[kwlug disc.] a bunch of books i'm willing to *loan* to the LUG

[Unsolicited]

Richard Weait wrote, On 3/22/2007 2:15 PM:
> Library stuff.
> 
> Firstly, I thank all of the donors to the KWLUG library.  It's great
> to have so many Linux related books at hand.  For those who are new to
> this list, Rob (who started this thread) is the donor of the vast
> majority of the books in our collection.  Thank you again Rob.

HEAR, HEAR!

THANK YOU AGAIN ROB!

YES! THANK YOU!

The vastness, variety, and richness of the LUG library is astonishing. 
The borrowing policies are fantastic. (Web of trust.) It is certainly 
one of the highlights of the LUG.

> I think that partitioning the KWLUG books into those in the collection
> and those that are still privately held is a bad idea.  Those who wish

I hear you. I guess the way I read it, I assumed the lender would be 
taking a leap of faith that the borrower would return it upon request. 
NO GUARANTEES. And the lender would be submitting it to the LUG with 
that understanding. I've no doubt LUG members would make best efforts 
to honour any requests. Up to a point. And even that's not assured.

I get that the LUG cannot be a storage place for people who's books 
collection have exceeded their personal physical storage capacity. 
Presumably the LUG would retain a right to not accept books.


People know, or should know, that Charm is not a big guy, physically. 
Tall yes, but otherwise not. In all other respects he is a very BIG 
GUY - why the heck do you think he's called 'Charm'! (-:

	However, he can only schlep so many books back and forth to each 
meeting. He is already reducing the number of books per meeting to the 
most popular ones up to what he can transport. While freely 
publicizing that anyone who wants a particular book can let him know 
and he'll be happy to make sure it gets there. He's also expressed 
that it would be useful if some sort of 'request' mechanism were 
available.


> to loan their books should make arrangements for that outside the LUG.
> Perhaps even through this list.  But dropping the burden of tracking
> and returning your (generously offered) books onto somebody else is
> unfair in my view.

Agreed. Assuming the lender required a guarantee of return. See above. 
If no such guarantee is needed, then I don't see how this is any 
different than any member requesting another member return a book. [We 
do have that policy, do we not?]

To get some scope of the potential problem, can anyone speak to how 
much abuse of the current library there has or hasn't been?

Keeping in mind that 'abuse', in terms of the K-W LUG Library, is much 
further out than the point any self-respecting public librarian would 
define it.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the only 'abuse' by K-W Lug standards I 
can think of is deliberate physical destruction, or a member calling 
for a book to be returned ('cause they want to read it, and the 
current lendee (sp?) has had it for more than a few months), and being 
refused. Heck, if the latter never happened, how would one know of the 
former?

Has there been significant 'abuse'? Anyone know?

> 
> Secondly, some folks who wish to publish their book collections are
> using librarything.com.  Smaller collections are free as I understand
> it and a modest fee gives you an unlimited account.  Librarything
> allows reviews etc.  LUG members interested in publicizing their books
> could even link to their librarything account from their email .sig,
> and / or blog sig for the convenience of other members.

Hmmm. Sounds like a member thing node page would be useful.

Would it be possible to create a kw-lug member info page containing 
fields that could be collected into other single pages? Perhaps with 
accompanying tick boxes for whether the information is public or not?

i.e. Similar to 'account settings', not, or at least distinct from, a 
public 'who am i' (optional) page.