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labunnywtf's review
4.0
This book is just FUN to read. As someone who is trying to break the library habit one week at a time, and adores her librarians, I loved it.
This book talks about the overwhelming drama that goes on in a library without making you feel like every librarian is going to suddenly go postal and shoot you if you don't feel like paying for your fines. As someone who let their fines acrue for SEVEN YEARS before going back and manning up, this makes me feel a lot better.
The autobiographical stuff I could've lived without, but even that added to it. Fun to read, and I wish this guy was one of my librarians.
This book talks about the overwhelming drama that goes on in a library without making you feel like every librarian is going to suddenly go postal and shoot you if you don't feel like paying for your fines. As someone who let their fines acrue for SEVEN YEARS before going back and manning up, this makes me feel a lot better.
The autobiographical stuff I could've lived without, but even that added to it. Fun to read, and I wish this guy was one of my librarians.
rampaginglibrarian's review
2.0
sounds somewhat more interesting than it actually is…
(i, at least, have managed to bite my tongue before the curse words actually emerge, or at least muttered them under my breath)
Free for All: oddballs, geeks, and gangstas in the public library is a book that i saw somewhere and thought would be somewhat entertaining (i, like many others like me, snap up those tales of libraries and bookstores for the camaraderie, relatability, or something like that.) Dan Borchert
“was a short-order cook, door-to-door salesman, telemarketer (did a bit of that myself back in the day...), and Christmas-tree-chopper before landing work in a California library. He never could have predicted his encounters with the colorful kooks, bullies, and tricksters who fill the pages of this hilarious memoir.”
(Some note should be made here that Borchert isn’t a MLS degreed librarian~nor did he ever call himself a librarian in the book~apparently there has been some not-mild controversy surrounding this because in his marketing or publicity interviews or some such, he has been called a librarian; and of course many librarians, having worked hard and paid much for that grad school degree, resent people taking the title librarian unjustly~let me just say here, that, tho i am among those~to a certain extent~who cling to that title so proudly and possessively, i’m not sure if this is his mistake or those marketing him and i’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and much of the public is unawares so that can’t really be blamed [to a certain extent~i believe it is at least partly our job to educate the public…] {and we have a librarian assistant at my library without whom i would be lost~but she's still not a librarian~perhaps Borchert's system should put a firmer delineation between tasks that various job functions perform than they currently seem to~because his book makes it appear a little haphazard...and maybe it is...})
Having got that out of the way, Free for All was quite a bit less than i wanted it to be. As many other librarians have said i have much more humorous (and frightening~though a few of his were unique in some respects~i'm sure every librarian has at least a few of those...) tales to tell {and is this really an urban Los Angeles library~it sounds a bit more like a smaller town~or is that just my cynical jaded self?}) I must say i was not overly impressed with Borchert’s writing ability either (nor his seeming equation with the way things are done at his library, in his system with the way things are done in all systems~such as who does what and way as well as the way his bureaucracy function.) I’m not a big fan of the book's organizational scheme either. It wasn’t a complete waste of time, though, and there were some amusing moments. Perhaps this would actually be of more interest to those who do not work in libraries to discover that all is not quiet in the library or that we do not "just sit around and read all day, perhaps for me it is more like a “busman’s holiday” for me
http://talesofarampaginglibrarian.blogspot.com/2008/02/free-for-all.html
(i, at least, have managed to bite my tongue before the curse words actually emerge, or at least muttered them under my breath)
Free for All: oddballs, geeks, and gangstas in the public library is a book that i saw somewhere and thought would be somewhat entertaining (i, like many others like me, snap up those tales of libraries and bookstores for the camaraderie, relatability, or something like that.) Dan Borchert
“was a short-order cook, door-to-door salesman, telemarketer (did a bit of that myself back in the day...), and Christmas-tree-chopper before landing work in a California library. He never could have predicted his encounters with the colorful kooks, bullies, and tricksters who fill the pages of this hilarious memoir.”
(Some note should be made here that Borchert isn’t a MLS degreed librarian~nor did he ever call himself a librarian in the book~apparently there has been some not-mild controversy surrounding this because in his marketing or publicity interviews or some such, he has been called a librarian; and of course many librarians, having worked hard and paid much for that grad school degree, resent people taking the title librarian unjustly~let me just say here, that, tho i am among those~to a certain extent~who cling to that title so proudly and possessively, i’m not sure if this is his mistake or those marketing him and i’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and much of the public is unawares so that can’t really be blamed [to a certain extent~i believe it is at least partly our job to educate the public…] {and we have a librarian assistant at my library without whom i would be lost~but she's still not a librarian~perhaps Borchert's system should put a firmer delineation between tasks that various job functions perform than they currently seem to~because his book makes it appear a little haphazard...and maybe it is...})
Having got that out of the way, Free for All was quite a bit less than i wanted it to be. As many other librarians have said i have much more humorous (and frightening~though a few of his were unique in some respects~i'm sure every librarian has at least a few of those...) tales to tell {and is this really an urban Los Angeles library~it sounds a bit more like a smaller town~or is that just my cynical jaded self?}) I must say i was not overly impressed with Borchert’s writing ability either (nor his seeming equation with the way things are done at his library, in his system with the way things are done in all systems~such as who does what and way as well as the way his bureaucracy function.) I’m not a big fan of the book's organizational scheme either. It wasn’t a complete waste of time, though, and there were some amusing moments. Perhaps this would actually be of more interest to those who do not work in libraries to discover that all is not quiet in the library or that we do not "just sit around and read all day, perhaps for me it is more like a “busman’s holiday” for me
http://talesofarampaginglibrarian.blogspot.com/2008/02/free-for-all.html
geisttull's review
2.0
didn't finish - just got disinterested. what i read was funny, but apparently not funny enough for me to keep reading.
lerat42's review
4.0
Librarians and library workers will find no surprises in this book other than a satisfaction that they are not alone. Library users on the other hand may be alternately fascinated, repelled, and touched by the stories that Mr. Borchert relates, as he delves into the kind of things that really go on in public libraries.
khlara's review
5.0
A must read for anyone before they enter the Library profession. An amazing book that strikes close to home. Having worked in a Main Southern California library, and now at a small library in Northern California, I cannot stress how true this book is.
meghan111's review
3.0
Borchert writes about what it's like to be a public branch librarian in Los Angeles. The book jumps from topic to topic without a coherent narrative - sometimes it's sad, sometimes it's funny, sometimes it's about office politics.
I was appalled that the Los Angeles public library system charges five dollars for replacement cards and fifty cents to look up a card number.
I was appalled that the Los Angeles public library system charges five dollars for replacement cards and fifty cents to look up a card number.
ngreader's review
3.0
The book was a bit dated (as a library assistant currently working in the field) but I definitely related to the author's stories of children flooding the library and weird requests at the desk.
roseannmvp's review
2.0
My Library has WAY WAY WAY Better character than this guy... and we don't write MMM in the computer...we just tell it plain!!
jesslroy's review
4.0
Cute book with lots of entertaining stories. Quick read and recommended for anyone that enjoys a good book - especially from the local library.