Well, I wish I had something interesting to write about today. I really don't, unless you want to hear about my ongoing efforts to get library books back from recalcitrant teenagers. My latest struggle is with a boy who has a book that was due last September. He seems completely unconcerned about the need to return it, despite a million weekly overdue notices and appeals from me via e-mail and in person, even when I emphasize that it's community property and others may be waiting for it. The other day I asked him if he'd been looking for it, and he said, "No."
I think some kids just don't understand a library. When I come after them for keeping materials too long, I sometimes get a sort of attitudinal (but not literal) eye-roll. Like they're thinking, "What?! It's just a book."
And it's true that nowadays, books are more plentiful and more easily acquired than ever before. But I always try to explain to them that it's not just the hunk of paper. There are principles involved here. We are teaching them how to use community resources, so that when they go to college they aren't completely bewildered by the college library, and we're also teaching them respect for institutions and their fellow students.
Of course teenagers never want to hear about principles and respect from a preachy librarian.
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| Mysterious Pile o' Bread on Finchley Road |
Otherwise, life's been pretty routine. Have I mentioned that Dave is having hernia surgery on Feb. 20? Yesterday I got cleared to take that day off so I could be with him in the hospital and shuttle his doped-up self back home afterwards. February is going to be a busy month for us, with tree surgery, Dave surgery and our trip to California...
...which, I was just reading yesterday, is currently being inundated with rain from "atmospheric rivers," whatever those are. Can I pick a vacation destination or what? Hopefully things will be drier by the time we arrive on the 10th. I was really hoping for some sunshine. I mean, it never rains in Southern California, as the song famously taught us!
Here's something fun I was playing with this morning. It's my Merlin Bird ID app, which listens to birds and identifies them. All I have to do is step outside the back door, turn on the app and it tells me what's singing in the garden. So this morning I was hearing, as you can see, a blackbird, a robin and (momentarily) a blue tit.
Here are the bird songs themselves, which the app records in an audio file that I uploaded to SoundCloud:
Blackbirds are often what I hear singing most prominently in the pre-dawn darkness. Which always makes me think of The Beatles.
If you're wondering about that mysterious colorful ball shown on that audio clip, it's my profile photo on Google. This happened completely accidentally. It's a picture of the Kaatskill Kaleidoscope, which I visited way back in 2008. I uploaded a low-res video of the kaleidoscope -- my first upload to YouTube -- and YouTube turned it into my profile photo. It then automatically became my Google profile photo, because Google owned YouTube, and I've just never bothered to change it.
It's funny how so many things online happen accidentally. My e-mail address was assigned to me by AOL back in 1995, and includes a combination of my name and a completely random set of numbers. That has become my online identity for so many things, even though those numbers mean nothing. How did this become me -- a fuzzy picture of a kaleidoscope and a random numerical sequence?
I guess I found things to write about after all.
I hope that boy does find the book and return it, he really does need to learn how libraries work, they aren't bookshops where you buy the book and keep it forever.
ReplyDeleteThe bird songs were lovely, Steve. More, more, more! I use the Merlin app a lot over here.
ReplyDeleteSympathies on recalcitrant/uncaring teens. It's amazing how many eventually turn into decent human beings in the long run.
Chris from Boise
That dumb boy is, after all, just a child as his recalcitrance is currently demonstrating. I know you have done this before but I would message his parents outlining the efforts you have gone to and quoting the present price of the book. Does he have a home-room tutor or pastoral leader? I would also officially inform them.
ReplyDeleteDamned kids! Sadly that’s a common reaction from a child of privilege. I hope he grows more enlightened, and respectful.
ReplyDeleteI know about the random identity generators and yet I still wonder about the numbers when I see an email address.
'Report to Mr Reed for corporal punishment for the non return of a book'. That would do the trick.
ReplyDeleteI am apologise for my schoolboy like amusement at Eurasian Blue Tit. The bird app sounds good. I will get it.
We ditched our isp email address a few years ago, now with gmail. Our joint email address is close to our old email address from back in the 90s. We had to come up quickly with an email address when we bought our first computer.
Our first computer came with AOL, and the A did not stand for Australia. I don't think we ever bothered with it.
I'd talk to that boy's parents, since he's not mature enough to handle returning a book after numerous requests. He sounds really entitled and deserves to be treated like the baby he's acting like!
ReplyDeleteI love these bird song apps. The one I use, which looks similar to your one, sometimes comes up with "human" or "most likely human" as a result if a person was talking somewhere in the background.
ReplyDeleteOne of my daughter's school libraries would take tokens from kids to hold onto until a book was returned and the tokens where auctioned off at the end of the year. It sounds more complicated that it was, everybody loved it for a while.
I love my Merlin Bird ID app! It is just the most fun to turn it on and see all of the different birds singing in my yard. It always amazes me that some of the loudest birds are the tiniest.
ReplyDeleteWhat the heck with that kid? Are there no fines involved in late books? Or lost? Too bad you can't set a date for return and after that start charging accruing fees. But if the kid is as entitled as he seems to be, that probably wouldn't bother him at all.
I surely hope that February is kind to in all ways.
Yes, charging his parents for the replacement cost of the book would at least get you the funds to order another copy.
ReplyDeleteYour bird recording was a good test for my hearing aids - without them the sounds are so very faint but with them in my ears - really loud. So I am happy to know my hearing aids are still working pretty well after all the years I have had them. :)
I have two sides to my personality (which frankly makes me crazy sometimes). Side 1: Please child I am doing you a service by requesting you return the book in a timely manner. Side 2: You have 30 days to comply or you'll be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. What's terrible is that employees have no idea which Dana they're going to get on a particular day.
ReplyDeleteYou not only found things to write about you educated me on how these default profile photos happen. You are doing worthy work, teaching those kids to respect community resources, and to value books. There is a lot of psychic energy contained in the pages of each book. It was not an effortless endeavor, not a single one.
ReplyDeleteThe kid with the overdue book is just being defiant or he's lost the book and doesn't want to face the music.
ReplyDeleteThere is something very relaxing and soothing about listening to birdsongs. I might have to check into that app. It sounds very useful.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the book collections.
Some of these kids are just being defiant and want to see how long they can string you along. some of them don't have the book and don't want to face the consequences.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised you don't have any "teeth" to your library rules. Most of our grades go on a field trip in the spring and one of the rules of eligibility to go on the field trip is that you must be in good standing with the school and part of that is all library books must be returned. I'm on the school board so I'm not for sure that it is carried out at the end of the day but I've never known our librarian to complain about books never being returned.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if it would be good to have actual procedures beyond begging students to return books. Such as charging the parents for the replacement cost after several months of waiting. That also has its problem, because a book isn't always still available to buy, as a public librarian pointed out to me.
ReplyDeleteI also like the Bird ID app. It does seem irresponsible and disrespectful to ignore requests to return the book. Can you involve the parents?
ReplyDeleteThey need to return the book or buy a new one for the library.
Keep an eye on the weather in California. An atmospheric river is just that, rivers of water in the atmosphere. Originally the weather heads were fearing an Ark event, but the systems have been downgraded to merely awful. If there's wide spread flooding, it won't be fun.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/31/us/california-storms-atmospheric-river.html
I would say that your young man knows the difference between right and wrong, and what he should or shouldn't do. He may just see himself as above your rules. Some people are like that.
ReplyDeletePs I love that first picture.
ReplyDeletePerhaps a fine or withholding his grades at midterm or end of term would help him do the right thing. I hate to be too judgemental, but this sort of behavior flows from the top, it is more often than not learned at home.......
ReplyDeleteThe whole library book thing would frustrate me to no end. I'm such a rule-follower (at this point in life).
ReplyDeleteI need to tell my younger daughter about the Merlin app since her four-year-old son has become quite the bird "expert". I've really tried to promote that passion with age appropriate books and binoculars.
I am curious about the bread on the bench! Perhaps a handout for the local homeless if you have any wandering around!
ReplyDeleteAs for the boy and the book ... send the parents a bill for the book! Tell the boy he is banned from the library until the book is returned or replaced!
The bread on the bench, wild! I don't know what kind of consequences work on teenagers (or children) these days or what is even allowed. They're definitely getting some bad training somewhere though.
ReplyDeleteOh the struggle to get library books back! I dealt with K-5 kids so not so much defiance, but a letter home to the parents usually worked. We had a very multicultural school and a letter to a Vietnamese parent worked wonders. One time we got a new 3rd grade boy from Bosnia who spoke almost no English, I gambled and said "sprechen sie deutsch?" Yes, he had gone to school in Germany before immigrating. When he didn't understand that he had to return his library book the next week I finally had my German speaking husband come in and explain it to him.
ReplyDeleteAtmospheric river, we have always called it a "Pineapple express". Warm and lots of rain coming from around Hawaii.
I love Merlin! It's such fun to hear the songs and identify them. Half the time I can never actually SEE the birds so it extra nice. I feel for you in the library. I don't think kids get the idea that school is supposed to teach them more than what they take a class for. Well done and keep trying!
ReplyDeleteRiver: Exactly! We don't GIVE AWAY books!
ReplyDeleteChris: Yes, I have to keep doing some deep breathing and reminding myself that their brains aren't quite connected.
YP: Yes, I have done both. I suspect the parents are hanging back because they want him to solve the problem on his own.
Mitchell: In the very early days, e-mail addresses were JUST numbers. I remember a friend with a Prodigy address that didn't even include his name or a recognizable word.
Andrew: AOL was HUGE in America in the '90s -- basically the top e-mail provider. You're right, the A did not stand for Australia. :)
Jennifer: I've already looped the parents into the conversation. I usually give the kids a couple of months to sort things out on their own, and if that doesn't work, I write the parents. Usually that does the trick but not yet in this case!
Sabine: I haven't used this app enough to know if it registers humans! Interesting about the tokens. That does sound like a complex system.
Ms Moon: We don't charge late fines but we DO charge for lost books. That's where we are with this kid now -- he either has to find the book or pay for it.
Ellen D: I imagine bird songs, because they're so high-pitched, are good hearing aid tests in general!
Bug: Ha! I basically have the same two sides. And same thing -- it all depends on which side of the bed I got up on that morning.
37P: Yes, you can really attest to all the work and care that goes into every book!
Red: I suspect the latter, but at some point it's easier to just get it over with!
Sharon: I am looking forward to using it more. I wonder how it would react to the turaco?
Ed: We have some "teeth," allegedly -- for example, in order to get yearbooks at the end of the year kids are supposed to have everything turned in. I wouldn't say that rule is strictly adhered to, though.
Boud: The finance department has, in the past, resisted the idea of adding the charge to the parents' tuition bill. (I think for them it's a bookkeeping complication that they don't find worthwhile.)
Susan: Yes, the parents are aware. We would buy a new copy when he pays for its replacement. (Or a newer book of similar value.)
Allison: I know! But then again, we have tickets and we're committed so I guess we're going no matter what.
Debby: I think that's basically it. He doesn't understand why he should comply with this demand.
Jim: No comment! LOL
Kelly: Yes, tell them about the app! When you set it up you can choose the region where you live and that will help narrow the selection of identifiable birds. I haven't tried mine in North America to see if it functions there, given that it's set for Europe.
Marcia: I don't understand the bread either! I suppose we COULD tell the kid that he can't even be IN the library until that book comes back, though that's hard to enforce. (And I hate having to throw anyone out.)
Margaret: I think he's just not thinking about the implications of his behavior. To him it's just a £10 book. He's not remembering that no one else can read it if he keeps it forever.
Lea: "Pineapple express" is a good name! At least with very young kids, the issue is usually just disorganization, not outright defiance.
Jeanie: Yes, exactly! It's great to know how much bird life is around all the time, even when you're not aware of it.