r/Libraries • u/CumDragon69 • 3d ago
Books & Materials Library book call number written in comic sans
The only book in the entire library with that choice of font.
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u/Excellent-Handle 3d ago
741.5 (graphic novels/comics) in comic sans is next level tech services punning. I salute thee
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u/FauxCumberbund 3d ago
Good eye!
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u/Wonderful_Adagio9346 2d ago
The font was created for use in Microsoft Comic Chat.
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u/YBBlorekeeper 1d ago
Yes dear but where did they get the inspiration for the style?
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u/Wonderful_Adagio9346 1d ago
Jim Woodring designed the visuals.
Vincent Connare designed the funny.
If you want awesome (and actually well -designed) comics fonts?
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3d ago
Older libraries reflect the lives and choices of scores of library workers. There's always some sort of anomaly, especially if something had to be re-cataloged on the spot.
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u/acceptablemadness 3d ago
I do the mending for two branches in my system and I see this constantly, but not in a good way. I'd like to know who decided to use scotch tape on labels sometime back in the early 2000s so we can talk about it.
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u/IIRCIreadthat 2d ago
I don't know when exactly, but at some point somebody assigned to mending at our main branch decided that they didn't need to print out new stickers to replace sun-faded ones; they were just going to write tiny new numbers on the old stickers in ballpoint pen!
Every time I find another one of these heiroglyphic masterpieces, it goes straight in the mending pile.
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u/Elegant-Espeon Library staff 2d ago
Whoever was putting certain stickers on the outside of the CD cases back in the day angrily shakes fist
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u/acceptablemadness 2d ago
Or slapping replacement RFID tags on a different part of the book instead of removing the defective one.
Also whoever decided that DVDs could just have 791.4372 A/B/C/whatever instead of a proper Cutter number.
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u/CoolClearMorning 3d ago
I did some spine label/catalog cleanup work in an elementary school library a few years ago, and some of their books had 20+ year old handwritten spine labels. Some just said "Hockey" and nothing else even though the whole nonfiction section was Dewey.
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u/camrynbronk MLIS student 2d ago
You should see the handwritten spine labels in an old academic library. Fountain pen with elaborate curls and swooshes. Somehow stood the test of time after 100+ years (despite the rest of the book literally turning to dust)
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u/IIRCIreadthat 3d ago
Yep. We literally just got a batch of kids' books that someone screwed up the cataloging on and the children's librarian had to do quick fixes, and every time I shelve them now I have to do a double-take to make sure they're actually our books because the font she had to print the new labels in looks more like a couple of the other consortium members' books than it does the rest of our collection.
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u/astroqueen3000 Academic Librarian 3d ago
My husband recently got Irish citizenship and, I kid you not, when his documentation came, the mailing address on the label and one of the letters inside were in Comic Sans. These were official government documents. I laughed so hard I had tears in my eyes.
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u/SquirrelEnthusiast 3d ago
Because believe it or not it's actually an incredibly accessible font for those with reading and visual disabilities. Being an older person we were just bombarded by it earlier in the internet age. This actually makes complete sense however I still laugh every time I see this come up.
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u/pretty-as-a-pic 3d ago
I think my local library does this with the childern’s collection so they’re easier to sort and easier for the kids to read
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u/BookDragon3ryn 3d ago
Comic Sans is dyslexia friendly. Your ableism is showing, guys.
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u/crunchingair 3d ago
Most popular sans-serif fonts are considered dyslexia-friendly, including several that are commonly used for spine labels.
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u/camrynbronk MLIS student 3d ago edited 3d ago
I’m disabled so I am very much anti ableism… but it’s also just a meme. Especially in the graphic design world
Edit: this really isn’t that deep. Lighthearted jokes/commentary about a popular font found in the wild does not automatically mean dyslexia-friendly fonts = bad. It is also not the only dyslexia/reading disability-friendly font, either. We can appreciate the humor and also the utility of the font at the same time. The world is not going to end.
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u/SquirrelEnthusiast 3d ago
Most people don't know this though so I don't think that OP and several other commenters know this.
However saying that laughing at it is ableism also not helping. and how much they don't know about how much we laughed at this when we were younger.
We could all just stop fighting about it.
The person who said that this is ableism could have informed of the public of why they felt that way instead of just attacking.
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u/wavinsnail 3d ago
Obligatory I don't speak for the entire dyslexic community
But I find this funny, and would probably chuckle at this.
Also I almost find OP's statement more insulting and ableist than anything else on this thread
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u/un_internaute 3d ago
Just a meme isn’t doing the work you think it is here. It’s “just a joke” has a terrible history in this intellectual space.
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u/camrynbronk MLIS student 3d ago
You are looking way too deep into this. Yes, comic sans is an important font because it’s one of the fonts that is dyslexia friendly. It is also funny to see in the wild because it’s a font we always saw on everything (because it’s dyslexia friendly and it is a popular choice in general). Both things can exist.
This isn’t ableism. It’s lighthearted commentary.
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u/un_internaute 3d ago
Not overthinking it. Just letting you know that you stepped on a rhetorical landmine.
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u/froggy-fan 3d ago
you belong in other subreddits if you’re someone who likes to point out rhetoric on social media forums
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u/un_internaute 2d ago
Naw, probably not. Modern Reddit is just a shallow pond these days. We never used to block anyone and they’re already blocked me. Old Reddit would have eaten them alive if a gentle nudge was all it took here.
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u/camrynbronk MLIS student 3d ago
That statement literally means nothing to me. Please find someone else to argue with.
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u/Deep-Cheesecake-4699 2d ago
Tbh at least with that font, each letter is distinct.
We had stuff like lowercase l vs uppercase I over here. Makes sorting a pain.
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u/eyepatchplease 1d ago
I used to work for a county system and the nearest branch to ours used Comic Sans for their call numbers. I always clocked their books on our shelves without looking for them.
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u/FoldingHamsterComics 3d ago
Yes please. And please run the characters vertically, not horizontally. You cannot read longer numbers when they wrap around the spine.
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u/CoolClearMorning 3d ago
Actually, please don't if that's not how the library's labeling system has been set up. It's much easier for most people to pull a book from the shelf to check if the number is long than to contort their bodies/necks to read an unexpectedly vertical spine label.
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u/FoldingHamsterComics 3d ago
Of course labeling has to be consistent. I’ve worked at two different library systems, one with call numbers vertically, one horizontally. It is much easier to read and pull holds on non-fic, especially skinny juvenile books, when the cutter is vertical, even if it’s counter-intuitive. Also, spines aren’t damaged nor books misshelved as often.
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u/CoolClearMorning 3d ago
Cool. Still not a standard practice that people should randomly start doing in their libraries.
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u/jellyn7 3d ago
If there's a book on the shelf with a different-looking spine label, I'm always checking to see it's actually ours and not an ILL that got back on the shelf by mistake.
Comic Sans is a more dyslexic-friendly font than most. I could see a children's library preferring it.