The amount of people who don’t understand the concept of a library always amazes me, although maybe it shouldn’t.  I’ve lost count of the number of people who treat the books in our library as their own personal copies.   In a college library, there is a heavy demand on certain books.  We do have multiple copies of core texts but never enough to satisfy everyone.  When you tell someone that they need to return overdue books, they often argue that they need the books until the end of term.  Pointing out that other people may need to borrow those books doesn’t make any difference in the slightest.  As far as they are concerned those books belong to them and they are holding on to them for as long as possible.  If you insist that they bring them back, they look at you as if you’re being unreasonable, as if you’re doing everything in your power to make their life difficult.  Sometimes I want to say, ‘Go on then, keep the books.  Pay for them and you can keep them’.  I’m sure other libraries have the same problems.  Of course, the majority of our library users do bring their books back on time.  At the moment, however,  it just  seems as if people don’t bother.

Anyway, rant over now.  Until the next time.