The Washington Post article about the Fairfax Library weeding policy was very interesting and very timely. Some could say that the public library has become modern, popular collections. We rely on Universities and ILL to provide specialized materials that are not of interest to a large group. The comments were mixed and the solutions suggested highly innovative.
All libraries are facing the same dilemma. We know that a large portion of our service is print oriented. We also know that we a large number of our users have become media oriented.
An interesting situation. What are your thoughts?
Labels: Washington Post
posted by Doug @ 12:16 PM
2 Comments:
"The difference between literature and journalism is that journalism is unreadable and literature is not read." Oscar Wilde
I think Rust staff in particular is dealing with this issue because we're planning a move/renovation and so have to decide what/how much to take with us, what we might still use in two years, what has been superceded by something online.
Also, all the branches recently looked over their reference collections and made decisions about what to keep, what to circ, and what to discard. It's hard getting rid of books. They have been the staple for centuries and still are the medium of choice for a majority of users.
That said, I also think a growing number of users is moving to electronic/digital media, and libraries in general have hard decisions to make.
Public libraries probably feel the crunch the most because they serve the widest population/demographic span, with highly-educated users down to newborns. Do they keep something because it's "classic" or make room for "pop fluff"?
While LCPL may not have lots of copies of classics (because they don't circ well), we do have them and we also have latest bestsellers to satisfy all reading preferences. Of course, we'll still hear complaints, but thank goodness for ILL.
(Such a long comment, it probably deserved a blog of its own.) :)
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