Not racist.

Sometime people get really offended by the fact that the spanish sections of the library annoy me more than any other. Some of these people often vehemently protest, trying to defend the spanish section. Most of these people are either married to, or are going out with someone who speaks spanish natively.

First of all, it is not because I hate Mexicans. It is not because I hate the spanish language. It isn't because I am a zealot for the whole "you're in an english speaking country so freaking learn english" thing.

So no, I am not racist.

It all comes down to this: Without even the tiniest doubt, the spanish sections (both kids and adult) are the most horribly disorganized in the entire library. I hate putting books away there because it is so out of order that it's almost impossible to do it right. And not doing it right rubs hydrochloric acid into the open wound of my slight ocd-ness.

As I said, many people get mad at me for feeling this way. But their arguments are completely empty. I shall here address many of the frequently argued excuses about the spanish speaking patrons and their section.

Myth #1: English isn't their native language. Even if they speak it well, it will never been quite the same. So they can't be expected to keep up with all the native english speakers.

#1 Debunked: Yeah, that would be a valid point... IF the section were in english. The section is, in fact, the spanish section. The titles are in Spanish. The alphabetizing is in spanish. The genre labels are in spanish. In fact, these spanish speaking patrons ought to be able to understand this section better than we do.

Myth #2: It's a different language. We probably alphabetize it like it's english, not knowing any better since we don't know any spanish.

#2 Debunked: Out of all the languages in the world, the spanish alphabet is one of the closest to the english one. Excepting a few letters, they are identical. Therefore, alphabetizing works in exactly the same way.

Myth #3: Maybe library systems work different in those other countries. They don't understand how ours functions because they didn't grow up with it.

#3 Debunked: So you're saying that the way their home libraries work is that it's okay to just shove unwanted books back into any section, regardless of number or author?

(See above on alphabetizing.)

And anyway, the sections are so small, and the return shelves are so clearly marked with bright red tape, that it would take a TRULY oblivious person to not notice them and figure it all out.

Myth #4: I don't even understand the Dewey Decimal system myself. And I'm not sure if any other countries even use it. It's not fair to ask them to suddenly understand it too.

#4 Debunked: That is absolutely irrelevant. Because the dewey decimal system uses arabic numerals. Arabic numbers are used in every single country in the ENTIRE world. It's one of the few things that is common to the entire human race. No one counts with Roman numerals, or hieroglyphs or anything else anymore. Just plain old 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0.

You don't have to know what the numbers mean. You aren't expected to memorize the organization. You don't even have to understand why we use the dewey system. All you need to know is how to count.

In conclusion:

After considering all possibilities, I am left with only two valid reasons that the spanish section ends up being as annoying as it is.

A, people don't realize that it's organized at all. And so, when returning books, figure that everything just goes together anyway.

Or B, they don't care. They are too lazy/selfish/inconsiderate to bother thinking about others who come later, and just put stuff wherever it is convenient to them.

Neither of these are good options. And neither are in any way excusable. And that inexcusableness is why I am so impatient about it all.