Today's Doofus title is collectively awarded to the administration of the Bodleian Library at Oxford University, England. As the Daily Mail reports:
Stepladders have been banned from part of Oxford University's historic Bodleian library - because of health and safety fears.
The ruling by officials means that students cannot use items on the higher shelves of the Duke Humfrey reading room.
However, the university is standing its ground and refusing to move the books from their 'original historic location' on the room's balcony.
As a result of the stalemate, students have to travel to libraries as far away as London to view other copies.
Art History student Kelsey Williams, 21, had to travel 80 miles to London to view a copy of Arthur Johnston's 1637 work Delitiae Poetarum Scotorum after librarians refused to get it down for her. She said: 'Access to these books is necessary for my research and I wasted a day travelling to London and looking at the one in the British Library.
'It's madness because I can practically see the Bodleian's copy every time I walk into Duke Humfrey's.'
Laurence Benson, the library's director of administration and finance, said: 'The balcony has a low rail and we have been instructed by the health and safety office that this increases the risk.
'As part of the process the restriction on the use of ladders on the balcony have been introduced.
'The library would prefer to keep the books in their original historic location - where they have been safely consulted for 400 years prior to the instructions from the Health and Safety office.'
There's more at the link.
So, let me get this straight. One bunch of bureaucrats - the health and safety crowd - decide that ladders are dangerous, and shouldn't be used. Daft, I agree. However, a second bunch of bureaucrats - the library administration - then get on their high horse, and decide that if they can't get at the books using ladders, they'll stop everyone getting to them by refusing to move them to a more accessible location!
What sort of insanity is this? Is the library administration there to make knowledge available to those looking for it, or to play childish games of one-upmanship with other departments? Who gives a damn how some medieval librarian arranged the books on the shelves? It's the information they contain that's important, not their location!
Fire the lot of 'em, I say, and replace them with people possessing that rarest of commodities, common sense - which appears to be conspicuous by its absence in the Bodleian administration right now.
Bureaucrats! Grrr!
Peter
5 comments:
I do not see it as meaningless pride- I see an act of resistance to the ever growing nanny state. Somebody, somewhere, has to make a stand . Knuckle under, make smooth sailing, and it just keeps growing and growing. Anyone following the ceaseless web of insane "safety" rulings emanating from the power structure in England can see it-
The "Nanny knows best "blog is a good reference for this crap. Or the Telegraph- stuff like needing a entertainers licence for playing the radio in your shop- it goes on and on and no- the only way it will stop is if people cease to be reasonable, accomodating and compliant and become cantankerous old curmudions. Yes, it inconvienences the students- good- maybe it will alert them to what is going on.
Raven, with respect, I don't see it that way.
If the Bodleian authorities want to argue with the health & safety authorities, that's great! I agree, the H&S precautions are frequently silly and 'nanny-state-ish'. However, for the Bodleian authorities to penalize the students - who have nothing whatsoever to do with the dispute - merely to make a public statement to the H&S authorities, is petty, vindictive and stupid. Why should students be inconvenienced and disadvantaged because of an inter-departmental bureaucratic squabble?
No, methinks the Bodleian authorities have sat in their academic ivory tower for so long they've lost touch with the real world.
Peter, I must admit I agree with Raven. Sometimes the best way to get a law changed is to follow it to the letter. How can they possibly move those books without getting on a ladder to retrieve them?
And the tallest guy on campus isn't making a killing in bribe money?
Heck, I'd climb on the darn shelves to get my books, and then reshelving without a stepladder? Not my problem.
wv: deride - what I do to both groups of rule-makers here.
Turf war between the civil and University authorities. That's been going on for several hundreds of years at Oxford, too.
"Why should students be inconvenienced and disadvantaged because of an inter-departmental bureaucratic squabble?" ~our gracious host
Perhaps it's because many of them have powerful parents. We're not talking about the University of Southern North Dakota at Hoople, here. Some Oxford student's mum, or an Oxford alumnus/alumna, is probably the head of the Department of Preventing Anyone from Getting Any Work Done, or whichever office it was who came up with the Step-Ladder Prohibition Order.
Obviously (to you as well, I'm sure), the plan of attack in the current skirmish is to make a big public fuss and have H.M. Gov's nannies forced to back down, for once. Too bad that it's all so childish.
Post a Comment