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Once upon a time I unassumingly pondered upon my university library's sale. This type of thing happened every term and every term I would skip a class or so to

Once upon a time I unassumingly pondered upon my university library's sale. This type of thing happened every term and every term I would skip a class or so to pore over the treasures. And this time, indeed there was a treasure. The first thing that struck me was the big sticker on the first page that said "DO NOT REMOVE FROM LIBRARY" and "DO NOT THROW OUT". Well, I am not sure exactly what it said, but that was the general drift. As the honest, hardworking, minimum wage person that I am... I promptly alerted the librarian on shift. The librarian (and his team of white walkers) then rather alarmedly started digging through the books in search of similar labels. At the end of the day I wasn't even thanked. Honesty goes a long way to making one a poor student and without booze money. So you want to know what the book was? I'll give you a hint. There were two volumes. And the writer was "more modest than Newton". I estimate that the two volumes are worth about USD 8000 together.

booleandilemma 8y ago
At the end of the day I wasn't even thanked. Sounds like the librarian is yet another person trying to cover his own ass. Instead of showing gratitude, he probably wants to pretend the whole incident never happened.
- tptacek 8y ago
  How much gratitude do you generally expect for simple, ethical actions that take almost no effort on your part?
  - yeahwhatever10 8y ago
    Generally you would expect a simple amount of gratitude that takes almost no effort on their part. Like "Thank You".
    - nitrogen 8y ago
      It seems the amount of gratitude should also be proportional (albeit with a small coefficient) to the loss that was prevented.
      - nitrogen 7y ago
        It's interesting that the voting on this comment has fluctuated up and down. If anyone happens across this old thread and would like to provide a counterargument, I'd be interested in reading it.
        nitrogen 7y ago
        Interesting that this was also downvoted, as well as other very reasonable comments in the thread. Some very odd patterns. My original comment went up to 3 and down to 0, second is at 0, and some other comments are gray enough to be somewhere between -2 and 0. Let's see if the experiment continues.
  - anon1m0us 8y ago
    You reject the amount of effort it takes to walk away from $8,000 -- perhaps a semester of tuition for a college student?
    - tptacek 8y ago
      Yes, I reject the amount of effort that takes, just like I neglect the amount of effort it takes not to pocket the money you find in a wallet on the ground.
      - anon1m0us 8y ago
        False analogy.
        skinnymuch 7y ago
        I believe it’s a false analogy too. But why exactly is it false? Is it because taking money from a wallet is obviously immoral and you’re robbing an individual?
        sombremesa 7y ago
        If I go to sell an item on eBay (or a pawn shop) and accidentally enter $8 in the price rather than $800, I doubt there is any recourse for me on legal or moral grounds when that item gets bought. Caveat venditor. Dropping a wallet on the ground is a completely different story where neither party is taking part in a bona fide transaction.
        skinnymuch 7y ago
        It would be silly to still send an eBay item to the buyer if you accidentally put down $8 instead of $800 as a seller. Or to buy an item if you accidentally put down $800 instead of $8. In both cases I don’t see how you shouldn’t not take part in the transaction. In the same way people will sell photos of an item for $80 while the product is normally $800. People will think they found an amazing deal but really just be out $80. You could say that was greed talking. It seems more like a scam to me.
btrettel 8y ago
Once when I was visiting a technical library, I saw that they had many volumes of a particular 1940s Russian engineering journal (Izvestiia Akademii nauk SSSR, Otdelenie tekhnicheskikh nauk, rare in the US, probably common in Russian) that had several articles I was trying to find copies of. I opened the index to the journal from the early 1950s to determine the volumes to check, and must have found that they didn't have the right volumes. So I put the index in the reshelving spot. A few days later I saw the index in the free book pile. I took it and showed the librarian on duty. As I recall they said that the journal wasn't in the online catalog, so they didn't think the book was theirs (despite the markings on the book clearly saying it was). They seemed quite alarmed that they nearly threw out the index. I imagine the journal is now in the online catalog. Later, I scanned the entire index just in case it disappears for similar reasons in the future...
mmsimanga 8y ago
Can you please put me out of my misery and give the name of the author. I am really curious. Google wasn't of much help.
- eberkund 8y ago
  Leibniz I'm guessing.
userbinator 8y ago
As a counter-anecdote, in my experience it is very uncommon for large entities which are disposing of books and other equipment to remove such labels even from things they clearly intend to not keep. You identified something which was likely a mistake, but I've had the opposite reaction when I asked about a "do not remove from this room" label on a book I wanted to buy: "oh, that's just left over from when it was a part of our collection, but we are selling it." (In the end, I bought it.)

booleandilemma 8y ago

At the end of the day I wasn't even thanked. Sounds like the librarian is yet another person trying to cover his own ass. Instead of showing gratitude, he probably wants to pretend the whole incident never happened.

tptacek 8y ago
How much gratitude do you generally expect for simple, ethical actions that take almost no effort on your part?
- yeahwhatever10 8y ago
  Generally you would expect a simple amount of gratitude that takes almost no effort on their part. Like "Thank You".
  - nitrogen 8y ago
    It seems the amount of gratitude should also be proportional (albeit with a small coefficient) to the loss that was prevented.
    - nitrogen 7y ago
      It's interesting that the voting on this comment has fluctuated up and down. If anyone happens across this old thread and would like to provide a counterargument, I'd be interested in reading it.
      - nitrogen 7y ago
        Interesting that this was also downvoted, as well as other very reasonable comments in the thread. Some very odd patterns. My original comment went up to 3 and down to 0, second is at 0, and some other comments are gray enough to be somewhere between -2 and 0. Let's see if the experiment continues.
- anon1m0us 8y ago
  You reject the amount of effort it takes to walk away from $8,000 -- perhaps a semester of tuition for a college student?
  - tptacek 8y ago
    Yes, I reject the amount of effort that takes, just like I neglect the amount of effort it takes not to pocket the money you find in a wallet on the ground.
    - anon1m0us 8y ago
      False analogy.
      - skinnymuch 7y ago
        I believe it’s a false analogy too. But why exactly is it false? Is it because taking money from a wallet is obviously immoral and you’re robbing an individual?
        sombremesa 7y ago
        If I go to sell an item on eBay (or a pawn shop) and accidentally enter $8 in the price rather than $800, I doubt there is any recourse for me on legal or moral grounds when that item gets bought. Caveat venditor. Dropping a wallet on the ground is a completely different story where neither party is taking part in a bona fide transaction.
        skinnymuch 7y ago
        It would be silly to still send an eBay item to the buyer if you accidentally put down $8 instead of $800 as a seller. Or to buy an item if you accidentally put down $800 instead of $8. In both cases I don’t see how you shouldn’t not take part in the transaction. In the same way people will sell photos of an item for $80 while the product is normally $800. People will think they found an amazing deal but really just be out $80. You could say that was greed talking. It seems more like a scam to me.

btrettel 8y ago

Once when I was visiting a technical library, I saw that they had many volumes of a particular 1940s Russian engineering journal (Izvestiia Akademii nauk SSSR, Otdelenie tekhnicheskikh nauk, rare in the US, probably common in Russian) that had several articles I was trying to find copies of. I opened the index to the journal from the early 1950s to determine the volumes to check, and must have found that they didn't have the right volumes. So I put the index in the reshelving spot. A few days later I saw the index in the free book pile. I took it and showed the librarian on duty. As I recall they said that the journal wasn't in the online catalog, so they didn't think the book was theirs (despite the markings on the book clearly saying it was). They seemed quite alarmed that they nearly threw out the index. I imagine the journal is now in the online catalog. Later, I scanned the entire index just in case it disappears for similar reasons in the future...

mmsimanga 8y ago

Can you please put me out of my misery and give the name of the author. I am really curious. Google wasn't of much help.

eberkund 8y ago
Leibniz I'm guessing.

userbinator 8y ago

As a counter-anecdote, in my experience it is very uncommon for large entities which are disposing of books and other equipment to remove such labels even from things they clearly intend to not keep. You identified something which was likely a mistake, but I've had the opposite reaction when I asked about a "do not remove from this room" label on a book I wanted to buy: "oh, that's just left over from when it was a part of our collection, but we are selling it." (In the end, I bought it.)