[Publib] Friday musings

Fri Apr 18 19:21:27 EDT 2008

I have had to put Bill Clinton's book "My Life" on the sale shelf, but I can't keep "My Life as a Porn Star" on the shelf! 

Lisë Chlebanowski

Library Manager

Avondale Old Town Library

328 West Western Ave.

Avondale, AZ  85323

623-333-2611 d

623-333-0260 f

e-mail: lchlebanowski at avondale.org <mailto:lchlebanowski at avondale.org> 

website: www.avondale.org/library

Now Reading: Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner

Now Listening: 19 Minutes by Jody Picoult

________________________________

From: publib-bounces at webjunction.org [mailto:publib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Doris Lively
Sent: Friday, April 18, 2008 3:56 PM
To: publib at webjunction.org
Subject: Re: [Publib] Friday musings

John & others...nothing profound here either but...

As a NASCAR fan and a library director I can tell you that enjoying the race and reading about the race (or even watching a video of a past race) are not the same.  I have found this to be true of most sports and many hobbies...not all, quilting be a very notable exception.  Many times if someone is a "real" fan they will purchase what they want about their favorite player or team.  We have many people in our area with motorcycles (my husband and I included) but books about motorcycles don't check out except to occasional teens who really want a motorcycle.  I have found that parent & child activity books do not circulate well here.  I suspect they would need to keep the book longer than 2 or 3 weeks to benefit from the togetherness.  

And then you have the high school teacher that retires (or moves) after you have bought reference materials to suit their particular research paper requirements and some young whipper-snapper comes in and requires all "new" topics and authors...ARGH!!!!

I spent the first 17 years of my library experiences in a large public library system that was and is well-funded.  The last 16 years have been in a financially challenged rural library system.  It took me a while to readjust what I thought I absolutely had to buy.  What I thought would check out in the rural area didn't necessary fly off the shelves...even though it was what I thought was of interest to rural people.  I've found that for the most part I stick to the tried and true...very limited funds don't allow for too many mistakes.  We use interlibrary loan for items in which only a very few people are interested.  We started serving a maximum security prison a few years ago and I was really amazed that some of the books they requested enough that I bought them instead of constantly borrowing from other libraries were of interest to everyone.  Who knew that so many people want to know the complete details of the pyramids, all the various conspiracy theories, how to write love poems, how to hide your money in off shore accounts, how to start a carwash/daycare/import-export business and how to purchase foreclosure property?  Because of serving those guys we have bought some books that are not normally found on small, rural library shelves; in fact, we are the only library in the state that owns a few of them.

I've also found that forcing people to check books out works pretty well if you are willing to throw yourself in front of the door and strong arm them if they try to leave without checking something out   :-)

Doris

At 02:10 PM 4/18/2008 -0500, you wrote:

Nothing profound here, but...we have been weeding a LOT, shifting
collections, et al.  I like doing this kind of thing because the results
can be so tangible.  But as I sift through time-worn volumes of this and
that, I've been wondering...what sorts of things have people purchased,
thinking that they had made wise collection development choices--and
then discovered that no one read/viewed those products of your/our/their
wisdom?  For instance:

My library district is large and mostly blue-collar.  Lots of people are
NASCAR kinds of folks--used to have a next-door neighbor in Bartonville
who built cars and raced them.  So I've bought NASCAR kinds of books and
videos/DVDs.  And they don't circulate.

For several years, a gazillion books have been published about knitting,
or teens knitting, or mothers and daughters knitting, or some
combination of the above.  I've bought knitting books.  Apparently no
one here has heard about publishing and/or national trends of some kind.
And our winters are cold enough for people to wear knitted clothing.
Knitting does not sell.  (Quilting, however, is an entirely different
story.)

Similarly, I heard or read that tie-dyeing and/or batik were back "in."
My son had a tee shirt from his school that was tie-dyed.  I bought some
new, not-your-1970s tie-dying and batik books.  And there they sit,
unused.

I like British authors, mysteries, and all that.  At various times, I
have experimented with different standing orders from vendors.  One
quarter, I tried the "Clipper" series from Recorded Books.  That was
when I was in East TX, which is rahhther Southern.  Well.  One might've
thought I'd started the Civil War all over (actually, down there it's
NOT over), and I was a Yankee to begin with, so--we dropped "Clipper"
and returned to red-blooded, all-American authors.  English authors
don't go over especially well here, either.

Right along our boundaries is the city of Peoria, which is a BASKETBALL
city.  Bradley U. plays BASKETBALL.  Rah!  Rah!  People from all around
attend basketball games in Peoria.  But books on basketball collect dust
on our shelves.  Weird.  Even though Bartonville and surrounding
villages make sure one knows that they are NOT Peoria--thank you very
much--still, people from everywhere go to Peoria for b-ball games.  Our
basketball books languish.

So, I wonder what other people have been surprised by, in attempting to
provide EXCELLENT! CUSTOMER!! SERVICE!!! by building The Best Collection
in the World.  (Once again: rah!  rah!)

John D. Richmond, Director
Alpha Park Public Library District
3527 So. Airport Road
Bartonville, IL 61607
Ph: (309) 697-3822, ext. 12
Fax: (309) 697-9681
E-mail: jrichmond at alphapark.org
_________________________________________________
"To do two things at once is to do neither." -- Publilius Syrus, 1st
century B.C.  

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Doris Lively
Director
Grant Parish Library
300 Main Street
Colfax, LA  71417
phone  318-627-9920
fax  318-627-9900
e-mail    dlively at state.lib.la.us

Dreaming permits each and every one of us to be quietly and safely insane every night of our lives.
                                                                        -Fisher

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