

What if it was someone's personal book that they wrote in and then donated to the library?

I'm pictured an old, wizened man, looking philosophically back on his life and his career in qualitative research...making some notes in the margins...and then croaking. His children donate his prodigious collection of books to your library. How can you call him an asswipe?!?! Maybe he was the grandfather of qualitative research. Without him, no thesis! GEEEEEZ PG

(it's been a long day, can you tell?)