alisoncooks Posted December 13, 2019 Share Posted December 13, 2019 ...pared down its YA section to one 10-ft shelf. The fantasy, the dystopian, the cheesy romance, all of those stories that I dove into when I rediscovered books (after my babies' early, more-demanding years)...all of those books -- gone. No Diana Wynne Jones other than Howl, no Westerfeld. So many good series...just gone. I'm sure there's a reason. I'm sure someone tracked usage, and it made sense to expand the video and children's sections. But I'm sad. For myself, but also for those kids that needed those "in between" books to hook them. Anyone else seeing this trend? I'm also surprised because the library in the nearby town has entire teen room, which is pretty awesome. 1 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DesertBlossom Posted December 13, 2019 Share Posted December 13, 2019 Our library seems to make more and more space for computers and teen spaces and I wonder where all the books are going..... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xahm Posted December 13, 2019 Share Posted December 13, 2019 That's sad. Our library system is good about keeping books. They'll pare down, of course, so if they get several copies per library of a big release, eventually they'll have just 3 in the system and you have to request a copy, but you get it within the week, generally. We have a big teen space with both computers and lots of books. The next county over is just sad. The shelves are always near empty as they don't keep anything that isn't either a new release or commonly assigned in school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chiguirre Posted December 13, 2019 Share Posted December 13, 2019 4 hours ago, DesertBlossom said: Our library seems to make more and more space for computers and teen spaces and I wonder where all the books are going..... Online. My library has a fabulous collection of ebooks and audiobooks. They often get the electronic versions before they get paper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted December 13, 2019 Share Posted December 13, 2019 My nearest library is new and they didn’t have space for a big teen room due to real estate costs and don’t know why it couldn’t be two storeys instead of one (probably cost of elevators). So the priority in the teen room is computers for teens to do school work (school busses stop in front of library), teen magazines and some comic books, a small seating area for group discussions. A nearby city is more affluent and they have a big teen room and multiple community rooms in two of their libraries (one rebuilt and one expanded). They don’t need to reduce any book space. Another library doesn’t have space to make their teen room bigger and the needs are more for discussion spaces, homework help and test prep. So when they renovated, they gave priority to create more study rooms and more space for teen events in the teen room. Teens could use hoopla and overdrive for ebooks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shoeless Posted December 13, 2019 Share Posted December 13, 2019 Our library has a teen room that is fiercely guarded. No one under the age of 13 is allowed in. If you don't look old enough to go in, there's a librarian hissing at you that it's the teen room and you need to leave. They also have a weekly program for teens. Which is great, except... They have dropped tween programming and many tween books. They have umpteen toddler story time sessions and weekly teen meetups, but there are zero middle school events since our favorite librarian quit. Not much in the way of tween books, either. I've asked about getting the tween program going again, and the staff looks at me like I'm asking for a ride to the airport. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris in VA Posted December 13, 2019 Share Posted December 13, 2019 No libraries here except academic ones. But back home, the one we went to most frquently had a tall bookcase and a long low one full of teen books. To be brutally honest, I would have loved to torch most of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RootAnn Posted December 13, 2019 Share Posted December 13, 2019 Our local library, which is tiny & abysmal, expanded their YA bookshelves a few years ago. I do see a shrinkage coming eventually but it hasn't hit yet. We live in the middle of the country so we're about 5-10 years behind the coasts in trends. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
***** Posted December 13, 2019 Share Posted December 13, 2019 A few years ago after another turnover of head librarian, loads of books, several of them 'classic' that had been recommended by the homeschool users were put in the sale bin. I asked one of the workers what was going on and she replied, "There's some books I just don't get, so we are weeding them out." Um, I was just stunned. Really? Our tax dollars pay for these, and just because one doesn't 'get' them, they are tossed?! I don't like many of the 'dark' Scholastic books that seem to be the fad lately, and I won't buy from Scholastic anymore. There seem to be many of these at the library. We have a community type system in which we also borrow books from other libraries at no cost. But I almost feel like it is unfair to those other libraries that we don't restock our own shelves with some of the more popular books to help pay for the ones people like to borrow. We just get them from other libraries, while, in my opinion, our shelves shrink?! Maybe it isn't really like that, but it seems to be. They are trying to make our library more...something...a place to have coffee, 3D printer, game times, teen times...that is good. But our space is so small, it is a busy place. I recently went into a library in the next town over and I felt like, wow...a real library again! Books bulging on the shelves! Sure, they have community programs, computers, a wonderful audio and video section, but it wasn't like they were catering to any one group, except of course...the readers! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluegoat Posted December 13, 2019 Share Posted December 13, 2019 17 hours ago, DesertBlossom said: Our library seems to make more and more space for computers and teen spaces and I wonder where all the books are going..... Yup. Our new library here won all kinds of awards for the building and concept, but it's light on books. Instead its got gaming stations, computers, and things like recording studios. Which are neat, but... I don't know. I don't think they are actually equivalent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alisoncooks Posted December 13, 2019 Author Share Posted December 13, 2019 13 hours ago, chiguirre said: Online. My library has a fabulous collection of ebooks and audiobooks. They often get the electronic versions before they get paper. I wouldn't even mind, if this were the case! It seems like every other week, I'm looking up a much-recommended title specifically for my kindle, and it's not available (or, more annoyingly, its listed in the online catalog as there but is not actually a title our library has). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
honeybunny3 Posted December 13, 2019 Share Posted December 13, 2019 That's a shame. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Tick Posted December 13, 2019 Share Posted December 13, 2019 Some of this is response to market demand and slowly I've come to understand that you all and I are not representative of the majority of the market. Makes me sad. Some is just jerky librarian staffing. 13 hours ago, MissLemon said: the staff looks at me like I'm asking for a ride to the airport. This made me laugh so hard! But the rest is sad. In the words of the Cat, "What a shame! What a shame! What a shame." 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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