All entries for Saturday 05 November 2005

The library and why it sucks

I would like to state here publically that the library is a complete waste of everybody's afternoon. Or whatever time you spend there. In my case, most of the morning.

What, pray tell, is the point of having a huge building full of books if none of them are actually any use? I've spent most of the morning trying to find books to help me with my fourth year project, and not one, not a single book was any use. There are no books in the library on motorsport, brake design, suspension design, upright design or anything related to these areas. There are, of course, endless books which discuss unapplied theory in abundance, but what is the point of all of this, really? Learning for learning's sake is all well and good if that's what you're into, but some people have practical concerns and wish to actually do something in the world instead of umming and ahhhing at lots and lots of theory that is impossible to use in any meaningful way on complex real-world problems. That is, unless you have the intellect of Stephen Hawking and have a few years to write computer programs to perform immensely complicated calculations to then make some sense of the theory translated onto your specific problem. Which I don't. Therefore, I am giving up permanently on the library and going to go and buy a couple of good books myself instead, and use the internet and forums to find out information when I need it. Which is infinitely more helpful in the first place.

Library funding: don't increase it. Scrap the whole bloody building.

: 05 Nov 2005 11:59 |  Comments (12) |  Close comments |  Report a problem