Librarians in Montana resign after books returned with bullet holes in them

[thewayne]

*sigh*

Police looked into it and found no reason for concern. A couple of days later, more books were returned with bullets in them. Nope, nothing to worry about here. To paraphrase Douglas Adams, the world is not only sicker than you imagine it to be, it is sicker than you can imagine it to be.

https://flatheadbeacon.com/2022/08/29/library-sees-resignations-following-bullet-riddled-books/

Comments

[motodraconis]

Ah America. It was once a much sought after destination. People would keep asking me why didn't I want to go to work in America? No one asks me that any more, it's lose its shine.

[thewayne]

It lost its shine for me long ago.  One of my best friends, I've known him for over 45 years and will be meeting him Friday for lunch at a wonderful German restaurant, we met in high school.  When Bush the Younger became President, he said this is a farce and moved to Mexico and became a citizen.  He comes up to see his mother and help with things when I come to town and we get together for food and laughs.  I just hope I live long enough to live in a civilized country because I don't live in one now.

[kaishin108]

Jeez, this has all just gotten so crazy, sighh.

[disneydream06]

WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
With police like that, who needs enemies. :o :o :o

[kathmandu]

And reporting like that.

"While law enforcement has found no connection between the shot books and recent aggressive rhetoric at board meetings by members of the public, the resignations highlight continued fallout for ImagineIF that can be traced back to trustee actions over the last year, including attempting to remove LGBTQ+ books from the library’s collection.

"At the trustee meeting, the fiscal year budget showed a budget surplus of $122,137.27. The savings came entirely from salary line items due to resignations and unfilled vacancies over the last year."

So the article's conclusion amounts to "All this intimadation of library staff is saving taxpayers money!"

I also notice it doesn't say which books had bullet holes in them.

[thewayne]

The Library Reddit where I learned of this also commented that we didn't know what books were shot up.

[moonhare]

So, the books were checked out to someone… did that someone take responsibility for the damage?

[thewayne]

Unknown at this time.  I suppose the thing to do is to not check them in and wait for them to come up on an overdue list.

[moonhare]

Our Sierra program allows us to check the current status of books, including to whom they’re checked out. I use this feature to determine who returned a damaged (hopefully not shot up) item without checking it in. Useful feature for the wet and moldy returns we’ve been getting.

[disneydream06]

I also notice it doesn't say which books had bullet holes in them.
That would be interesting to know. :o

[thewayne]

We have Alma.  I should see if I can look up who has a physical book, as I've checked out a book to myself right now, and see if I can determine who has something.

[silveradept]

That particular library system has had a Board of Trustees much more interested in getting rid of any queer representation and in driving away anyone who has a connection to the queer community. If anything, the Beacon there is underselling the amount of hostility that the has been directed at the employees, both from the Board and from the communities around.

[thewayne]

I dug around in Alma and learned how to find who had a book checked out.  So now I know that.  I don't think I'll need it for this purpose, but it's useful information.

[moonhare]

One handy use is for determining who took out an audio book last that somehow made it back to the collection minus a disc.

I’ve also had items with two circs and six total renewals (3 per circ) that the second patron claims was damaged when received only to find both checkouts were to that patron…

But I cannot tell what materials a patron has taken out by looking in their record (unless these were returned late, then that appears in other fields) and that irritates folks asking for their history: it’s for their protection!

[thewayne]

Yeah, unfortunately we also don't keep history, so once it's checked in there's no telling who has previously had borrowed it.  We started a project where our student workers are doing a check-in of our entire stacks, and we've come across three books thus far that are uncataloged.  Most likely they were conversion rejects when we migrated from the previous system however many years ago and no one followed up on it.  I'm also hoping to possibly find some books that belong to other branch libraries.