Jump to content

Recommended Posts

  Quote
WOuld you / do you all use your local libraries?

I hardly ever do. I went to one a few weeks ago - I think I mentioned it - and asked if they had a Chekov play book and the Librarian told me that in the whole of Southwark Libraries there is not one Chekov book.



A quick scan of the catalouge suggests otherwise


Chekhov : the early stories 1883-88 / chosen and translated by Patrick Miles Request this Item

Chekhov, A. P. (Anton Pavlovich), 1860-1904 Other titles by Author(s)

Publication Date: 1982


Collected works. - Vol.3 : Stories, 1888-1894 Request this Item

Chekhov, A. P., Anton Pavlovich, 1860-1904 Other titles by Author(s)


Collected works. - Vol.4 : Stories, 1895-1903 / translated by Olga Shartse and Ivy Litvinov Request this Item

Chekhov, A. P., Anton Pavlovich, 1860-1904 Other titles by Author(s)

Link to comment
https://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/topic/2556-chekhov-in-southark-libraries/
Share on other sites

Did the conversation go something like this:


?Do you have any Chekov??


?Yeah its here innit.?


?Anton Chekov??


??ere there aint no ants on my checkout.?


?The writer??


*Some tapping at a keyboard*


?Look ?ere there aint nufink on the system luv. orwright?


?Sheesh. Tracey! You ?ear that last nutter? Wots this place Office Angles sent us to today anyway??

Ahhahahahaahahahaahahahaha


No, nothing like that.


More,


"Let me check on the computer. Chekov, that's Anton, right?"

"Yes."

"Southwark got rid of a load of books several years ago that had had no readers, and just kept those that were popular, and maybe they were amongst those sold, because we hold no books by Chekov in Southwark Library."


(A bit like, "Computer says noooo")


"WOuld you like me to renew your library card for you whilst you're here?"


"What would be the point?"


"We got the new Westlife CD you could borrow" *


* That last line was a lie.

About 20 years ago they had Chekhov in Russian in Dulwich library. Yes they did. They also had a wide selection of French, Spanish and Italian classic literature. And the entire works of Georges Simenon, which is what I read. I was going to get round to the other stuff, I blame Southwark for throwing it all out before I could borrow it. I was never able to get a consistent story out of them about where it all went and sometimes wonder if there is a big dusty cupboard somewhere...

>


So if they're getting them in now, that means they have previously been lacking Dickens, Austen, Hardy, in an English public library in the middle of London. Libraries and book shops and street stalls in the most far flung corners of the world have these authors, and often in English. Don't tell me, there was a Southwark council ctte meeting at which some thieving lying useless grafter announced that they weren't modern enough for the modern library. Has anyone tried to borrow 1984?

franglaisia Wrote:


> Has anyone tried to borrow 1984?


I did but was told that the book ration had been doubled to 2 purchases per year, and both of these had been used for Westlife CDs.


P.S. We are at war with Camberwellia, we have always been at war with Camberwellia.

I was told, by a librarian, that a number of years ago, Southwark Libraries dumped/ got rid of 25% of its entire stock, without any public consultation.


I certainly remember when I was at school that Dulwich Library had quite a good drama section.


I'm curious where they all went.

That would be about right. The foreign language stock in Dulwich alone ran to hundreds of volumes. The usual thing would be to sell surplus stock off to the public but they certainly didn't do that, would have noticed.


Think books last seen by me about 1990. Was that the era of the oily Jeremy Fraser as "Labour" Council Leader? - now a PR consultant for JP Morgan and various other plagues on humanity.


Someone out there must know what happened, we demand the truth..



cdonline Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I was told, by a librarian, that a number of years

> ago, Southwark Libraries dumped/ got rid of 25% of

> its entire stock, without any public

> consultation.

>

> I certainly remember when I was at school that

> Dulwich Library had quite a good drama section.

>

> I'm curious where they all went.

???? Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Chekov - Posh, useless family thinking they are

> about to lose their home, vacilate and twitter

> whilst their trees are cut down THE END


Yeah - lets all stick to Big Brother - the Memoirs shall we?

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Latest Discussions

    • You’ve taken the time to write quite a long post explaining why you think as you do. But as I pointed out earlier in the thread most young people look pretty much the same they tend to wear different clothes on different occasions and unless there’s something overwhelmingly stand out about their appearance such descriptions do not help  -  there’s probably about 25,000 teenagers within walking distance of the park. Any description could apply to many of them. The police have the descriptions leave it to them.  I hope you won’t stop going to the park, to reassure yourself go onto the Metropolitan police crime site and you’ll see that Peckham Rye Park is a very safe place to be. 
    • Aria did a good job fixing a leak in our bathroom. He was very thorough and made two extra visits to make sure the job was done well. Highly recommended.
    • As a diminutive (5ft 1) woman who regularly attends the park with her four children - all under 5; two of them (twins) in a push-chair - the thread caught my eye. If there identifiable troublemakers likely to be there I want to know what they look like so I can avoid them. Isn't that "strange" of me, wishing to avoid harm coming to my children?? 😲 I have been discussing the ludicrous responses to this thread 🧵 (which I bet £100 exclusively emanate from bourgeois native Brits) with work colleagues (you would be hard pressed to find a more 'diverse' bunch in terms of age and ethnicity - except we are all female). One colleague (a Ukranian lady) made a perceptive observation that everyone seemed to agree with. When British newspapers and news websites mention an offender (e.g. 'police are asking the general public for assistance in seeking the alleged offender who is a middle-aged male'), she always assumes the offender is not of white British heritage since, if the offender is white this is usually mentioned, but seldom the other way around. Until recently racial prejudice was a thing of the past (unless in the most hardcore of families), now it is creeping back and one important factor is the perception that the indigenous general public are not being treated fairly with this sort of dishonest - some would say activist - reportage. An attitude that clearly informed the bizarre claim that my concerned inquiry was  "strange". Fact is it was anything but strange. What is strange is people denying the evidence of their own eyes and - in this case - casting aspersions on a concerned parent. 
    • Yesterday we received about 3 weeks worth of post. This included duplicate documents where we'd had to ask for another copy since the first copy never arrived, bank papers, my new driving licence and one mis-delivery.  We'd spent ages in the last few weeks either on the phone or convoluted websites trying to chase these things. I'd rally like to co,plain but have a feeling I'd be wasting my time.
Home
Events
Sign In

Sign In



Or sign in with one of these services

Search
×
    Search In
×
×
  • Create New...