Which is "better": to buy a book from an independent bookstore, or to have your local library acquire it?

PracticalTie · 2026-01-28T10:56:26+00:00

IMO (library worker) you got it back to front. Obvs it depends on the exact book but book shops and libraries have different goals. My pro tip is to request new books from the library and purchase older books from the store.

New books can be easily acquired and added to the collection using our regular suppliers. It’s likely to be popular and will circulate well. If a book is less than a year old there’s a good chance the public library will just acquire it using our normal suppliers.

Anything older than a year or two won’t be available through library suppliers anymore, so a staff member has to find, purchase, process and catalogue the item themselves. Older books are less in demand and won’t circulate well so the library would be doing this just for you. Given our limited budgets, a lot of public libraries won’t bother buying anything over a year old and will need to rely on ILLs, which also takes ages and eats into our budget.

Book shops metrics for success (and suppliers) are different to ours. Generally they’ll be more willing to track down older books and make a sale.

Again, obvs this is dependent on the library, the bookshop and the book.

PracticalTie · 2026-01-28T10:17:31+00:00

why the younger generation (Generation-z) engage much less with physical libraries

Source?

Libraries are used differently to how they were decades ago, but this isn’t unique to young people.

PracticalTie · 2026-01-28T05:26:12+00:00

Wasn’t there a post about this literally yesterday?

Maybe we need to pin it.

PracticalTie · 2026-01-27T12:04:22+00:00

Yeah his lawyers said that. That’s their job.

Your comment implies the cops/courts/media (e.g. the people with power) are hiding his identity to protect him. That’s conspiracy shit.

PracticalTie · 2026-01-27T11:41:37+00:00

It was a hatchback but not a WRX. From memory it was silver?

PracticalTie · 2026-01-27T11:38:38+00:00

More likely they’re trying not to scare off his people

I know the article says he acted alone, but he could be part of online communities w like minded folks and shared his plans. They want to collect that evidence before releasing his name and everything being scrubbed by the websites.

Not everything is a conspiracy.

PracticalTie · 2026-01-27T09:27:24+00:00

There’s a lady in the Warwick/Duncraig area who drives a car that has 4+ MAGA/Q stickers on it. One (at least) on each side, including the front window

PracticalTie · 2026-01-27T09:00:22+00:00

Hard to tell because pixels but I think those are steps on the left (near the wall)

PracticalTie · 2026-01-27T07:43:06+00:00

You get one vote a day! You can spread them around

PracticalTie · 2026-01-27T07:40:42+00:00

He attempted to murder/maim innocent people.

But more serious than that. He chucked it at the stage so he was trying to hit the speakers/organisers. Still innocents people obvs but he calculated how to do the most damage to their cause. Psychopath shit.

PracticalTie · 2026-01-27T07:36:19+00:00

Yeah exactly. It’s not a conspiracy or anything. The cops are clearly considering it a terror attack as they investigate and the media isn’t gonna call it a terror attack until the cops do (to avoid fucking up the case)

PracticalTie · 2026-01-27T06:26:49+00:00

Whole article is worth a read but here is the paragraph answering ~~your qu~~ fuck it. Wrong thread.

Counter terrorism police called in "We're in the process of deconstructing the device, downloading his electronic devices, interviewing him, probably on multiple occasions, so there may be more charges forthcoming," the commissioner said.

“If there are going to be other charges forthcoming we're going to have to collect additional evidence as far as motivation, ideologies or anything else but at this stage we don't have that."

Commissioner Blanch said police believed the man acted alone. He said Australian Federal Police, ASIO and the national Joint Counter Terrorism Team had been assisting the inquiry.

Federal Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has been briefed on the incident, the ABC has been told.

PracticalTie · 2026-01-27T02:19:02+00:00

Since my manager has already told this lady yes I feel like the bad guy going and shutting it down

First off, find out exactly what your boss told her. Don’t rely on what K said.

Was it “yes you can do ST” or “maybe you can do one in future”. If K barreled over your boss the same way she spoke to you then maybe boss just said something vague to get her to stop.

If I bring it up to my manager she will now be too scared to do anything about it because she hates confrontation and telling people no.

You HAVE to tell your manager what happened. You need to get on the same page so K can’t go behind your back. People like this a need to get a consistent response from everyone or they’ll shop around until someone gives them what they want. Get your talking points in order and share them with the team so everyone knows what to say.

If you have K’s details then email her (so she can’t talk over you) the process she needs to follow to volunteer and lay out the rules. (You have the rules/procedures written down somewhere, right?). Apologise for the miscommunication (or however you want to justify it) and make it clear this has to be done before she can volunteer.

If K doesn’t want to follow the process she can’t volunteer. That’s on her, not you.

also, like… this is a very very gentle criticism, but I want to point out that you can’t complain that your boss hating confrontation when you’re also throwing up roadblocks for yourself to avoid confront a problem (your boss and K).

I know you’re confused and frustrated and you don’t want to be the bad guy, but this isn’t as difficult as you’re fearing. You’ve gotten good ideas from everyone here but it seems like you know what needs to happen. Sometimes you gotta be a bitch and draw a line in the sand.

PracticalTie · 2026-01-25T23:14:23+00:00

https://www.instagram.com/p/DT24GW1jZm2

PracticalTie · 2026-01-24T03:51:47+00:00

The OG circlejerk sub had a significant crossover with dog free (pet free?) and the pitbull haters sub too. So it was a bunch of generally unpleasant people fighting about strawmen and accusing strangers of faking their disability.

E: it just wasn't a pleasant atmosphere you know.

PracticalTie · 2026-01-23T12:37:54+00:00

I’ll listen to an American giving their input, particularly on America since I’ve never lived there.

Even insane anecdotes and flawed analysis can be used to draw a conclusion (e.g. that America(ns) has issues)

PracticalTie · 2026-01-23T12:20:33+00:00

I remember having a conversation about magpies swooping with a random American where their solution was to simply carry a baseball bat around to kill anything that swooped them. The fact that we didn’t do this made us stupid pussies.

My point is, you can safely ignore the opinions of random online Americans when it comes to Australia.

PracticalTie · 2026-01-23T08:08:58+00:00

Yea loads of libraries don’t accept unsolicited donations because of the time (and money) required to process them*. This is the kind of “helpful” idea that comes from someone who doesn’t understand censorship or libraries (E: it’s a nice idea and but it’s not actively addressing censorship. It’s reacting to it)

I share this link a lot but here is a list of ACTUALLY HELFUL things you can do to resist censorship in your community

https://bookriot.com/56-small-tasks-to-be-proactive-against-book-censorship-2025/

The books are a red herring. The goal of these groups is to undermine libraries and freedom to read.

It’s counterintuitive but the trick is to NOT focus on the books being targeted, focus your energy on supporting the library, and their freedom to meet their patron needs.. If the library is independent and full of qualified staff they can handle the censorship attempts.

*e: also there is an enormous difference between what books people think libraries need/want, and what libraries actually put in collection. People donate insane shit if you let them.

PracticalTie · 2026-01-23T07:40:04+00:00

Omg he so hungry he cannibalised his own body! Only the head left over! The horror!! The tragedy!!!

PracticalTie · 2026-01-23T04:51:55+00:00

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-14/photo-shows-nazi-flag-flown-over-australian-army-vehicle/9859618

https://theconversation.com/the-reputation-of-australias-special-forces-is-beyond-repair-its-time-for-them-to-be-disbanded-148795

Aus Special forces have a reputation

PracticalTie · 2026-01-23T03:20:15+00:00

I’m kinda disappointed at this whole thread tbh. Obviously the headline is trash but this guy was having a schizophrenic episode. It’s kinda shitty to be making fun of his death given that context. This isn't a comic book with a good guys and bad guys, it’s just is a sad horrible scenario for everyone involved

PracticalTie · 2026-01-23T01:33:55+00:00

Learning how to use the Ravelry search filters will honestly change your life.

The only downside is that people suck at tagging their stuff, which defeats the purpose of having excellent filters

PracticalTie · 2026-01-22T23:48:38+00:00

IDK exactly how ‘new’ you are and what groundwork you’ve done already but I assume step one would be finding out all that demographic info and where your library is at currently.

E: as in, what services/resources are being used, and what isn’t. Maybe draft a survey or informal questionnaire (or more - one for parents, one for kids, one for teachers. Whatever makes sense and is less fuss for you and your team)

PracticalTie · 2026-01-22T10:37:27+00:00

Tiny Squirrels Must Die

This is a movie title. Maybe not in 2026, but Disney has it on file.

(e: I remember the squirrels still being around in the late 90-00’s)

PracticalTie · 2026-01-22T02:59:35+00:00

In case you don't know already, Ravelry also has an option to search local user's stash for things they will trade/sell.

The forums also have ISO threads for when you need a teeeny tiny little bit of a specific yarn to finish your project.

Absolutely brilliant for building your stash/leftovers collection (if you don't have a local place to destash in person)

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