Hi im a librarian amd that's not now this works. If a library allows you to have a digital card and not live in the area, you are NOT taking away resources from other people, that's not how anything works. Please keep doing it!!! The more people that use our services, the more money we can get from funding sources!!! Please use us!!! We are not utilized enough, by people in or out of our community. Thanks.
If you were taking resources away from patrons in the local community then the virtual anywhere card wouldn't be offered. Or it would be discontinued once it became a problem. Trust me, libraries are very on top of trimming the budget whenever and wherever they can so resources get optimized. No library is creating any kind of resource and then going "wow we hope people don't use this!"
(Not a librarian but am library staff. If you want credentials.)
In Brazil, we have a very beloved comic book series (Turma da Mônica, Mônica and Friends) that's been in production for over 70 years. It's technically marketed for kids, but since everyone grew up reading the series, everyone reads it.
It's so popular and ubiquitous that most Brazilians learn to read by reading these comics (or learn to read in order to read the comics). Like, there's even official adult merch of the series saying "If you learned to read with Turma da Mônica raise your hand":
Well, when I was little, I loved the series so much that I wanted to live in a house made of Turma da Mônica comics. So my very extensive collection before I moved to Canada was very intentional: I genuinely believed that I was investing in my future house (you'd need a lot of comics to build a house, after all!).
Giraffe from a 15th c. Syrian illuminated manuscript of Kitāb al-ḥayawān (Book of the Animals) by the 9th c. naturalist Al-Ǧāḥiẓ/Jahiz.
Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Ms. Arab. B 54, f. 36
The gist of my stance when it comes to censoring art (fiction or otherwise):
Will there be things that I find vile? Yup, there sure will!
Will some artists be disgusting human beings? You bet!
Does that mean some art should be censored? If making it doesn't involve the process of hurting a real being (e.g. real snuff films actually hurt people and animals), then no.
Even if I disagree with the art. Even if the artist is a waste of space as a human being.
Because the moment we start censoring art, we start sliding down a very slippery slope.
You're well within your right to not interact with a piece of art or the work(s) of a certain artist. That's not censorship, that's being a person who curates their own experience with art.
Not all art will be your cup of tea, and that's ok; that artpiece just wasn't made for you. And you don't have to support every artist either; if you think someone is worth boycotting then all the more power to you.
The problem is when people start wanting to decide what art other people are allowed to interact with. That's not for you to decide for someone else, just as it's not for them to decide for you.
One of my jobs in my co-op with Environment Canada was to digitize old studies to pass them to researchers from all over the world when they asked for a copy because tons of old stuff isn't digitized or available on the internet.
Calgary Public Library's central branch has a cool feature at the start and end of its stairs: the ground has a different texture to warn visually impaired patrons that they're getting close to the stairs!
Every stairwell everywhere should have this, in my opinion.
In case anyone's wondering, the reason you're not supposed to shelve books is that we use books out of place as part of library usage stats (plus you might put it in the wrong place by accident)
OP: Why couldn’t traditional Chinese Yinpiao银票/silver drafts be forged if they were merely slips of paper? (cr大明宝钞，渐越)
Traditional Chinese yinpiao/silver drafts were paper vouchers issued by private banks starting from the Song Dynasty(960–1279). People could exchange these slips for physical silver at bank branches across the country.
Silver drafts were made in multiple copies with matching serrated seal edges. One copy went to the customer and others stayed at the bank. All edges had to fit perfectly together to withdraw silver. The unique split edge marks were almost impossible to copy.
This mechanism is known as qifeng骑缝 (split-joint seal) in China. It first originated in the Western Zhou Dynasty (1046–771 BC). The Rites of Zhou records that contracts were written on bamboo or wooden slips in duplicate. Notches and marks were carved in the middle before splitting the slips, with each party keeping one half. The two halves would be matched by their notches for verification.
During the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods (770–221 BC), this idea evolved into hufu虎符/tiger tally tokens. A military tally was split into two pieces with identical inscriptions carved along the split edge. Troops could only be deployed if the patterns and characters on both halves perfectly aligned, serving as a metal version of the split-joint anti-counterfeiting system.
The technology matured in the Tang Dynasty (618–907). Government documents and private contracts commonly used split-joint seals stamped across the dividing line. The Chinese character "hetong合同" (contract) was written across the middle before the paper was torn apart, so the complete characters would only appear when the two halves were put together. This split-coupon system was later adopted for Song Dynasty (960–1279) jiaozi paper money and yinpiao/silver drafts of the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368–1912).
Official Song dynasty paper money (Jiaozi交子) was abolished in 1107. Private silver drafts issued by Qing-era piaohao票行 (ancient exchange banks) vanished completely in 1951, hit hard by modern banks and currency reforms. Nowadays silver drafts no longer circulate as currency. Their collectible value depends on their rarity and physical condition.
Split-joint seals (骑缝章qifengzhang)are still widely used on important paper documents in modern China, an anti-tampering technique passed down from ancient times. They are applied across the edge of multi-page contracts, bidding documents and official archives. If any page is removed or replaced, the broken seal pattern can prove the file has been altered.
OMG I got so excited about this because they used a really similar (though far less refined) version of this for contracts in the European medieval period!
First they were called "chirographs", but later the word "indenture" (in its earliest meaning as just a legal document of any kind between two people) came to be used, originating from the practice of a contract being written twice on a single piece of parchment and then cut in half with serrated edges (as in dent, "teeth" -> indents -> indenture) in order for each party to take one half, so they could later piece them together and verify that there had been no forgery -- same as the Chinese silver drafts!
(Charter of the Clerecía de Ledesma, 1252, showing the serrated indents at the top -- presumably they are cutting rather than tearing because they're using parchment, which I expect is much harder to tear than wood-pulp paper like the Chinese were using)
Delights me when human beings find similar ways to solve the same problem at two different ends of the world. <3
I love getting unaccompanied minors (kids flying alone) who so clearly just. Don't want to be here lol. Sometimes I get to know a little of their story, like their parents are divorced, or a family member died and they're heading to the funeral, but usually they just don't want to talk about it and that's fine. But I always treat the flight like it's a challenge to make them smile. I offer them snacks and soda but that's never enough, that's whatever, they could get those from an airport vending machine. Chump change. So then I tell the worst jokes. Just the most embarrassing, kindergarten teacher, annoying dad jokes you can think of. And those always get a groan, or a "Seriously??" And that's my in! Now I can say "Why, what's your idea of a good joke? No, come on hotshot, make your best joke, let's see it." And they hem and they haw but of course they eventually tell me their very best joke because kids are little competitive comedy goldmines. And it's always super funny, so I laugh, and that's where they slip up. Because you know what you almost always do when your joke successfully makes someone laugh? You smile. And I'm like. Gotcha. Rookie move. Now you're going to end up having a good time in spite of yourself. I win.
Hey, remember that time Diana Gabaldon (author of the Outlander series) claimed fanfiction is illegal?
It made me so mad and upset at the time that it turned me off her series altogether.
For the record:
Fanfiction is actually a legally protected art form that's as old as fiction itself.
The way it works is that writers take aspects of a story or universe and then tweak it to explore how those changes would affect the plot and/or characters.
This process of storytelling is so common and so old that it's basically how fairytales survive for thousands of years; the versions you know are basically fanfics of older versions.
Ok, you know what? I'm not done with this. It's bothered me for over a decade and I have things to say.
Btw, for anyone not in the know: I'm not just saying what I'm saying because I'm pro-fanfic.
I'm a librarian with a master's degree in information science, who took courses on the history of literature, and one of my prof's area of study was fanfiction. One of my capstone papers in uni was about how changing and adapting fairytales to the morals and culture of their audience is how fairytales like Cinderella (which is at least a thousand years old) survived to the modern day and will continue to survive.
During my master's degree, I also took a course on Canadian copyright law, where we went into detail into what is protected under Canada's Fair Dealing laws (in the US it's known as Fair Use laws, but the gist of what they protect is the same).
One of the things Gabaldon claimed in her post was that “…you can’t use someone’s copyrighted characters for your own purposes, no matter what those purposes are…”.
Except purpose is at the very heart of Fair Dealing law.
You can copy most things depending on the purpose and the amount.
The Canadian Copyright Act Sections 29, 29.1, and 29.2 explicitly state that copying a work is 100% legal for the purpose of
Research
Private study
Education
Parody
Satire
Criticism or review
News reporting
How much can a person copy?
Again, context is everything.
You can legally copy insofar as the use and amount of copying are fair, but what that means depends on the situation (there’s a prevailing myth that you can only copy 30%, but no such stipulation exists neither in law nor in Supreme Court decisions).
In the case of CCH Canadian Ltd. v. Law Society of Upper Canada in 2004, for example, it was determined that it’s fair for a lawyer to copy an entire court decision to use for preparing their defence.
So why does fanfiction fall within Fair Dealing?
Some fanfiction is intended as satire or parody, which are clearly stated to be protected under Fair Dealing. But what about the ones that don't fall in those categories?
Well, they can easily fall solidly under private study, and possibly education as well. You see, fanfiction is often used as a way for writers to hone their literary skills (and readers to hone their reading and editing skills). And the Supreme Court’s decision on Alberta (Education) v. Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright) specifically states that private study need not be a single person viewing the material.
Fanfiction is a way for writers (newbies and veterans alike) to practice writing in a safe and familiar environment.
By using a familiar universe and/or cast of characters, a writer can play around with their writing in a way that makes it easier for them to see when they’re doing something right or wrong and why. It also allows other writers/readers to jump in and suggest what they’re doing right, what they could improve, and how they could improve it.
For example, a while ago I came across a Lord of the Rings fanfic by someone who was very clearly a tween and a beginner at writing. Their plotline was quite interesting, but the story was visually hard to read (their paragraph breaks were a bit off, the way they did dialogue was kind of monotonous, etc). I told them how I was enjoying the plot and offered suggestions on how to improve their writing for readability and flow. They were so excited at my suggestions that they asked me if I could check out their other stories to see if I had any more tips.
Sure, sometimes beginners add in their own character to a story and stick somewhat closely to the original plot. While this is a valid way to practice characterization when you’re still brand new at writing, more seasoned writers will usually make a point of gently nudging the newbie to part from the original storyline, explaining to them that different characters would react in different ways to the same circumstances, which would in turn have different repercussions for the plot.
theartofmadeline
turnnoffyourmind
tangentwithtanner
yousharknotpass
gummygunk
pixelskylines
gracieabrams
germansingergirl
