Create accountLogin

Recent searches

No recent searches

Search options

Only available when logged in.
sigmoid.social is one of the many independent Mastodon servers you can use to participate in the fediverse.
A social space for people researching, working with, or just interested in AI!

Administered by:

Server stats:

649
active users

sigmoid.social: AboutProfiles directoryPrivacy policy

Mastodon: AboutGet the appKeyboard shortcutsView source codev4.3.8

#library

45 posts44 participants5 posts today
Public
Reading Recluse

Random book thoughts: Physical libraries vary so much in cost and accessibility. Not even considering their catalogue, the quality depends heavily on your city/region in my experience. Here's a comparison of my current, my most hated and my favorite library system:

📚 My current library has the following:

- A one year membership costs 6 euros.
- As a member, you can loan as many books per year as you'd like, max 20 at a time, for free.
- Getting on a wait list or putting a book on hold costs 1 euro per book.
- You can do a purchase request for free.

Overall very cheap and good, although I never use the wait/hold system because of the additional costs. It's kind of hard looking up every book on my own in the library when it's hard to walk due to injury/disability.

☠️ The library of horrors:

- You had to choose between 3 types of memberships:
> About 17 euros a year - you'd only be allowed to loan 20 books per year
> About 35 euros a year - you'd only be allowed to loan 40 books per year
> About 70 euros a year - you'd only be allowed to loan 80 books per year

If you went over these numbers, you'd be charged 0,50 euro per book. These prices are from my memory from 5+ years ago. I looked up their current prices and they're significantly more expensive.

- Getting on a wait list or putting a book on hold was pricey and the cost depended on what type of membership you had.
- A purchase request cost about 5 euros, without any guarantee that your suggestion would actually be purchased.

I was a member for a short while because I got a student's discount, but still it wasn't worth it. I never took out random books just to try or return unread, because every book had a cost attached. After a year I cancelled my membership and it was the only time in my life I was without a library for years. A very miserable system to be stuck in.

✨ My favorite library was great:

- A one year membership cost 4 euros.
- As a member, you could loan as many books per year as you'd like, max 10 at a time, for free.
- Getting on a wait list or putting a book on hold was free, max 5 at once.
- You could do a purchase request for free (but I was never granted any of my requests ever, for years).

This was the best library service of my life because of the free holds. I usually had 5-10 books at home and was permanently on wait lists, all without any extra costs. I could easily pick up holds from a shelf at the front door, so I wasn't forced to walk/carry a lot in the building. I found so many hidden gems because I felt like I could try anything and everything.

#library#books#bookstodon
Public
Christian

🚨 Science is under threat and our Library @tibhannover is stepping up! To safeguard vital research, TIB has built a dark archive of #arXiv, preserving millions of scientific preprints in case the main platform goes down. A great step for resilient, decentralized access to knowledge worldwide!

#library #science #darkarchive #USPol #OpenScience #DigitalPreservation #ResearchIntegrity

blog.tib.eu/2025/05/14/protect

TIB-Blog · Protecting Science: TIB builds Dark Archive for arXiv - TIB-Blog
More from Esther Tobschall
Public
Museum in a Box

We're really pleased to be featured in the Voice of the Fans exhibition taking place in Leeds. The exhibition explores how football fanzines changed the beautiful game in this free exhibition, with associated events, co-produced by the British Library and Leeds Libraries.

The Voice of the Fans exhibition is open from May 9 until August 10 at Leeds Central Library and is free to visit.

Images are courtesy of Leeds Libraries and Liam Garnett

A small 3d printed replica of the World Cup sits atop a yellow Museum in a Box on a small circular white table. Also on the table sit 5 replica footballs.
A man stands facing right looking at the edge of a fanzine so the front cover is visible to the camera.
Two men stand in the middle of an exhibition room, to the sides we can see displays on the walls. The men lean on either side of a glass display case facing the camera.
#Glam#museum#library
Public
Chris Dixon

Shout-out to Hoopla, free uninterrupted movies and shows on demand with no ads. All you need is a library card. Forgot I had an account, but was browsing where to watch a movie on www.justwatch.com and saw it was on there. #film #library

Public
Calishat

#Indiana #library #FundingCuts #GLAM

"Local libraries in Indiana will face financial challenges in the years ahead as the state and federal governments make drastic cuts to funding, local officials said. At the state level, libraries will see budget cuts amid the state budget and property tax reform. At the federal level, the Institute of Museum and Library Services funding was gutted, which will cut millions from the state library budget..."

chicagotribune.com/2025/05/11/

Public
MikeDunnAuthor

Today in Labor History May 14, 1771: Utopian-socialist Robert Owen was born on this day in Wales. In the early 1800s, he made a fortune in textiles. However, he tried to run his mills on higher principles than greed. One of his reforms was to offer prices at his company store that were only slightly higher than their wholesale cost. This was in marked contrast to his competitors, who paid their workers only in scrip and charged exorbitant prices at their company stores. In 1810, Owen implemented the eight-hour workday for his employees. And in 1817, he came up with the slogan, “Eight hours labor, eight hours recreation, eight hours rest.” He also provided free schools for the children of factory workers.

In 1824, he travelled to America and invested his fortune in an experimental socialistic commune at New Harmony, Indiana. It only survived for two years. However, it changed many aspects of American culture. Residents created the first public library and public school system open to both boys and girls. The town also became an important center of scientific research in the mid-1800s.

Portrait of Owen by John Cranch, 1845, long, slightly graying hair and eye contact. By John Cranch - painting of John Cranch 1845, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=719799
#workingclass#LaborHistory#socialism
Public
Stefan Bartsch

Mal eine Frage in die Runde. Wir wollen in der #Bibliothek #Spandau eine #Saatgutbibliothek aufbauen mit Fokus auf alte Sorten, Wildpflanzen und #opensourceseeds. Gibt es bestimmte Pflanzen die ihr haben wollt und wir besorgen sollen?

@dreschflegelsaatgut @opensourceseeds Würdet ihr uns da unterstützen?
-
A question for everyone. We want to set up a #seed library in the #library #Spandau with a focus on old varieties, wild plants and opensourceseeds. Are there plants you want us to get?

ExploreLive feeds
About