[Publib] Wall Street Journal Weighs In On Public Libraries

[Kathleen Horan]

Thanks to Kathryn for pointing out that so-called traditional library values
often mask political agendas that would limit freedom and oppress working
people. In keeping with collection development policy, we must keep
what best serves our public no matter how often or little an item
circulates. What is a classic for one community may not work for another. I
wouldn't be without Americo Paredes' *With His Pistol In His Hand*, but
would pull *Northanger Abbey* for meager circ statistics, since my community
is south Texas, very close to the border of Mexico.

On another note, when I lead a book discussion series, I like to introduce a
couple of classics among the more popular book discussion titles. People
moan that the classics are "too much work," yet I find they yield the most
interesting and meaningful conversations.

Kathleen P. Horan, M.L.S
Branch Manager, Palm View Branch Library
McAllen, TX

On 1/3/07, Kathleen McCorkle <sedanlib at terraworld.net> wrote:
>
> ""public and one that merely uses tax dollars to subsidize the
> recreational
> habits of bookworms.""
>
> Since we live in an area that has no bookstore, (85 mile round trip)
> Hemingway is a little advanced for children and the seniors have already
> read it,
> are we now supposed to tell people what they can read?
> I always thought libraries were so people could afford to read and
> practice
> does make us better readers.
> Many people in our area do buy books but most can not afford that luxury.
> I wonder what will be considered classics in another 50 years?
> I am admitting I love to read so is that bad?
> I admit I am confused.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "KM Denny" <kaymdenny at hotmail.com>
> To: <plgnet-l at listproc.sjsu.edu>
> Cc: <publib at webjunction.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, January 03, 2007 3:33 PM
> Subject: [Publib] Wall Street Journal Weighs In On Public Libraries
>
>
> > January 3, 2007
> >
> >
> >
> > Should Libraries' Target Audience Be
> > Cheapskates With Mass-Market Tastes?
> > By JOHN J. MILLER
> > January 3, 2007; Page D9
> >
> > "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? Are they
> > cultural storehouses that contain the best that has been thought and
> said?
> > Or are they more like actual stores, responding to whatever fickle taste
> or
> > Mitch Albom tearjerker is all the rage at this very moment?
> >
> > If the answer is the latter, then why must we have government-run
> libraries
> > at all? There's a fine line between an institution that aims to edify
> the
> > public and one that merely uses tax dollars to subsidize the
> recreational
> > habits of bookworms.
> >
> > Fairfax County may think that condemning a few dusty old tomes allows it
> to
> > keep up with the times. But perhaps it's inadvertently highlighting the
> fact
> > that libraries themselves are becoming outmoded.
> >
> > There was a time when virtually every library was a cultural repository
> > holding priceless volumes. Imagine how much richer our historical and
> > literary record would be if a single library full of unique volumes --
> the
> > fabled Royal Library of Alexandria, in Egypt -- had survived to the
> present
> > day.
> >
> > As recently as a century ago, when Andrew Carnegie was opening thousands
> of
> > libraries throughout the English-speaking world, books were considerably
> > more expensive and harder to obtain than they are right now. Carnegie
> always
> > credited his success in business to the fact that he could borrow books
> from
> > private libraries while he was growing up. His philanthropy meant to
> provide
> > similar opportunities to later generations.
> >
> > Today, however, large bookstore chains such as Barnes & Noble and
> Borders
> > bombard readers with an enormous range of inexpensive choices. An even
> > greater selection is available online: Before it started selling
> mouthwash
> > and power tools, Amazon.com used to advertise itself as "the world's
> biggest
> > bookstore." It still probably deserves the label, even though there are
> now
> > a wide variety of competing retailers. (Full disclosure: Years ago, I
> was
> a
> > paid reviewer for Amazon.com.)
> >
> > The reality is that readers have never enjoyed a bigger market for
> books.
> > Shoppers can buy everything from hot-off-the-press titles in mint
> condition
> > to out-of-print rarities from secondhand dealers. They can even download
> > audiobooks to their MP3 players and listen to them while jogging or
> driving
> > to work. Companies such as Google and Microsoft are promising to make
> > enormous amounts of out-of-copyright material available to anyone with a
> > computer and a browser.
> >
> > The bottom line is that it has never been easier or cheaper to read a
> book,
> > and the costs of reading probably will do nothing but drop further.
> >
> > If public libraries attempt to compete in this environment, they will
> > increasingly be seen for what Fairfax County apparently envisions them
> to
> > be: welfare programs for middle-class readers who would rather borrow
> Nelson
> > DeMille's newest potboiler than spend a few dollars for it at their
> local
> > Wal-Mart.
> >
> > Instead of embracing this doomed model, libraries might seek to
> > differentiate themselves among the many options readers now have, using
> a
> > good dictionary as the model. Such a dictionary doesn't merely describe
> the
> > words of a language -- it provides proper spelling, pronunciation and
> usage.
> > New words come in and old ones go out, but a reliable lexicon becomes a
> > foundation of linguistic stability and coherence. Likewise, libraries
> should
> > seek to shore up the culture against the eroding force of trends.
> >
> > The particulars of this task will fall upon the shoulders of individual
> > librarians, who should welcome the opportunity to discriminate between
> the
> > good and the bad, the timeless and the ephemeral, as librarians
> > traditionally have done. They ought to regard themselves as not just
> experts
> > in the arcane ways of the Dewey Decimal System, but as teachers,
> advisers
> > and guardians of an intellectual inheritance.
> >
> > The alternative is for them to morph into clerks who fill their shelves
> with
> > whatever their "customers" want, much as stock boys at grocery stores
> do.
> > Both libraries and the public, however, would be ill-served by such a
> > Faustian bargain.
> >
> > That's a reference, by the way, to one of literature's great antiheroes.
> > Good luck finding Christopher Marlowe's play about him in a Fairfax
> County
> > library: "Doctor Faustus" has survived for more than four centuries, but
> it
> > apparently hasn't been checked out in the past 24 months.
> >
> > Mr. Miller writes for National Review and is the author of "A Gift of
> > Freedom: How the John M. Olin Foundation Changed America" (Encounter
> Books).
> >
> >   URL for this article:
> > http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116778551807865463.html
> >
> > _________________________________________________________________
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