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Tue 11 Dec, 2012 10:30 am
there must be a better solution
300 Library Books Found Covered In Urine
CBC News Dec 10, 2012
Someone is soaking books in urine at a southwestern Ontario library.
Staff at the Essex County Library branch in Leamington, Ont., says more than 300 books have been ruined by urine, costing more than $3,000 in damage.
Library CEO Janet Woodbridge said that staff has discovered stacks of urine-soaked books on at least four occasions in the last three weeks.
“A staff member was looking for a book for someone and that’s when they realized the books were damaged,” Woodbridge said.
Woodbridge said the frequency is “escalating.”
The books were found out of staff sight in what Woodbridge called “an area not often frequented by the public.”
The books have been removed from circulation.
“We would never circulate such items to the public again,” Woodbridge said.
Staff members are now patrolling the library every 15 minutes in an effort to catch the culprit.
Woodbridge said cameras will also be reluctantly installed.
“We have never had a need in our libraries to have cameras. We don’t want our libraries to look like a police state,” she said. Woodbridge said she has no idea who covering the books in urine, nor why.
“We’ve had things tossed in book drops but nothing like this,” she said. “They don’t appear to be making any editorial comment.”
@djjd62,
And here I always assumed that Canajuns were marginally more civilized than USians.
@Lustig Andrei,
Never been to Canadia, eh?
@Setanta,
Au contraire, mon ami. My view of Canadians is based solely on first-hand experience. When I lived in Boston, I would sometimes drive up to Montreal just to spend a three-day weekend (sometimes only two days). Didn't know a single soul in the city; just loved being there. Have also sat in at Parliamentary sessions on Parliament Hill in Ottawa as an invited guest and at one time carried a beautiful ball-point pen with royal insignia and all which was a gift from the then-mayor of Ottawa.
@djjd62,
I guess someone has discovered there is more than one way to ban or burn a book.
@djjd62,
Quote:there must be a better solution
Sounds like a book reader is trying to improve his liquidity.
the library in question is part of my local group of libraries, luckily it's not the one i use
@djjd62,
Quote:the library in question is part of my local group of libraries
So you can therefore make an interlibrary loan for a wee book if you desire.
@tsarstepan,
i've never done that, and this problem seems to have arisen since my last library visits
of course this problem isn't just confined to this library, any library with a selection of french books has books filled with
oui
@Lustig Andrei,
Oy, it could be a visiting American
This is what I find funny:
djjd62 wrote:
“They don’t appear to be making any editorial comment.”
@Lustig Andrei,
Ever sat in a working class bar? Ever listened to an ordinary Canajun rant about the Americans? Ever listened to the people on the radio rant about the Americans? Selection bias, my friend . . .
Yellow journalism isn't dead, eh?
@Setanta,
I'll tell you one thing about Canajun attitude towards Americans -- in the French-speaking parts of the country (that's not Quebec only), if they think you're an Anglophone Canadian they will absolutely refuse to admit that they know a single word of English.
Soulement Francais. Make sure they understand that you're a visiting Yank and all of a sudden they become friendly and quite fluent in English.
You're talking about Toronto and environs, Set, which is like defining Americans by the culture of New York City.
@Lustig Andrei,
Lustig Andrei wrote:- in the French-speaking parts of the country (that's not Quebec only), if they think you're an Anglophone Canadian they will absolutely refuse to admit that they know a single word of English. Soulement Francais.
that's not entirely true.
If you make any kind of an effort to say a few words in French (Canajun French if possible), people often begin to speak to you in English. If you are absolutely insistent that you are not going to even try to speak French, then heels absolutely dig in - but the non-French speaker has been to blame in the situations I've personally witnessed.
hamburgboy probably speaks 10 - 20 words in French, but he always tried to use the words he knew and he was always treated well (at least when I was with him in Quebec or New Brunswick). My French is pretty good (years of double French in school, a total immersion summer, then French in college after I started working) but I do get stuck occasionally - I've never had anyone refuse to speak to me in English.
@ehBeth,
I'm sure you're right, ehBeth; the willingness is all. But I was referring specifically to the fact that a US visitor isn't expected to know French, the Canadian Francophones are quite understanding about that. Not so towards their own fellow-citizens. I've had experiences, both in Montreal and Quebec, where locals expressed utter amazement that I, an iggerant 'Murrican, was trying to communicate with them in French. My point was that only the most ignorant of the locals have an animus towards their southern neighbors.
You guys are ruining a pretty good pee-on-books fetish thread with your Canadian sociology debate!
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