Saturday, 9 May 2009

You Can Look But You Can't Touch Read...

Is there a better example of the utter insanity of the health and safety lobby run amuck than the news that the Bodleian library has been told to remove all stepladders and students can no longer access books on the top shelf?
As a result of the stalemate, students have to travel to libraries as far away as London to view other copies.

Art History student Kelsey Williams, 21, had to travel 80 miles to London to view a copy of Arthur Johnston's 1637 work Delitiae Poetarum Scotorum after librarians refused to get it down for her. She said: 'Access to these books is necessary for my research and I wasted a day travelling to London and looking at the one in the British Library.

'It's madness because I can practically see the Bodleian's copy every time I walk into Duke Humfrey's.'
Yup, it's the perfect storm - pointless bureaucrats in two different parts of the university go to war to see who has the bigger pair, while the students who pay for an educational service are ignored.

Just fantastic...
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6 comments:

  1. Macheath9 May 2009 at 09:47

    A wonderful allegory for modern Britain - 'we want the books there to look nice but you can't actually use them'.

    As we are all forced these days to bow down to the great god IT, students are doubtless expected to do all their research online.

    A school library near me recently removed over 50% of its books and replaced them with computers. A diktat from the management announced that the word 'Library' was obsolete, and the building should henceforth be known as the 'Learning Resource Centre'.

    Apparently this goes down well with 'children'n'yungpeeeple'.

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  2. JuliaM9 May 2009 at 09:56

    "...the building should henceforth be known as the 'Learning Resource Centre'."

    Gah! That sounds awfully like an Andy Burnham 'bright idea'...

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  3. Rob9 May 2009 at 10:36

    OK, let's assume 20% of the books are 'top shelf' and no longer accessible. Let's cut the pay of the library staff by 20% because they no longer have to do one fifth of their job. Five minutes later, stepladders are back!

    Something tells me that if there was a similar library next door, they wouldn't be able to get away with this public sector pissing about.

    BTW, modern libraries, whatever they are called, seem to be places for chavs to hang out playing incredibly loud personal stereos, or for toddlers to run around screaming. I suppose libraries have become more 'inclusive'.

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  4. Dave H9 May 2009 at 12:03

    it's 'run amok' (funny word, something to do with Kipling and randy male elephants) but coming to think about it maybe in this case 'amuck' is the right word anyway.

    (Sorry to be so petty: have a 26 units hangover)

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  5. North Northwester9 May 2009 at 12:34

    And if you add Muslims' demands that the Koran be placed always above other books on any shelving because it is superior to all the others...we may have a winner here.

    Only saying..

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  6. Anonymous9 May 2009 at 16:39

    It's a Library for heavens sakes not a warzone! I may not have the figures to hand but injuries in libraries are pretty few and far between and I will put good money that nobody is playing "Lemmings" and jumping off the ladders on a daily basis. My extensive experience of libraries has persuaded me that the phenomena of bodies falling to their doom off the stacks is pretty unusual.

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