went all karen lol

At the library I work at, we recently said goodbye to an elderly employee. The municipal/politicians were lowering the budget and there had to be cuts in the staff hours, so since the old woman was considering retirement, she chose to stick around just long enough to save anyone else from being hit (too hard) by the quota of cuts. She was the one in charge of repairing damaged books though, and the woman that has taken over is almost always busy, meaning she has even less time now, so I almost feel bad when I find damaged books that should be repaired instead of tossed.

That said, this weekend there was a showing at the library of some of the oldest books from the basement storage, and while they were all in the best condition they could be for their ages (some even being from the mid-1800s and early 1900s), several definitely looked like the movie trope of "will turn to dust if you so much as breathe at them", heh. Too old and precious to be tossed, so they returned safely to storage after the event.

I love stories like this! A year or two ago I interviewed for a security job at a repurposed elementary school. It had been used as a machine shop and warehouse for a few years but the company went out of business and left the tools in the gymnasium. It is now a distribution center for a well known (and old) door-to-door sales company (not Avon or Tupperware but that idea). The sole employee -- the guards worked for a service -- showed me the basement. There was a room that ran most of the length of the building, loaded with old schoolbooks. Although the school was built in 1970, there were books dating back to the 1930s and a small handful to the 19-teens. All kept dry and warm. Some still smelled new!

I mean, with the currently climate we're in, i don't blame her, but some books are just too damaged to save.

I can also imagine someone freaking out over a book getting disposed while in the background someone is unwrapping the new replacement.
(I've been told fixing books is hard)
Though I've seen some rough second - hand books, I think that one has a few more reads left before it disintegrates

I dread and wish to never know what led that book to be on that level

I own a couple books that look worse. I've just read them a lot of times and had no concept of proper book handling in my youth!

Then maybe you can answer, what causes the hazy green fog? I think I would toss a book that has that

Uuuuh... impure thoughts!

Use your imagination~

Mold. Ya, prolly toss. That only usually happens in humid places or if got water in it.

I wish libraries would call me if they were discarding books that I wanted.

Yeah... I'd be less rude about than this lady but my resourcefulness side would probably also want to not have the book thrown out, getting mad at me if I don't try to save it, I'd even take it in the condition it's in.... Also fearing how it got the stink aura that it has.


Though now I'm curious of which one of the creators of this comic works at a library to know this. taking a guess based on a coin flip says Tootaloo.

oh you are a librarian?

Guilty as charged.

A library will often buy multiple copies of popular books. After a time, they are not so popular. But they are usually sold or donated to reading programs. Reference books can become outdated, and should be shown away. 😉

What a stupid Karen!

"Ma'am, we have 5 OTHER copies of this exact book."

I have a cookbook that's stained to high hell with foodstuffs and it's over 24 years old...wtf happened to THAT book.

Also..Karen Shiba Inu *shudders*

Shiba's don't bark, they scream!

Happened in our libraries. People went on a rage on social media cause somebody found out the libraries were burning old copies of books from one of our most famous writers.
The fact that the books were so used that you literarely couldn't read them anymore didn't seem to matter >.>

Nobody is saying the 'B' word so I won't either. That book has a terminal case of the creepin' crud.

*Reads description*

I see....

I'm curious as to the source of the Sheeb

As someone who did book repairs in a voluntary context, the green haze could be mold or that it's been held in a place that stink, like a gym bag (paper keep odor like sponge). Still, I think it could be still saved but that could be my overoptimistic self talking.