To what extent should public library collection development decisions be based on what circulates (or other statistical or even anecdotal evidence about usage)?

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Just how far should public libraries go in pandering to the public? Just how far should they go in conserving cultural memory, even if no one seems interested?

The obvious answer is to strike some sort of balance, but that leaves a lot of room for disagreement about what a collection should look like.

What do you do, especially, in cases of disciplines which don't generate much interest? You can't just stop collecting poetry, but where do you draw the line? How many award winning chapbooks do you buy by poets vritually no one is interested in? You can't just stop collecting philosophy, but how many secondary sources do you need on tertiary philosophers? How much of this is a marketing problem? (If the right segment of the population realized we had these books, would they be using them, or is that segment of the population too small to use more than a drop of what we have in these areas?)

(Sorry if I asked something close to this before, but I can't find it if I did.)

― Rockist Scientist, Friday, 24 January 2003 19:36 (twenty-three years ago)

Please talk about library science with me.

― Rockist Scientist, Friday, 24 January 2003 19:58 (twenty-three years ago)

Though I'm sure this would be better left to the librarians of ILE, I can say that it is incredibly annoying when you're trying to do research for some reason, like for instance on Thomas Aquinas and there is no relevant information beyond six copies each of "The World's Great Religions" and "Conversations with God." I don't see the reason for having more than two copies of a book, even if it's popular...that's what waiting lists are for right? Besides, the great thing about libraries is that it's easier to find nonfiction stuff there than at Barnes & Noble or something, so making them more "marketable," i.e. more like a bookstore, seems like a step in the wrong direction.

― Maria (Maria), Friday, 24 January 2003 20:19 (twenty-three years ago)

Okay. The public library I work at tries to strike a balance between whats popular with the patrons and what is seen as a signifcant work that should be part of our collection. We do however have way more Greatful Dead CD's and copies of "Chicken Soup For...",that I think is deemed necessary.
The final factor in the matter is money and how much we have to spend.

― brg30 (brg30), Friday, 24 January 2003 20:24 (twenty-three years ago)

I think the balance in libraries I go to is very poor. The borough of Newham does not have a single copy of the latest Eco.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Friday, 24 January 2003 21:01 (twenty-three years ago)

Buy! Buy more obscure poetry! More Eastern European literature in translation! Buy more studies of obscure Soviet authors! Buy more books on phenomenology! Buy buy buy!*

*this is not entirely disinterested advice

― Amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 24 January 2003 21:06 (twenty-three years ago)

The thing is we only have so much money, and we are literally running out of space. If patrons didn't steal and damage so many of our books, we wouldn't have room for them all. (This is not meant to encourage the practice of theft and book abuse.)

Martin, Eco spoke here (Philadelphia) in the past year.

― Rockist Scientist, Friday, 24 January 2003 21:15 (twenty-three years ago)

Thing is, as with TV, the 'give the public what they want' argument usually misses that fact that although something might be a minority interest, almost everyone has minority interests and they are often their biggest interests of all. It's just that they vary a lot - that's why they are minority interests.

When it comes to public libraries, I think it's important not to put people with a collection of decaying tomes that haven't been withdrawn since 1972 but when it comes to obscurer things operate a really good, free or very cheap, well-publicised 'just in time' service that provides things quickly via inter-library loans or new purchases.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 24 January 2003 21:20 (twenty-three years ago)

And along those lines, some minority interests have a small but hardcore following (e.g., people who come into the library every day to read the OAHSPE).

― Rockist Scientist, Friday, 24 January 2003 21:26 (twenty-three years ago)

literally running out of space

And here's the essence of the issue. Acquiring books cheaply (especially "classic" primary sources like Aquinas, et al.) isn't that much of a bother, but what do you do with a book that is touched once every five years?

Closing the stacks saves space, but is wildly unpopular, and the expense of retrieval is considerable. Compact shelving: inconvenient and expensive. Offsite warehousing: see closed stacks.

With library budget cuts, the only economical solution is interlibrary loans, but it's expensive, especially for public libraries, and even the most efficient university ILL departments are the subject of complaints from patrons for being "slow."

It costs scarce money to house a book.

― Benjamin, Friday, 24 January 2003 21:41 (twenty-three years ago)

What about those shelves on tracks, where you can turn a crank to access a particular row? (I've always had a fear of being crushed between two metal shelves as another library patron mercilessly cranks them together.) They have them in many archives.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 24 January 2003 21:52 (twenty-three years ago)

People used to wank in those in the Guardian basement.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 24 January 2003 21:57 (twenty-three years ago)

Compact/high-density shelving? It's expensive to install (but cheaper than new construction) and requires buildings engineered for bearing a heavy floor load (in some cases requiring new construction). Also, for open stacks, it also requires dividing the collection into lighter/heavier usage (creating a browsing problem), as 7/8th of the shelves nearby will be inaccessible during the time someone is retrieving the book.

Sure works well in collections with limited access (like archives) though.

― Benjamin, Friday, 24 January 2003 22:02 (twenty-three years ago)

I wouldn't want to be the guy who cleaned out the squashed remains of bookish undergraduates from the high-density shelving.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 24 January 2003 22:23 (twenty-three years ago)

Especially if they'd been wanking.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 24 January 2003 22:27 (twenty-three years ago)

I think it's important not to put people with a collection of decaying tomes that haven't been withdrawn since 1972

oh but those are so fun! interlibrary loans are GREAT though, especially through school libraries (the public libraries take at least a week, the school ones are faster)

― Maria (Maria), Friday, 24 January 2003 22:29 (twenty-three years ago)

I love it when I take out a book and the last due-date stamp is from the 1930s. It happened a lot when I was an undergraduate.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 24 January 2003 22:31 (twenty-three years ago)

I checked out a copy of Franz Kafka's the Trial from my middle school library that had only been checked out once before...in 1972. And they'd had the book since 1954.

Meanwhile you had to put holds on Disco Magic, a story with photos about a young boy who wants to win the disco dance championship just like John Travolta! It was very popular.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Saturday, 25 January 2003 00:01 (twenty-three years ago)

I checked out a copy of Franz Kafka's the Trial from my middle school library that had only been checked out once before...in 1972. And they'd had the book since 1954.

Meanwhile you had to put holds on Disco Magic, a story with photos about a young boy who wants to win the disco dance championship just like John Travolta! It was very popular.

Obviously ppl thought that Disco > writers whose most famous work is about waking up as a bug. I wonder if they knew that Kafka has a story about a talking monkey, tho.

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Saturday, 25 January 2003 00:10 (twenty-three years ago)

Rockist Scientist, in which branch of the Philadelphia library do you work? (I live a few blocks from one of 'em.)

― Phil (phil), Saturday, 25 January 2003 00:51 (twenty-three years ago)

this old st. augustine book has been in heavy circulation out of the school library! that surprises me and makes me happy.

― Maria (Maria), Saturday, 25 January 2003 01:21 (twenty-three years ago)

I should also note I didn't get five pages into the Trial, so don't mistake my youthful attempt at literariness for success at it.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Saturday, 25 January 2003 01:33 (twenty-three years ago)

People used to wank in those in the Guardian basement

This is the most disgusting thing I've heard all week!

― MarkH (MarkH), Saturday, 25 January 2003 14:03 (twenty-three years ago)

what does OAHSPE stand for?

― robin (robin), Saturday, 25 January 2003 14:58 (twenty-three years ago)

one year passes...

I don't think it stands for anything. We have a regular patron who comes in here with one or two other people and he expounds on the OAHSPE in the most annoying, smug, now-let-me-break-this-down-for-you, cadences (sometimes while standing up). He's not really loud enough for me to complain about, just really annoying. (He's pushing it tonight though. A bit louder than usual.)

― Rockist Scientist, Thursday, 13 May 2004 21:13 (twenty-two years ago)

I fear that the library purchasing agenda in Wanganui has been dictated by only one or two people (which may reflect circulation) this means that anyone new who would get books out but doesn't share their obscure interests can't find anything to read and resorts to the internet. To me, this is a clear reason for buying widely, and buying 'good works' not just whatever people are getting out that year. Think of it as buying for future users.

― isadora (isadora), Friday, 14 May 2004 00:40 (twenty-two years ago)

I like libraries that have a large CD collection because then I can bring my laptop in an mp3 everything in sight.

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Friday, 14 May 2004 00:44 (twenty-two years ago)

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