Library collections role in serving the community-opinions please!

[Susann]

I'd like some input on this topic. Our director, in my opinion, has been very heavily weeding out collection. I feel that we're heading towards a top 10 list centered collection without any depth. Because of my strong opinions on this subject, I like other input into what you believe the library collection's role is in serving the community. The changes in our system are very disheartening to a lot of us but maybe I just need to look at it differently. Thanks for any help you can give me!!

[stripe]

One thought: if no one reads the books, what purpose are they serving by being in the collection? Usually library staff look at the circulation data behind books as one factor, and if a book hasn't been checked out in a year (or more), it is not exactly earning its keep. Encourage those who like the not-top-10 books to check them out. That is vitally important.

[Murphy101]

It should serve the community and if the community is disheartened, then she isn't serving the community. One would think that if the library has the books, it was because at some point the community wanted them and "weeding" should be restricted to damaged materials and should be replaced with similiar materials. Especially if they are materials being checked out at least a couple times a year.

 

Jmnsho.

[briansmama]

I completely agree with Martha. I've always been interested in books that are not typically mainstream. I'd be very disappointed in a library that limited its collection to only popular items.

[dirty ethel rackham]

I posted on this same issue about a year ago. Collections management has become a popularity contest. There is almost ZERO interest in the actual QUALITY of the collection. Our library is consistently chosen as one of the top 3 public libraries in the country. But that is mostly based on usage per capita, not any commentary on what it contains. This library, citing space concerns, has been culling books with low circulation rates. However, they are not replacing them with items of similar content. Books that I had checked out for my older boys were not there for my daughter when it came time to study that time in history. There were huge gaps in content. They usually directed me to their databases, which were basically glorified encyclopedia articles - light in content and interest. Oh, and those space concerns? The shelves are only about 60% full. I think acquisitions has mostly been for dvds (another thing that irks me.)

[Outdoorsy Type]

If you want more books, you need room for them, which means A: get rid of older books and/or B: expand the library. It's really expensive to keep up a large, growing collection.

[Julie Smith]

Are library is really quite nice. They are also good about purchasing things that I request.

 

But sometimes they say no since the similar items they have don't get much circulation. So in other words they wouldn't purchase more Teaching Company courses since the current ones have very low circulation. So I took that as a challenge and am advertising them to other homeschoolers.

 

If they are culling things not checked out often perhaps you can advertise them and get more people interested in them. Then they wouldn't cull them.

[Susann]

I posted on this same issue about a year ago. Collections management has become a popularity contest. There is almost ZERO interest in the actual QUALITY of the collection. Our library is consistently chosen as one of the top 3 public libraries in the country. But that is mostly based on usage per capita, not any commentary on what it contains. This library, citing space concerns, has been culling books with low circulation rates. However, they are not replacing them with items of similar content. Books that I had checked out for my older boys were not there for my daughter when it came time to study that time in history. There were huge gaps in content. They usually directed me to their databases, which were basically glorified encyclopedia articles - light in content and interest. Oh, and those space concerns? The shelves are only about 60% full. I think acquisitions has mostly been for dvds (another thing that irks me.)

 

May I ask which library system you use? We have no space concerns-especially now!

[mumto2]

I have been having this same discussion with my village librarian. She is part of a significantly larger system which does apparently have storage space. Imagine my shock when I returned from the States to discover some of the books that I wanted back were no longer available because they were old and unused. One of them had been checked out by us on multiple cards for six months the previous year. Definately used. Some were also classics like Dorothy Sayers in perfect condition. I can understand getting rid of unused books if space is limited but books that are unique in what they cover or true classics puzzle me.

 

Just so you know they were kind enough to rescue my books for me. :)

[dirty ethel rackham]

May I ask which library system you use? We have no space concerns-especially now!

 

Ours is a local public library for a town of over 100,000 in the Chicago suburbs. We really don't have space concerns, unless they want to get rid of book shelves to make room for dvds, computers, and video games. But that is the reason most cited when I complain about the lack of selection.

[nmoira]

If you want more books, you need room for them, which means A: get rid of older books and/or B: expand the library. It's really expensive to keep up a large, growing collection.

 

C: Make renewals easier and without restriction to encourage patrons to "donate" more square feet of their own bookshelves to the library. We usually have over 200 books checked (four people, all but the kid's books are shelved in the basement). My kids have had three entire series checked out for two years. For one series, the only copies of the first two books in the system are on our "library shelf," all the others having been retired from the collection. I like to think we're saving them for someone.

 

Our old children's librarian told me point blank that she was thankful for patrons like us I after I confessed to feeling a little guilty about the number of books we usually have out.

 

The main character in Connie Willis' Bellwether (worth tracking down... it's a fun afternoon's read) checks out classic books, even those she already owns, from her library to help make sure they don't get "retired" through disuse. :D

[Jane in NC]

It has been some time since I have even strolled into our local library. When my son was younger, the children's librarian decided to modernize the kids' collection. While the number of good picture books and early chapter books did improve, there was a significant loss of children's non-fiction. They had disposed of most of the biographies and many older nature/science books that were quite good--just not shiny.

 

When my son reached a point in upper elementary years, it became clear that he would be able to find fiction in our library but we would need to pay a fee to use the neighboring county's library for children's non-fiction. The neighboring library system also has more fiction and many, many more books on CD.

 

Homeschooling would have been much more challenging for us without access to the neighboring system. They have a broad selection of Teaching Company lectures that we regularly borrowed. While the greater population of the neighboring community translates to a library with more funding, the key to the better system is that they have real librarians. My local system has nice people behind the desk--but no one with real library training. I don't think they understand how to create a dynamic system beyond best sellers.

 

I make a point of checking out older classics to keep great but potentially forgotten authors on the shelf.

[mumto2]

 

 

The main character in Connie Willis' Bellwether (worth tracking down... it's a fun afternoon's read) checks out classic books, even those she already owns, from her library to help make sure they don't get "retired" through disuse. :D

 

 

I just went and tracked a copy down. It sounds interesting. The sad thing is the only place I could find it it the digital library and I just checked out a kindle copy.

[nmoira]

I just went and tracked a copy down. It sounds interesting. The sad thing is the only place I could find it it the digital library and I just checked out a kindle copy.

 

 

:svengo: Now, that's ironic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

:D

[Tita Gidge]

We also check out hordes of book every week, even ones we already own and especially ones we use for our homeschool studies.

 

I'm concerned about the experience others have mentioned upthread, where books there for their olders had been culled by the time their youngers cycled through.

 

I have no idea if it matters, or even if it's counted by number of checkouts or number of UNIQUE checkouts (meaning, not just us checking them out repeatedly). I keep forgetting to ask them.

[TGHEALTHYMOM]

It is very sad to see so many people share that their library is not carrying very many books related to home education. I have read a statistic that is probably related. It is a small percentage of the public who purchase books. The majority of that small percentage are: Home educating families.

 

I have given up on our local library as a good source for supplementing our home school. Picture books are great, some movies ( documentaries) and family are also great.

 

One thing I have also had to learn.... I only donate books knowing they will sell them for a quarter or 50 cents. This upset me... I was naïve enough to think that if I donated some expensive materials, other home educators or even ps teachers might like them. They are not even in circulation. This includes books by SWB!! SAL: Standard American Library

 

 

I had the pleasure of visiting a small town library in Indiana over 9 years ago. I was so amazed, they had a Home School section: and it was big!!

Actually, it was a pretty large building for such a small town too. My niece was working there, and took us to check it out!! Textbooks galore... books for every age and stage. Honestly I wish I could visit again to see how much relative materials they do have. I had only begun to home school and had 3 small children but had paid for interlibrary loan on the first TWTM book.

[stripe]

The main character in Connie Willis' Bellwether (worth tracking down... it's a fun afternoon's read) checks out classic books, even those she already owns, from her library to help make sure they don't get "retired" through disuse. :D

Someone has the copy at my branch checked out, and there's already a request on it. Hmm.

 

I have no idea if it matters, or even if it's counted by number of checkouts or number of UNIQUE checkouts (meaning, not just us checking them out repeatedly). I keep forgetting to ask them.

Should be each time it is renewed, it counts as another checkout.

[Murphy101]

Several times in the last year I've either had to buy books I used via library for my olders or have had friends call and ask to borrow my books that aren't available at the library.

 

And all of our libraries have lots of space and would have more if they didn't have more DVD and computer space than bookcases. :/

[In The Great White North]

This is why I have 15 floor to ceiling bookshelves, boxes of books in the attics, and piles of them around the house. I want my grandchildren to have access to good books - after the libraries have culled them all.

[magnificent_baby]

This is why I have 15 floor to ceiling bookshelves, boxes of books in the attics, and piles of them around the house. I want my grandchildren to have access to good books - after the libraries have culled them all.

 

I agree. Our library makes me sad. It's a beautiful, new building that is full of "popular" and less and less classics. The DVD section resembles a Blockbuster, and very few documentaries. There are computer games and numerous other entertainment activities, centered right in the middle, with book shelves surrounding it, almost as if books are an afterthought.

 

I rarely go anymore, which is sad because I have fond memories of spending SO much time in our public library as a child.

 

One thing that would get me there more frequently, is a drop box on our end of town. It's easier and cheaper to pick up books at Goodwill than to pay fines.

[Laura in CA]

This topic has been discussed here before, and I often talk about it with my friends here in town as well ... We try to check out classics we love, to keep them 'in circulation,' but then it's so disheartening to see them 'retired' to be sold to raise funds for the library ... One of my friends has been buying them up when they're sent to the used-book store, and plans to open her own lending library for homeschooling families ...

 

Don't get me started about how our library had 10 copies of Hillary Clinton's autobiography about 5-10 years ago (and they always seemed to be on the shelves ...), and 55+ copies of EACH Harry Potter book, but try to find a book -- one book -- by G. K. Chesterton, or Samuel Johnson ... :glare:

 

 

Here is an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal entitled "Should Libraries' Target Audience Be Cheapskates with Mass-Market Tastes?"

 

The article starts out:

 

 

 

"For Whom the Bell Tolls" may be one of Ernest Hemingway's best-known books, but it isn't exactly flying off the shelves in northern Virginia these days. Precisely nobody has checked out a copy from the Fairfax County Public Library system in the past two years, according to a front-page story in yesterday's Washington Post.

 

And now the bell may toll for Hemingway. A software program developed by SirsiDynix, an Alabama-based library-technology company, informs librarians of which books are circulating and which ones aren't. If titles remain untouched for two years, they may be discarded -- permanently. "We're being very ruthless," boasts library director Sam Clay.

 

As it happens, the ruthlessness may not ultimately extend to Hemingway's classic. "For Whom the Bell Tolls" could win a special reprieve, and, in the future, copies might remain available at certain branches. Yet lots of other volumes may not fare as well. Books by Charlotte Brontë, William Faulkner, Thomas Hardy, Marcel Proust and Alexander Solzhenitsyn have recently been pulled.

 

Library officials explain, not unreasonably, that their shelf space is limited and that they want to satisfy the demands of the public. Every unpopular book that's removed from circulation, after all, creates room for a new page-turner by John Grisham, David Baldacci, or James Patterson -- the authors of the three most checked-out books in Fairfax County last month.

 

But this raises a fundamental question: What are libraries for? ...

[MomtoCandJ]

My library doesn't have many classics anymore either. Though they are available at some of the other branches. I do like that they purchase nonfiction books on a regular basis. The branch I frequent does not offer DVDs or computer games. We have lots of audio books and large print books though.

[WTMCassandra]

I just went and tracked a copy down. It sounds interesting. The sad thing is the only place I could find it it the digital library and I just checked out a kindle copy.

 

 

Wow, me too! My library had this only in downloadable audiobook or downloadable ebook. Sigh. Irrationally irritated about this.

[LibraryLover]

I am grateful we have an extensive ILL system. One of our town libraries is quite small, and while they don't have everything I need, they can get it.

[duckens]

Our library is in the process of rebuilding.

 

As in: we are now located in a strip mall, with the administration two doors down (in same strip mall). The bookmobile is parked out by the UPS office on the edge of town.

 

The last time our building remodeled/expanded was 1985. We are a community of 50K, but half of that is college students. (We are a university town).

 

A few years ago, our library was audited, and for our circulation, it should have had twice the floorspace. At that point, for every item purchased by the library, one item had to be literally discarded. As a PP mentioned, if the book was not earning its keep, it needed to be discarded.

 

1) If libraries are going to discard Classics, are they making ILL accessible and affordable? One can request ILL online for our library, and the library immediately takes it under advisement whether to purchase a copy.

 

2) Electronic resources can stretch library shelves. If a library can purchase 10 copies of paper book X, and 10 copies of electronic version of book X, classics are less likely to be displaced while the flavor of the month is in circulation. However it takes $$$ and know-how to create that infrastructure.

How much does it cost to keep a book? A lot of these articles talk about "shelf space", but at our library system, a lot of the classic books I search for, and put on hold, are "in storage". I have no idea where "storage" is, or what it is, but the library is happy to dig them out of storage and put them on hold for me, just as if they were on the shelves of another branch library. Seems like, unless you are dealing with Manhattan style real estate prices, any library system should be able to store all of the less-checked out book off of the shelves, but still have them searchable and checkout-able.

[Susann]

Lots of interesting responses-would anyone else like to chime in?

Also, our library has a display table of books right out in front, pulled from the shelves and all on a particular theme, that changes every week, often tied in to some current event. I think this is one way the librarians encourage people to not just checkout what's popular, but to get some of the older books moving too. I don't know who does it, but I always thought this would be a fun volunteer job to have when I "retire".

[Julie Smith]

Also, our library has a display table of books right out in front, pulled from the shelves and all on a particular theme, that changes every week, often tied in to some current event. I think this is one way the librarians encourage people to not just checkout what's popular, but to get some of the older books moving too. I don't know who does it, but I always thought this would be a fun volunteer job to have when I "retire".

 

 

I use to think of doing something like this.

 

For picture books pull out all those good author's that some people might now know about.

 

Perhaps one week Bill Peet, another Percy the Park Keeper....

[Mergath]

For most libraries, the funding is getting cut more and more every year. They receive funding based on circulation, so they can't afford to devote shelf space to books that are rarely checked out. If a library is culling the classics in favor of more popular books, it's on the community, not the librarian.

[mrs.m]

I think more and more are offering classic books digitally as "always available." And also, it's easy enough to download them free (or cheap) at home without a hike to the library. This may be the reason that circulation of those types of books have dropped? At least I haven't checked out a paper classic for this reason in a long time. Our library still has a classics "kiosk" though with real books.

 

I can't explain the non-fiction children's books culling though. I just assumed that another homeschooler never bothered to return the book or it was damaged by the time we got back around to it. I know they don't like to purchase older books as they want the latest on the shelves. I've requested some and that was the response I received. But if I want them to order something that has been published in the last two years, I have a pretty high chance of receiving a pick-up notice.

[Incognito]

I've actually been using this culling to my own advantage. I found that I placed orders on books and if I didn't get to the library in time, our librarian had axed some of them out of the system! BUT, they were now for sale for $1 on the shelf. So now I request lots of books on the stuff we are covering in SOTW, and I have gotten a few very nice picture books for our collection (and for the next time through with the baby). And if they don't cull it, well, then we just check it out like normal. :)

[Kathryn]

How much does it cost to keep a book? A lot of these articles talk about "shelf space", but at our library system, a lot of the classic books I search for, and put on hold, are "in storage". I have no idea where "storage" is, or what it is, but the library is happy to dig them out of storage and put them on hold for me, just as if they were on the shelves of another branch library. Seems like, unless you are dealing with Manhattan style real estate prices, any library system should be able to store all of the less-checked out book off of the shelves, but still have them searchable and checkout-able.

 

 

I agree. I used to work at a historical university library housed in a two-hundred year old building downtown. We couldn't add on, so a lot of lesser used items were stored off-site, as well as lesser used items for the university as a whole. We called the off-site building "the Annex" and it was basically a huge warehouse out where land was less expensive. There were a few employees out there to pull materials and someone to drive the van to and from the university and drop the books at the various libraries.

[Butter]

Our library system has specific reasons for discarding books (and the discarded books gets sold at the library book sale each year usually, unless it is in very bad shape). If a book hasn't been checked for a certain period of time, it is removed. If a book is worn out, it is removed (but often replaced with a new copy of the same book). That pretty much covers it. They'll also reduce their number of books of a same title as circulation goes down. There is plenty of space for books so it's pretty much just culling books to make room for new books. I do not think librarians should be able to get rid of books just because they feel like it or they are not bestsellers or whatever. That doesn't make much sense.

[magnificent_baby]

For most libraries, the funding is getting cut more and more every year. They receive funding based on circulation, so they can't afford to devote shelf space to books that are rarely checked out. If a library is culling the classics in favor of more popular books, it's on the community, not the librarian.

 

 

I agree with you. However, in our library, all of the entertainment type material (books, DVD's and activities) are placed front and center. My kids run to the computers, games and puppet show area when we get there. They usually grab a book quickly when we are ready to leave because it's hard to pull them away from the entertainment. I can only guess it's similar with other families. Sigh. I was surprised when we used MFW that they had so many on the book list, but had to do some hunting to find the titles.

[LostSurprise]

Its a balance. Not all of the books on non-fiction subjects are being cut...but ones you miss specifically may be going missing. There are other of the same subject on-shelf, perhaps that you don't prefer. Unused books are being minimized, but the library isn't cleaning out entire subject shelves.

 

In an effort to create balance our library system seems to keep at least one copy of everything that retains significance to its subject matter. It just isn't at my library. Older books with a smaller circulation are in storage at the capital. I can still order them though. They also do coordinated ordering, so my library may have a few copies of a DVD and other libraries may have no copies.

 

I find it pays to develop a relationship with the children's librarian. Let her know when you love a book or series. Sometimes they'll give you the heads up when they cull a section. You can check it out and protect it...or let them cull it and pick it up for cheap. ;) Depends on your sense of civic duty.

 

This can be rather nerve-wracking. Our library is doing a big cull right now before they renovate the children's room. Argh. However, most of what I see being culled is very specific geography (individual country books) and simplified science. Both of them are so generalized they could easily be replaced by the internet (and often web pages do them better).

[beaners]

We just bought several books at our local library's book sale that we had taken out within the last 3 months. I'm not sure how they are making their decisions, but they are tiny, so I understand if space is the reason. My house has nearly as many books as the library!

[dirty ethel rackham]

I would probably be less irked about this if our library did a twice-annual sale or something. But they cull willy-nilly and have ongoing sales. The only way I would be able snag these great books would be to basically live at the library. There is no way of knowing when a book will be culled. I could understand if our library really had a space issue. But when the shelves are only 65% full, they do have space.

[Julie Smith]

I would probably be less irked about this if our library did a twice-annual sale or something. But they cull willy-nilly and have ongoing sales. The only way I would be able snag these great books would be to basically live at the library. There is no way of knowing when a book will be culled. I could understand if our library really had a space issue. But when the shelves are only 65% full, they do have space.

 

If it makes you feel better I heard that they do this culling not just for space issues but to make shelving easier. That way shelving can be done quicker and with less training. So they have less cost for workers.

 

(Not that I think it is a good reason)