Anyone else think this BBC article is in poor taste?

[cheeseismydownfall]

Or am I just being miserable?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-52412655

I don't know, I just really don't like the idea of publicly sharing someone's mistake just to deliver a "light relief". The poor cleaner might be absolutely mortified and it seems really intellectually snobbish to have a god laugh just because someone doesn't understand the bloody dewy decimal system. Really nasty I think.

I can see why it's funny but I tend to agree with you - quite patronising "a well meaning cleaner" etc.

Yeah I’m at a University. There's definitely been a training/management failure here. I suspect the tweeter is also horribly regretting her decision. Library twitter doesn’t normally go viral.

@DrowsyDragon I can imagine you are busier than ever in many ways, I do feel for universities and the staff and the massive changes to teaching and supporting students they have had to do. And for the students of course, I would have been devastated especially in third year if I missed out on the support and social side.

And she is a 'trophy wife' even if she does say so herself.

It made me laugh - my dad had a 3 rooms of books and mum got bored one day and arranged one huge shelf in order of colour and size of spine because it looked messy otherwise (yes there is a degree of OCD in the family).

It sounds like you're doing amazing though continuing to do what you can, I am sure the students appreciate it, even if they don't realise it!

Thank you so much Bouncey! It’s such a huge adjustment for everyone. The students I have spoken to have been lovely but I do worry about the ones we’re not reaching and MAs who planned their dissertations around physical resources and everything.

I saw a magazine article once, one of those this is my perfect home I spent eleventy million pounds on articles. They had arranged their books by colour. Prats. The only ones I have arranged by colour is my embarrassingly huge collection of vintage penguin crime paperbacks, which are all dark green .

@ByGrabtharsHammerWhatASavings actually the article does refer to 'her' .

Oops, I'm a cleaner in a school and found this funny. I know people are well meaning with the 'poor' cleaner comments, but they can come across as being slightly patronising.

@FallonSwift

Why is it classist??

Are you assuming the cleaner is of some ‘inferior’ class?

Because God forbid, MC people would simply (a) never make such an obvious mistake and (b) never be cleaners.

" just because someone doesn't understand the bloody dewy decimal system. "

But it was more than that. It was not understanding that there was ANY system at all. How does she think people find books in the library. I think it's fair play to laugh at that really.

But the point is the cleaner had no reason to rearrange them - libraries have great big trollies, all you do is take a row of books off put it on the trolley, clean the shelf and then put them back on. It would take far longer to rearrange them by size than just to put them back as they were.... Plus I don’t know why everyone is fixating on Dewey decimal - these were crime books so we’re originally in alphabetical order.

Saying they have plenty of time to put it right is misleading too as library staff obviously aren’t classed as essential workers so aren’t allowed to be in the buildings unless they’re doing the weekly check that everything’s ok.

Whats the point of starting a thread about a sneery tweet, if you dont want to share the tweet

They would never want the cleaner to feel bad about it yet they publicly shame her on social.media ? But as the cleaner given any instructions how to arrange the books ? Very unpleasant and unprofessional.

I did see an online article where an interior designer arranged loads of books - spine inwards! It looked weird- like a forest - but just all white/odd coloured pages! 🤣

ByGrabtharsHammerWhatASavings

I completely take your point but the article does indicate she’s a women.

“The cleaner is lovely and does a great job in the library. It was an honest mistake and just one of those things so we would never want her to feel bad about it," he added.

I thought it was nasty too. The particularly mean bit was putting it on social media. To whoever asked - the original tweet is in the BBC article.

It’s snobby - I imagine bitchy tittering - and unkind.

She hasn’t even mixed them up that much by the looks of it. Taken a shelf off, cleaned, put those books back in size order. An average day of browsing by the public would probably have mixed them up more.
It’s also a promotion trick to arrange fiction books in alternative ways to alphabetical order. Catches the eye more. There’s only a certain proportion of Library users who prefer strict alphabetical order by author surname anyway iirc.
Glad I don’t work for that library service.

Well.actually @ByGrabtharHammefWhatASavings it does say in the article we wouldn't want HER to feel.had about it which kind of indicates the cleaner was female ?

I’ve had this happen to me. Obviously I don’t organise my books by dewy decimal, I’m not a wanker, but there was a vague thematic system going on combined with just knowing where books were. Then they were ‘helpfully’ reorganised into size order. I could have forgiven it if at the very least the biggest heaviest books ended up on the bottom in order to improve the shelve’s stability but no. Not only did I have history books next to law books next to science books next to business books next to fiction next to dictionaries next to poetry, my shelf was also top heavy. It’s actually really annoying when you are the one that has to put them back where they belong.

ByGrabtharsHammerWhatASavings - the article on the bbc site refers to ‘her’.

@TheSultanofPingu absolutely! The irony is the library assistant fixing this likely wouldnt be earning more so I'm not sure why a class defence has appeared in this. Our library assistants are on minimum wage, although furloughed at the moment.

Oh...and I’m middle aged with a short haircut...though my name is not Pam. What are you on about?

I agree - it's snobby & poorly thought out.

I'm a librarian too (hi @DrowsyDragon 👋 doing much the same work as you) & I'd say the librarian who wrote the tweet is mortified now. As a PP said, I doubt she imagined where this would end up.

On another note, surprised to hear @Bounceyflouncey that you (or is it your colleagues?) are at home with almost no work to do. In Ireland those in public libraries have been redeployed, eg running helplines for those needing emergency payments, or other kinds of support, some in contact tracing (a lot more of that done in Ireland)