[Publib] Re: Wall Street Journal Weighs In on Public Libraries

[Dale McNeill]

This conversation, though not new, is important.  In most communities, I
think the best way to stay on track is to engage the community itself
with--as budget allows--informal conversations, focus groups, surveys, town
hall meetings, and so forth.  Ideally, these should involve close listening
to the public *and* discussion from the library.

There are many capable facilitators and survey firms--and one shouldn't
forget library schools, public administration departments, marketing
departments, and so forth at a local university.  In a small library there's
a lot to be said for just talking with people about the role of the library
or publishing articles in the local newspaper or citizen blog.

In my opinion, and only my opinion, those who seem most surprised by what
public libraries *are* usually have their minds clearly on what they imagine
public libraries *used to be*.  Some of these folks haven't been inside a
library in years.  But their observations will only be one part of the
community conversation if the library has already engaged the community.

Now, for a couple of observations on the piece itself.  My guess is that for
every Hemingway or other literary author's work that was weeded there were a
good many more of Jonathan Kellerman or other popular authors.  And if no
one had checked out any Hemingway (or whomever) in the last few years,
there's something else going on in the community.  When I managed a tiny
branch in Texas (2,000 square feet), we did not keep any book that didn't
circulate at least 3 times every year.  Yet we had Greek classics,
Shakespeare, Hemingway, Steinbeck, Flaubert, Tolstoy, and so on. Not a lot
by each of these authors--usually the best known work.  (OK, I did make an
exception for Shakespeare and kept one copy of every play whether they met
the circ rule or not....as the rule was one we made up in the branch and
each play was small).  I suppose my main point is that it's the library's
holdings that matter, not its withdrawals.

Dale

On 1/4/07, KM Denny <kaymdenny at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> I posted the Wall Street Journal article because that is a major organ
> where
> policy debates take place, and it's new that the WSJ publishes a major
> opinion piece that deals with public librarties. It is worth thinking
> about
> the author's twist on a library trend to emulate mass market bookstores
> because it is likely to reappear in funding debates, and to answer it we
> will have to dig deeper into what public libraries represent. I like those
> bookstore displays, but also think that a library empty of Hemingway, the
> Brontes, and Zola is missing the boat. In fact, one thing I love about my
> own book group is that we read Cormac McCarthy, Updike, Robinson.andNafisi,
> but also Flaubert and Euripedes. The discussions are full of meat and I
> can
> nearly always find books at the library.
>
> I apologize for pasting the entire text of that article in my posting.
> Only
> after seeing it reproduced over and over did I think it might have been
> better to provide the link.
>
> KMD
>
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