Apparently it's the 70th anniversary of the library next week.

What do you think of the library? Do you have any experience/memories to share?

I remember when I was at school I went for a tour down in the libraries archives. At that time I thought it was brilliant, quite spooky too. I expected Slimer out of Ghostbusters to pop out. :D

I really like the style of the building. I've not used the library for a few years due to poor service but I do keep meaning to pop down and take a look to see if anything has changed.

the book selection is still the same :)

I always thought it was much older than 70 years, seems to be more like 100 years old to me. I like the local studies department, helped me many times with various reasearch projects.

the disabled access is really bad !
building looks good from the outside though !

It's a nice building, but for the size of it is quite pitiful for a central city library. Compared to other city libraries. It would be quite apt for a town of 20,000 people.

Ive only been inside once! and that was to see if they had any Pink Floyd on vinyl :lol:

I take it they didn't then?

They didnt have what I wanted :( Nor did they have a Pulp LP I wanted to listen to :( (strictly LP only one, it came up on the computers but apparently it'd been moved to a sheffield history archive point prolly to never see the light of day again :cry: )

Originally posted by RPG
They didnt have what I wanted :( Nor did they have a Pulp LP I wanted to listen to :( (strictly LP only one, it came up on the computers but apparently it'd been moved to a sheffield history archive point prolly to never see the light of day again :cry: )

Ahhh there is nothing like living history. Shame on them for not stumping up for another copy.

I've been using the Central Library since 1951. My only complaints are that now I'm old and arthritic the steps are a bit of a challenge, and these days they spend far too much on pulp fiction.

It hasn't changed a great deal since I was a lad, apart from the obvious music/video sections and computer terminals replacing the old card index catalogue.

The Local Studies section has suffered a bit with the removal of a lot of material to Sheffield Archives.

The building is beyond any modernisation and I don't believe a new building would make the book stock any more accessible than it is at present. Anything they haven't got I've always been able to get via inter-library loan.

Lickszz....what do you mean by poor service ? Can't say that's ever been my experience.

Sheffield Central Libraries had an excellent reputation outside the city when we first came here in the mid-1980s. I'd say that the stock has deteriorated in quality since then.

The amount of 'technical' material in the local library here in Walkley is very low - lots of videos, fiction, etc. but nothing like the 'academic' supply of books that were in the library even a decade ago.

Central Reference library isn't bad on techie stuff - by which I mean engineering, sciences, etc. After all, they've got a copy of one of my books in there somewhere! :-)

But I'd say that the libraries in general in the UK have moved to multimedia and computer access, whilst allowing the printed word to fall by the wayside. Of course, this is perceived - I'd be happy to be proved wrong!

Service isn't as good as it was. Walkley is excellent on the whole, but central seems to have lots of people who's knwledge of their stock and layout is lacking. You can stand for ages at the central desk waiting or someone to lift their head up from their paperwork and they're quite bad at re-shelving stuff properly.

However, the library service is still running which says something.

Just watch the powers that be decide to kill off a few more bits of it the next time they need money for some project or other.

Joe

Originally posted by Greybeard

Lickszz....what do you mean by poor service ? Can't say that's ever been my experience.

Greybeard.

I wanted a specialist book and after finding this book they only had one copy which was currently out. I paid some money to make sure I got informed when the book was back in and got reserved for me. I received a notification over 3 months later that the book was now available. I no longer required the book. I was not impressed.

Originally posted by Lickszz
Greybeard.

I wanted a specialist book and after finding this book they only had one copy which was currently out. I paid some money to make sure I got informed when the book was back in and got reserved for me. I received a notification over 3 months later that the book was now available. I no longer required the book. I was not impressed.

Perhaps you would be better off being not impressed by the person who kept the book out longer than they should have. Why would the staff hold back the notification for 3 months?:loopy:

How do you know it was the person who had not returned it?

Have you ever heard of staff imcompetence?

Perhaps they could have informed me that the book had still not been returned. They did have my contact number and I had paid for the service.

Originally posted by Lickszz
How do you know it was the person who had not returned it?

Have you ever heard of staff imcompetence?

Perhaps they could have informed me that the book had still not been returned. They did have my contact number and I had paid for the service.

It doesn't work like that. Your request is held on the computer against the book details. When the book is returned your request is added to a daily list of requested books which have been returned. The notification is then sent out.

Far better to blame the analyst who designed the program or the programmer who misread the spec.:loopy:

No, you're right, staff are easier to blame.

Does the computer automatically print out any outstanding book notofications and post them by itself?

When I reserved the book It was filled out on a form. When I received notification it was hand written.

I was told the book would be 4 weeks. If there was going to be a delay then there should be some process of informing those waiting.

Originally posted by Lickszz
Does the computer automatically print out any outstanding book notofications and post them by itself?

When I reserved the book It was filled out on a form. When I received notification it was hand written.

I was told the book would be 4 weeks. If there was going to be a delay then there should be some process of informing those waiting.

No, it prints out a list from which the staff write the cards. The staff originally input the detail from the card you fill in.

You're right, there should be a process which notifies you but obviously that wasn't in the original system specification.

You agree then that it's not staff incompetence and that you will now re-appraise your view of the staff?

I never said I was certain it was staff incompetence but there is always a possibility that it was as people do make mistakes.

It was the service I was unhappy with for whatever reason. Frankly, I am uninterested what that reason may be. The service didn't work for me. This was however 12 years ago so there may be a new system in place. I would still be reluctant to use this service ever again.

2 mods fighting on a sunday afternoon this is better than eastenders:D

Originally posted by panda79
2 mods fighting on a sunday afternoon this is better than eastenders:D

I don't see it as fighting more of an educational exercise.:D

Couldn't they get the book by inter-library loans?

Surely there's scope for flexibility - if, after a month, it hadn't come back couldn't they do an ILL?

Joe

Originally posted by JoePritchard
Couldn't they get the book by inter-library loans?

Surely there's scope for flexibility - if, after a month, it hadn't come back couldn't they do an ILL?

Joe

Just spoken to an ex-librarian with 27 years experience who assures me that that is done automatically once it is established that there is not a copy available or due back within a reasonable time.

What really gets me as the written word is suddenly getting popular again (ie people are reading more books than ever) that the libraries should be so ill-stocked.

Ironic...

Originally posted by max
Just spoken to an ex-librarian with 27 years experience who assures me that that is done automatically once it is established that there is not a copy available or due back within a reasonable time.

Well it would seem that this wasn't done in my case Max.

Joe

I agree about the concentration on multimedia vs printed works, but on the other hand the library do subscribe to academc services from which you can download information you couldn't hope to get unless you had Uni access.

At the service desk in Central I sit down in front of one of the librarians on duty....makes it pretty difficult for them to ignore me. :D

One encouraging experience is that over the past three years four newish books I've requested on inter-library loan have actually been bought by the library.

Local libraries are difficult, especially for non-fiction. It's probably a question of making a book available to the widest readership; they could do more to publicise the delivery service from Central but it doesn't help people who just want to select whilst browsing the shelves, although I believe there is a system of rotation between the local libraries.

When i was researching for my BA dissertation, I went to the Central Lending Library in Sheffield, with a list of standard degree level books that I was assured every library would have copies of. I searched on their computers, and they didn't have any of the books I needed on the shelves. They were either reference only, missing, or in their vaults in the dungeons somewhere. :rolleyes:

Not sure if anyone knows but you can now access Central Library from your home computer -check availability,reservations,extending the loan period etc.

they have a dreadfull range of books and music. For a large city the selection is awful. Old books randomly ordered.

Fiction section is absolutely appalling for two reasons:

1) Very poor selection of 'classics', I had a reading list for English Literature, and they didn't have some very 'bog standard' literature. They did, however, have a lot of Jackie Collins stuff...

2) Fiction/General non-fiction lending library is so ****ing hard to find your way around! The alphabatising is murder, and the codes are ridiculous! The shelving system intertwines so you can go straight from C to Q in one swift step. Useless...

I think the range of books is very poor compared with other big cities, and the opening times leave a lot to be desired too! I remember when it used to be open till 9pm every week day!

Fair point Patchy. What are the opening hours these days?

Originally posted by BAZZO
Not sure if anyone knows but you can now access Central Library from your home computer -check availability,reservations,extending the loan period etc.


Thanks for that tip Bazzo, - very useful.

The URL is...

http://hip.sheffield.gov.uk/

...but to use the service you'll need to know your ticket number and PIN

The information desk will give you you PIN, but whether they'll do so over the phone I don't know.