For the second time in three days, libraries in several Chicago suburbs were forced to close on Thursday due to violent threats.

[essentialsaltes]

Aurora libraries were one of nearly a dozen across the Chicago area targeted by bomb threats on Tuesday. The threats forced the closure of those locations, but they were reopened Wednesday.

Other libraries were also impacted by threats, including a branch of the Joliet Public Library, which closed for a time after a threat was received online.

Fountaindale Public Library in Bolingbrook was also threatened through an online chat service, forcing an evacuation and a soft lockdown at nearby schools.

Oak Park, Evanston, Addison all were threatened as well.

The threats earlier this week came as Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias testified at a U.S. Senate Judiciary hearing on the state's first-in-the-nation ban against book bans.

The first-of-its-kind law, signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker on June 12, states that Illinois public libraries that restrict or ban materials because of “partisan or doctrinal” disapproval will be ineligible for state funding as of Jan. 1, 2024, when the new law goes into effect.

 

[hislegacy]

I think it would be better for them to change the law they don't like instead of threatening to blow up public libraries, could be me, but it seems a bit extreme.

 

[seeking.IAM]

The idea of our becoming a society that bans books makes me very sad and a little scared. It's not my notion of what living in a "free" country is supposed to be.

 

[Ana the Ist]

So you got Debra there...and you can click on more information to see her relationship with libraries nationwide.

So, to be clear, if you thought this was anything other than a campaign to sexualise your child, or other people's children, you were probably duped.

You were duped by a "sustained messaging campaign" that said "it's actually about equality, or diversity, or representation....not sexuality".

You drank the Kool aid.

For more information on where this dumb idea came from and how easily you ate it up....

https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/669547

 

[Ana the Ist]

The idea of our becoming a society that bans books makes me very sad and a little scared. It's not my notion of what living in a "free" country is supposed to be.

Fortunately, there's no book bans. You can, to my knowledge, buy these books online.

 

[seeking.IAM]

OP's article is about public libraries, not school libraries. Books you can buy online should be available in your public library. If you don't want to read it, don't check it out. If you don't want your child to read it, don't let them check it out or make them take it back. Be a parent. But don't prevent others from making a choice for themselves.

BTW, your average teenager has more graphic content available to them on the smart phone in their pocket than in their school library.

 

[Ana the Ist]

OP's article is about public libraries, not school libraries. Books you can buy online should be available in your public library.

That's an absurd proposal.

Shelf space in any library is finite.

BTW, your average teenager has more graphic content available to them on the smart phone in their pocket than in their school library.

I don't think anyone is concerned about the average teenager.

 

[BPPLEE]

OP's article is about public libraries, not school libraries. Books you can buy online should be available in your public library. If you don't want to read it, don't check it out. If you don't want your child to read it, don't let them check it out or make them take it back. Be a parent. But don't prevent others from making a choice for themselves.

BTW, your average teenager has more graphic content available to them on the smart phone in their pocket than in their school library.

Would you be okay with Hustler and Playboy being in the public library? Worse things are available on their phones right?

 

[seeking.IAM]

Actually, when I was a child decades ago my public library had a periodical subscription to Playboy not on public display. It could only be accessed by adults. I was in and out of the library every week unscathed. Nonetheless, I don't think that is part of the current discussion of kinds of materials folks are trying to prohibit.

While it is true public libraries have a finite amount of shelf space, I think they need to stock books of interest to a wide spectrum of readers, not limited by one group.

 

[Bradskii]

Would you be okay with Hustler and Playboy being in the public library? Worse things are available on their phones right?

I think the point being made us that if you want to keep what you consider to be inappropriate content away from your kids then threatening your local library is a farcically misplaced reaction.

 

[USincognito]

Would you be okay with Hustler and Playboy being in the public library? Worse things are available on their phones right?

Hustler no, but Playboy, certainly. The average issue was 120 pages with about 10 of them dedicated to pictorials.

 

[BPPLEE]

I think the point being made us that if you want to keep what you consider to be inappropriate content away from your kids then threatening your local library is a farcically misplaced reaction.

When you can take away their phones and put filters on the internet and they can just go to the library and get inappropriate material some people may see that as a problem

 

[Bradskii]

When you can take away their phones and put filters on the internet and they can just go to the library and get inappropriate material some people may see that as a problem

Maybe somebody who has no knowledge of what can be accessed on a phone and no idea what's available at a library might think that if a young boy (it's invariably boys who are interested in 'inappropriate material') has his phone removed immediately thinks 'hey, I'll go the library - they have exactly the same stuff I could get on my phone'.

 

[CRAZY_CAT_WOMAN]

Would you be okay with Hustler and Playboy being in the public library? Worse things are available on their phones right?

I have no problem with that. But it should be in the adult only section. My library has different section. We have a very young children section, older kids section, teens section and grown ups sections.

 

[Pommer]

Maybe somebody who has no knowledge of what can be accessed on a phone and no idea what's available at a library might think that if a young boy (it's invariably boys who are interested in 'inappropriate material') has his phone removed immediately thinks 'hey, I'll go the library - they have exactly the same stuff I could get on my phone'.

Would this pervious phone-toting boy even know about the existence of libraries?
(Do kids who only know of streamed compressed music know about vinyl?)

 

[Bradskii]

Would this pervious phone-toting boy even know about the existence of libraries?
(Do kids who only know of streamed compressed music know about vinyl?)

This is the weird thing. I understand how streaming music works. I know how a CD operates. I undestand how tape records and replays music. But I am completely flummoxed by how there is so much information produced by dragging a needle through a groove in a piece of vinyl. It's...witchcraft.

 

[Pommer]

This is the weird thing. I understand how streaming music works. I know how a CD operates. I undestand how tape records and replays music. But I am completely flummoxed by how there is so much information produced by dragging a needle through a groove in a piece of vinyl. It's...witchcraft.

There is a cottage industry for vinyl aficionados.
There’s also a set of rubrics for the care and storage of records, with subsets for vinyl, wax or cylinders; things do do (and not do) for each “flavor” too.

 

[essentialsaltes]

This is the weird thing. I understand how streaming music works. I know how a CD operates. I undestand how tape records and replays music. But I am completely flummoxed by how there is so much information produced by dragging a needle through a groove in a piece of vinyl. It's...witchcraft.

Sound is wiggles in air, and it can be encoded in wiggles in vinyl. I admit the encoding of stereo is pretty clever and not-so-obvious.

 

[Bradskii]

Sound is wiggles in air, and it can be encoded in wiggles in vinyl. I admit the encoding of stereo is pretty clever and not-so-obvious.

It was a year ago or so I read a report that someone suggested that markings on Greek pottery (etched as the pot turned on the wheel) might contain some vibrations that they might be able to decypher as the potter's speech. From wiki: Archaeoacoustics - Wikipedia


'As discussed in an episode of MythBusters (Episode 62: Killer Cable Snaps, Pottery Record) while some generic acoustic phenomena can be found on pottery, it is unlikely that any discernible sounds (like someone talking) could be recorded on the pots, unless ancient people had the technical knowledge to deliberately put the sounds on the artifacts.'