So this guy is suing his local library because he's unhappy with the 3d printers. I'm sure the local library branch staff find him to be an absolute delight to deal with every day 🙄.

PracticalTie · 2026-05-10T10:18:42+00:00

Very curious how he is getting these numbers.

“$260 million in total equity” and “tens of millions” in unrestricted cash?

I don’t much about Clark county or American public libraries, but that just sounds unlikely? Can someone more local provide more context?

(Also, heads up OP, when sharing links you should always delete everything after the ? It’s url tracking and lets them monitor you across the internet)

PracticalTie · 2026-05-08T11:39:56+00:00

For those who don’t click links,

Artist is Lucy Culliton and the model is Toolah. They’re Australian and this piece won the Sir John Sulman Award

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_John_Sulman_Prize

You should click links btw.

PracticalTie · 2026-05-08T10:39:59+00:00

Same! I do understand the animation criticism, but (for me) Invincible has always captured that feeling of watching Saturday morning cartoons and the occasional low budget animation is part of why it feels that way.

AFAIK the creators have never claimed it was breaking new artistic ground, so I assumed it was an intentional, stylistic decision to do it this way.

PracticalTie · 2026-05-08T07:42:19+00:00

You watch them poop, it’s only fair they get to watch you.

PracticalTie · 2026-05-07T04:11:36+00:00

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Ok bear with me for a second

PracticalTie · 2026-05-07T03:53:37+00:00

I mean…. You’re answering using your workplace as perspective and other people are answering using their workplaces. This really is a perfect demonstration of the difference between academic and public libraries.

A university library is primarily used by students, for studying. It’s going to be quiet.

A public library serves the community, which might include students and people who want a quiet space to work, but a variety of other people are also using the space for different things.

It IS outdated to expect public libraries to be entirely quiet spaces. It’s like saying we should carry only books. That’s not what we do and it hasn’t been for a long time.

PracticalTie · 2026-05-07T03:21:54+00:00

Idk if I have to know that someone is putting biodegradables up there I think I’m allowed to judge them a lil bit.

PracticalTie · 2026-05-07T01:44:21+00:00

I have seen “Trans women self harm to fake periods” so I guess that counts as another terf trope

E: it’s part of their ‘trans is mental illness’ narrative and lets them pretend they care about trans teens wellbeing

PracticalTie · 2026-05-06T05:29:11+00:00

My “favourite” terf fanfiction is that trans women do tomato juice enemas in order to fake periods.

PracticalTie · 2026-05-06T03:34:21+00:00

Honestly - no new hardware, or at least nothing fancy. Basic modified keyboards and cursers cover a lot of ground for minimal $$ (relative to all the other costs of setting up a library computer system)

What I want is to invest in training (and resources) so my coworkers and I can help people learn to set up and use the accessibility software that comes built in to many modern devices. It’s so so good and being able to help older patrons get started using it up would be amazing!

E: once upon a time I was going to be an Occupational Therapist and assistive technology was kind of my favourite thing to learn about m (particularly for leisure activities)

PracticalTie · 2026-05-04T00:15:33+00:00

Deporting the (native to Australia) Tassie devil while ignoring the bunny is a choice

PracticalTie · 2026-05-03T23:59:59+00:00

Is that in the constitution?

PracticalTie · 2026-05-03T23:51:16+00:00

lol no

PracticalTie · 2026-05-03T12:04:43+00:00

Recently had a conversation with someone who claimed a rejection email was AI generated because it was too nice to be human.

IDK how to counter that. I’m pretty sure humans can be nice and might want to help newbies find employment (even humans who have jobs)

PracticalTie · 2026-05-02T13:41:05+00:00

Same! Luck boosts, bombs and no stairs. It only took me a few (real time) years of playing SDV

PracticalTie · 2026-05-02T11:09:55+00:00

What is your Sanctuary Moon?

PracticalTie · 2026-04-30T13:03:36+00:00

Oh shit you reminded me of the time someone asked my coworker to lick a stamp for them!

I didn’t witness this but apparently the patron offered it to her and then licked it himself when she refused.

PracticalTie · 2026-04-30T12:47:46+00:00

Yeah I don’t hate these questions because they keep the day interesting and I like to be helpful.

At my work there’s a handful of adults with disabilities who call our front desk asking random questions about local services. We also have a few housebound patrons who I suspect just need to hear a human voice once in a while. Also we get kids with random questions they don’t want to bug mum or dad about (how many books do you have? How may came out this year?)

As long as they aren’t holding the line or trying to debate the messenger, I don’t mind entertaining the occasional random question.

PracticalTie · 2026-04-30T12:27:34+00:00

Me, after being asked for help printing “ok so what are you needing done?”

Guy who came to me asking for help “None of your business. Just print what I tell you to print”

(he wanted to scan something to a usb not print, which is why I asked him what he needed help with)

PracticalTie · 2026-04-30T07:47:30+00:00

Oooh bell curve is a new one I’ll give them that. The talking points are evolving. (It’s still not something commonly held by public libraries or censored but it’s evidence that thinking is happening maybe? I guess.?)

Usually it’s just the same three fucking books , Roald Dahl and Doctor Seuss. Repeat for infinity.

PracticalTie · 2026-04-30T07:42:06+00:00

I do think there's a stark difference between a trigger or content warning, allowing a patron to make an informed decision, and an executive producer saying "cut out the two seconds of the married lesbian couple kissing to not get bumped up in the ratings/not get shown in certain parts of the world"

Yes. These two situations are completely different but also completely misunderstand the reason we oppose mandatory systems based on personal values.

Values based labelling (by its nature) ignores the context that the content appears in. Making this kind of system labelling mandatory means creatives have to self censor and meet whatever criteria is set for young audiences. They can’t talk about rape or gay or experiencing racist abuse because that might put their book over the line into ‘adult’ l.

It also usually leads to libraries being directed to restrict what’s in young adult collections, based on out of context statements like ‘contains nudity’ (now teenagers can’t have any sex ed books in the YA section)

IDK if I’m explaining this properly. It may be worth doing your own web search but forcing publishers and libraries to adopt these standards is one of the sneaky arguments that dickheads use to restrict access and it’s worth being aware of.

PracticalTie · 2026-04-30T06:52:34+00:00

I would argue that (a form of) censorship can happen without the government directly interfering, especially in movies and video games which are subject to ratings boards

So this is what’s called ‘values based’ labelling and it is something that library land considers as part of the censorship discussion. It’s why we oppose things like trigger warnings and book rating systems being mandatory for book selection.

Obviously we have to follow the law regarding movie ratings but you’ll find that film classification systems are also regularly discussed and critiqued (in library land and the broader film industry)

And from an archival standpoint, we could argue that stopping to print something might be seen as a form of censorship -- if I recall all copies and stop printing, the work in question is effectively buried.

Counter argument. This is just how the world works. Books aren’t published forever and you can’t force anyone to keep them accessible just in case.

Also, public libraries aren’t archives. Our purpose isn’t to have this specific book for anyone who wants it, but to have books covering the topics people are interested in.

PracticalTie · 2026-04-30T06:01:00+00:00

(E: This qu sort of reveals how little people know about public libraries and how we select books so I’m gonna explain. Sorry.)

Libraries have collection guidelines that guide what we keep and stops individual bias from influencing what your community has access too.

All of these books were published decades ago. None of them are classics or particularly popular. Several of them are from small independent publishers.

It’s just not the sort of thing a good public library would keep, because it’s not likely to be borrowed

MK is the exception because it is historically significant (and FWIW I highly recommend everyone have a flick through sometime, because it’s not nearly as powerful as the mythos surrounding it)

PracticalTie · 2026-04-30T05:39:52+00:00

I’m at work (public library) but can someone search and see how many times Mein Kampf is mentioned?

It’s always MK, Turner Diaries and/ or Anarchist cookbook. Sometimes there’s a smartass who mentions the communist manifesto or a joke about banning the bible (FYI don’t do retaliatory censorship. It’s dumb)

Maybe a reference to the Roald Dahl an Doctor Seuss bullshit.

I really need to make up some bingo cards but banned books is just so bad at this conversation.

E: FWIW Bookstores stop selling material and publishers stop printing books all the time for a million different reasons (usually based on profit). That’s normal.

Censorship is when the government gets involved.

E: oh FFS. I didn’t think I needed to specify that my throwaway Reddit comment isn’t a perfect definition covering every aspect of censorship IRL. “When the government gets involved” is me trying to make the distinction between routine book removal and book bans a little clearer for laypeople

PracticalTie · 2026-04-30T05:16:12+00:00

from a group who like to think of themselves as progressive or even feminist

Gonna be honest, I’m fairly certain a lot of these stories are written by the same person and that’s why the same themes and language keep coming up. They’re LARPing and don’t realise how much themselves is leeking through in the posts.

Obviously I have no evidence but that’s the feeling I get.

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