I went to two high schools. My first high school had an enormous library, with a librarian who would not only point students at books but would get books from the nearby college library for them when needed. And journal articles. They had the whole UN Atoms for Peace series, which was my introduction to nuclear physics. They had a whole section of fine electronics books that was better than some college libraries I have seen. Anybody in the school, even a first-grader, could check these out.
Then my parents moved, and I went to a different high school for my past two years. The librarian there was a Mrs. Ianuzzi, and talking with her, she basically told me that she considered her job to be protecting the books from students. She considered herself a saviour in the wilderness of book-destroying children who might want to read books. (Also, the library was dreadful ... my father actually owned more volumes of fiction than the library did and I did not hesitate to point this out).
This is a sad thing. Some of my best times were spent in libraries. I sort of maybe lost my virginity in one of them, even. And I think the job of the librarian is a very important one, because bad librarians can scar children forever.
--scott
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."