Yonatan Zunger (zunger) wrote,
Yonatan Zunger
zunger

Amusing facts about the Mountain View Public Library

The Odyssey is filed under non-fiction. When I asked the girl at the checkout desk about this, she said "That's weird. That's, like, science fiction, right?"

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen are filed under fiction, under their author -- Baron Munchausen.

The car manuals for Honda Civics are all filed under car manuals, but some years are under "Honda" and others under "Civic."

The catalogue lists identical books under separate entries, and often multiple copies of the same book are filed in different sections of the library.

Is there a librarian in the house? Anywhere?

(Although to be fair: Apart from the total lack of organization, it's a remarkably pleasant library. Very good places to sit and read or work.)
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  • 4 comments

moof

August 22 2002, 04:16:07 UTC 13 years ago

The MV library doesn't impress me. Sure, the building itself is way nice, but the books seemed uniformly old and not cycled-through, the organization seemed kinda mediocre, and the periodical selection was OK but not great. I suppose if you don't care about the book collection, it's not that bad a place.

FWIW, I miss the card catalog and the older unfriendly-but-fast computer system that some libraries had (like the one where I worked as a teen.)

sdragon

August 22 2002, 15:22:33 UTC 13 years ago

The old fully text-based computer system on the green or orange monochrome screens with the single-key menu choices? I was so happy when they went to those from the icky microfilm. The html-based ones now are too slow; I don't need pretty pictures and a web page to find books -- that's why I'm looking for books, for the pictures. ;)