Another reason to love the library

Awesome, great idea.
 
Never been to one in a long time, only when I had to wait for my ride to get my state I'd
Yes a place of a wealth of knowledge. Even had like a dozen computers.
 
I'll definitely stop by to see jake! Not too far from where I teach. Thanks for the links, I am sure many of my kids will want to go too!
 
Aloha Denise,
Ah yes I missed that, as I just skimmed the article. Too lazy or not focusing due to feeling not well
Thank you for the link again. Wonder what ukes they will have, be interesting to check
Your friend, Stan :) thank you for the link once again ��
 
That sounds like an absolutey wonderful idea! More ukes in more peoples hands = less stressful society!
 
"It's an unusual addition to a library collection to be sure, but one that makes sense to the staff at the library. Recognizing that music can be empowering and enhance lives, adding an instrument to the collection seemed like a logical next step to librarian Chad Clark, himself a ukulele player. "The library's music collection is vast and well used, but why not go a step further and give our patrons access to creating their own music?"
As Jane Conway, executive director of the library explains, "Libraries provide free access - to knowledge, information and creativity. Adding these instruments to our collection enables us to further enrich the lives of our community." ...Makes so much sense to me...I wish more libraries might give it a try...
 
I saw that article earlier, too. While I think it's a cool idea, I can't help but wonder what happens when a borrower damages the uke, or even just returns it with a broken string. How much of a "ding" is considered normal wear and tear, especially when newbies without supervision may be careless with an instrument. And strings can break, so who's fault is it? Who re-strings the ukes? It's not a skill normally required of someone working at the library.

Hopefully, they're lending out Dolphins or something else of low value. And where are they getting them? Has anyone checked playability to ensure they are set up properly?

I do like the idea of libraries sponsoring beginner uke classes. Perhaps an introductory class should be mandatory before you're allowed to check out a uke.
 
Sounds great! Very nice that a public library goes visionary big-time into the musical instrument world... especially ukuleles! Luv it!

I hope it spreads like wildfire!

Petey, former librarian
 
I saw that article earlier, too. While I think it's a cool idea, I can't help but wonder what happens when a borrower damages the uke, or even just returns it with a broken string. How much of a "ding" is considered normal wear and tear, especially when newbies without supervision may be careless with an instrument. And strings can break, so who's fault is it? Who re-strings the ukes? It's not a skill normally required of someone working at the library.

Hopefully, they're lending out Dolphins or something else of low value. And where are they getting them? Has anyone checked playability to ensure they are set up properly?

I do like the idea of libraries sponsoring beginner uke classes. Perhaps an introductory class should be mandatory before you're allowed to check out a uke.

As both a ukulele player and a graduate of library school, the same thoughts crossed my mind. While I personally love the idea, having heard firsthand library patrons' excuses and sob stories (not to mention resistance to paying overdue fees!) I can only imagine the can of worms this could potentially open. But I hope I'm wrong, and I wish them well!
 
As both a ukulele player and a graduate of library school, the same thoughts crossed my mind. While I personally love the idea, having heard firsthand library patrons' excuses and sob stories (not to mention resistance to paying overdue fees!) I can only imagine the can of worms this could potentially open. But I hope I'm wrong, and I wish them well!
Yeah, hopefully it works out well for them. :)

I used to work in downtown L.A. and would haunt the Central Library during my lunch hours. They have a vast collection of sheet music and I was into trying out everything they had for classical guitar, which was a lot!

Once I was horrified to discover a CG book buried on my desk at home that was more than a month overdue. I took it in the next day and profusely apologized, and gladly paid the late fee (which was pretty small in the scheme of things). I just looked at it as a contribution to the service I had used so much of.

I also used to check out VHS tapes (well, this WAS before the era of DVDs) which were normally overnight only, except if you checked out on a Friday, it wasn't due til Monday. The late fee for VHS tapes was $1/day. There was a time I was sick on a Monday and didn't go to work, so the next day I had to pay the late fee when I returned what I had checked out on Friday. Again, I just felt it was a reasonable contribution to a valuable service.

I can appreciate that not all materials available to check out are educational, but I have to question the library mentioned in the OP allowing anyone to check out things like "Orange is the New Black." I've seen the first two seasons, and there is a considerable amount of nudity and lesbian sex scenes.

Is this what we want available to just anyone at the library? Do they check IDs for "adult" or "unrated" material? Because OITNB certainly qualifies as "adult" in my book. I wouldn't exactly call it p***, but it's really not the kind of thing I want my tax dollars supporting at a public library.
 
Yeah, hopefully it works out well for them. :)

I used to work in downtown L.A. and would haunt the Central Library during my lunch hours. They have a vast collection of sheet music and I was into trying out everything they had for classical guitar, which was a lot!

Once I was horrified to discover a CG book buried on my desk at home that was more than a month overdue. I took it in the next day and profusely apologized, and gladly paid the late fee (which was pretty small in the scheme of things). I just looked at it as a contribution to the service I had used so much of.

I also used to check out VHS tapes (well, this WAS before the era of DVDs) which were normally overnight only, except if you checked out on a Friday, it wasn't due til Monday. The late fee for VHS tapes was $1/day. There was a time I was sick on a Monday and didn't go to work, so the next day I had to pay the late fee when I returned what I had checked out on Friday. Again, I just felt it was a reasonable contribution to a valuable service.

I can appreciate that not all materials available to check out are educational, but I have to question the library mentioned in the OP allowing anyone to check out things like "Orange is the New Black." I've seen the first two seasons, and there is a considerable amount of nudity and lesbian sex scenes.

Is this what we want available to just anyone at the library? Do they check IDs for "adult" or "unrated" material? Because OITNB certainly qualifies as "adult" in my book. I wouldn't exactly call it p***, but it's really not the kind of thing I want my tax dollars supporting at a public library.

These days I pay more in late fees on new books I check out than I would have spent had I just bought the darned thing on Amazon - and I don't mind a bit, since I just want to read it but I don't want to own it :)

As for censorship and libraries - it's a HUGE and very controversial debate, varies from community to community, and all of the new media has definitely complicated things. When I was a little kid, maybe 9 or 10, I had to bring a note written and signed by my mom to the librarian stating that I was allowed to check out anything I wanted from the "adult" section - otherwise the library did not allow kids even to browse there, let alone check things out (and by adult, I mean nonfiction and travel and religion and such, not p***). I was mortified, but I hated books aimed at kids! But that was a long time ago. The libraries I've worked in had dedicated adult/children's computer stations (and yes, there were many viewing p*** on the adult stations!) but I'm not sure what they did about kids checking out R-rated DVDs and such since thankfully, I rarely had to deal with any of that.
 
In the town where I live (Northampton MA), the main library has been lending out ukes for a few years - they also have a guitar, banjo, keyboard, dulcimer, djembe and a couple other things. As far as I'm aware there haven't been any problems.
 
Very cool idea in theory. I hope it works out for them.
 
In the town where I live (Northampton MA), the main library has been lending out ukes for a few years - they also have a guitar, banjo, keyboard, dulcimer, djembe and a couple other things. As far as I'm aware there haven't been any problems.

Seonachan, you beat me to it (I live 25 minutes east of Northampton) -- here's more (including a photo of the three guys they got instead of Jake): http://www.forbeslibrary.org/news/Ukulele.shtml
 
In the town where I live (Northampton MA), the main library has been lending out ukes for a few years - they also have a guitar, banjo, keyboard, dulcimer, djembe and a couple other things. As far as I'm aware there haven't been any problems.

So glad to hear this!
 
I saw that article earlier, too. While I think it's a cool idea, I can't help but wonder what happens when a borrower damages the uke, or even just returns it with a broken string. How much of a "ding" is considered normal wear and tear, especially when newbies without supervision may be careless with an instrument. And strings can break, so who's fault is it? Who re-strings the ukes? It's not a skill normally required of someone working at the library.

Hopefully, they're lending out Dolphins or something else of low value. And where are they getting them? Has anyone checked playability to ensure they are set up properly?

I do like the idea of libraries sponsoring beginner uke classes. Perhaps an introductory class should be mandatory before you're allowed to check out a uke.
Happily problems are often opportunities in disguise. Lending out Ukes is likely to lead to Ukulele sales, so a local store might be willing to donate strings and the like. If indeed the original suppliers have not already thrown in a couple of dozen sets of strings. Maybe there are some UU members living near by who would be happy to volunteer their services for a regular Ukulele introductory session, and/or happy to run a regular eye over the ukes in terms of tuning and set up.
 
Happily problems are often opportunities in disguise. Lending out Ukes is likely to lead to Ukulele sales, so a local store might be willing to donate strings and the like. If indeed the original suppliers have not already thrown in a couple of dozen sets of strings. Maybe there are some UU members living near by who would be happy to volunteer their services for a regular Ukulele introductory session, and/or happy to run a regular eye over the ukes in terms of tuning and set up.

Good perspective - hope it works well. Great idea to give more people in the community some experience to try it out!
 
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