Ministry of Putting Things On Top of Other Things

[drwex]

OK, not quite. They call it the Ministry of Reshelving and if I hadn't worked in a bookstore I'd be tempted to help them.

http://avantgame.blogspot.com/2005/08/ministry-of-reshelving.html

Political statements are all well and good but please don't make the serfs' lives harder with them.
(props to sebastian_tombs, who gakked it from ca_snowflake)

Comments

[heinleinfan.livejournal.com]

AMEN.

[dpolicar]

Yeah. This is amusing, but the cost:benefit ratio is just too damned high.

[asciikitty.livejournal.com]

I reshelve books correctly when I'm in bookstores. Does that count?

[drwex]

oh that's funny. I do the same thing. I did get one dirty look from the employee who I was cleaning up after. For whatever reason - he was being alphabet-challenged that day or something - he was putting stuff in just slightly off from where it should have been and it was kind of a compulsion to go along behind him and make it right.

[asciikitty.livejournal.com]

ok, that's mean. I only help near bookstore employees that I'm already friends with. But I do straighten in general in all bookstores, I can't help it.

[drwex]

ok, that's mean

*blink* Your point?

Seriously, he was doing stuff like filing Ti* before Th*
Or Mac* after Mc*.
Stuff that was just obvious and like sandpaper under my eyelids to watch.

[asciikitty.livejournal.com]

Not bad mean, good mean.

Yeah, I know the feeling. I used to sing the alphabet song to myself over and over again to avoid doing that.

[caulay.livejournal.com]

Mac* after Mc*

Again, policy. "Mac" and "Mc" are, under some filing schemes, the same prefix on a name and are all filed as though they were spelled out as "Mac". This was the standard used by my hometown library and, as a result, the one I use myself. Therefore, MacArthur is followed by McAuley which is followed by MacCaffrey.

And then there is whether you file "van Vogt" under "van" or "Vogt". Not much difference there, but there's also "van Scyoc". And if you decide on using "Vogt" and "Scyoc", where do you file "de Lint"? Under "de" or "Lint"? Or "del Rey"? There are cans of worms that should never be opened.

But I agree that Ti* before Th* is wrong.

[asciikitty.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I remember the Mc*/ Mac* thing being weird at a bookstore I was a regular customer at I think. And the de [whatever] last names and the van [whatever] and von [whatever] and... yeah. It gets messy.

my uncle is a von [lastname] and as far as I know, he's just completely dropped the 'von' bit, to make everyone's life easier.

[caulay.livejournal.com]

That depends on what you consider "correctly".

On one hand, putting books where people will actually look for them is doing a service to both the store and the authors, as now the books will sell in greater numbers. On the other hand, if the store management classifies the books "differently", then they are only going to be moved back to the "wrong" spot again as soon as someone notices them.

[asciikitty.livejournal.com]

"Correctly" Where store employees will put the book that's lying cross-ways acroos the tops of the row, when they get to that section. Or, not on the floor, not on a shelf that has nothing to do with that author name ("No really! Robinson begins with a 'G'!") not sideways unless it's a face-out and the store has chosen to have the books do that. Not "correctly" where *I* think they should go, but "correctly" where the store empoloyee who has to lug books up and down stairs, ring people up, and make the store look pretty would prefer not to have to put the book for the third time today.

Did I mention, I used to work in a bookstore?

[caulay.livejournal.com]

Did I mention, I used to work in a bookstore?

You're not the only one.

And sometimes a store has really strange policies, the used book store I worked at shelved the most popular authors in a section (genre/letter) at the start of the section. For example, Tom Clancy might be found a the very beginning of "C" in Fiction.

This was a major pain as the list changed weekly and we had to re-shelve based on it.

[asciikitty.livejournal.com]

Children's book, for me. Displays were always tough.

Also? That's a little odd. Makes sense, from a amrketting standpoint, but isn't that why you'd have a "bestseller's" table, and shelve books normally within the section?

I'm not talking about reshelving books already properly on shelves though - even if they're in the wrong place, they're not on the floor, or sideways on a shelf two up because the person couldn't be bothered to bend over, or whatever. that's what irks me, and so that's what I fix.

[caulay.livejournal.com]

but isn't that why you'd have a "bestseller's" table, and shelve books normally within the section?

You'd think so, but there was really no no room in the place for even a single table. The only flat space was the counter with the cash register.

We'd seriously outgrown the space but the owner had gotten a sweet deal on the rent years before and wasn't going to move until the lease and all of its extension options ran out. Which happened a couple of years after I left.

[asciikitty.livejournal.com]

I've been in bookstores like that. they're fun, although I bet they're hell to work in.

[caulay.livejournal.com]

Especially when the owner/manager wants to re-shelve the books on a weekly basis.

While I loved the store, I'm glad I only worked their part time for one summer.

[asciikitty.livejournal.com]

Again - if anyone had done this (or something like this) at the bookstore I worked in, we would have quietly applauded their ballsiness, agreed with their politics, and SCREAMED in the break room. Because it's hard enough dealing with customers who can't mangage to pt books away correctly by accident, never mind the ones that suck on purpose.

[mizarchivist]

My companions- frequently SOs- will remind me to leave off fixing when I'm at the [public location that has alphabetical organization: library, video store, etc]. Even mis-stored pens at the art store will distract me.
Praise the Great Spagetti Monster my library has closed stacks! I understand that the political reshelvers feel a need to make a statement, but if I were a bookstore employee and caught them, there'd be blood on the books. Leave the damned books where they are listed in the Db and don't make the sisyphusian task more onerous than it already is, thankyouverymuch.

[mizarchivist]

My bad. Flying Spagetti Monster. I'm a new convert and not quite worked out the basics yet

[woodwardiocom.livejournal.com]

"Spaghetti" does not have as many Hs as "Cthulhu", but it comes close.

[unseelie.livejournal.com]

i used to not only work in retail book sales; but was a district manager for a time.

i taught manager
to teach disgruntled teens
how to shelve books

you want odious tasks....

these guys amuse me; but at the same time - piss me off - i (still) do everything i can to encourage people to read - everyone - all the time - because so few people do.
making it harder for the plebes to see the chains is BAD!