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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: What would you like to see in a library?
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Timothy the Obscure
Mostly Friendly
# 292
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Posted
What ken said, plus a bar. Heaven is basically a library with a bar (Hell is a gym).
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When you think of the long and gloomy history of man, you will find more hideous crimes have been committed in the name of obedience than have ever been committed in the name of rebellion.
- C. P. Snow
Posts: 6114 | From: PDX | Registered: May 2001
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Baptist Trainfan
Shipmate
# 15128
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Posted
No, hell is a gym with Line Dancing and Country & Western playing.
Posts: 9750 | From: The other side of the Severn | Registered: Sep 2009
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Pancho:
There would be a separate room for craft projects and science experiments and near the entrance in view of the children's librarian would be large foreign-language section (because adults learning a foreign language often use children's books).
Pancho, I love everything about your vision of the library (except the cats). When I visited the new Birmingham Central Library the first thing I saw was a science area just inside the front doors where you could build your own robot. I then took the wrong turning and found myself passing by a bar on the way to the theatre; outside is a sort of amphitheatre where they plan to hold concerts and performances in better weather. The library also has three roof gardens, one with veg so that people can bring their children to see what vegetables look like when growing, one with a space for outdoor performances, and all three give a great view over Birmingham. You can see for miles - right to distant hills.
I was very impressed by their new library altogether.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
Is there something you'd like to tell us?
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Pancho
Shipmate
# 13533
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
Pancho, I love everything about your vision of the library.....
Thanks! I forgot to include something about signs and layout. There would be clear, visible and easy-to-understand maps to help guide patrons around the library. The layout of the shelves and different subjects would make sense so, for example, literary anthologies would be shelved with the general fiction and not at another end of the building with books on carpentry.
quote:
.....(except the cats).
For patrons averse to the presence of cats there would be a special reading room (complete with humongous fireplace and comfy armchairs) filled with fluffy bunny rabbits and affectionate but slobbery basset hounds.
For smokers there would be a separate combination reading room and cigar bar called the Ron Burgundy wing because it would be filled with many leather-bound books and smell of rich mahogany.
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“But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the market places and calling to their playmates, ‘We piped to you, and you did not dance;
we wailed, and you did not mourn.’"
Posts: 1988 | From: Alta California | Registered: Mar 2008
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Jane R
Shipmate
# 331
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Posted
For patrons seriously allergic to cats, by the time they have run the gauntlet to find the books they want and get to the 'safe room' they will be wheezing uncontrollably and possibly on the verge of collapse (and anyone seriously allergic to cat hair is likely to be allergic to dog hair as well, so putting Basset hounds in that room leaves them with nowhere to go).
And have you ever met a cat? Making one room in the library off-limits to them will instantly make that room the place they most want to be... the library staff will spend half their time evicting cats from the cat exclusion zone and the rest of it trying to stop them eating the fish from the tank in the children's library.
Posts: 3958 | From: Jorvik | Registered: May 2001
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Pancho:
For patrons averse to the presence of cats there would be a special reading room (complete with humongous fireplace and comfy armchairs) filled with fluffy bunny rabbits and affectionate but slobbery basset hounds.
Having escaped the claws of the cats, the intrepid reader sinks with relief into a comfortable armchair in a quiet room. Underfoot, something soft and warm squeals and scurries away, as hot fetid breath and a rope of drool suddenly drench the reader's neck...
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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ken
Ship's Roundhead
# 2460
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Pancho:
There would be clear, visible and easy-to-understand maps to help guide patrons around the library. The layout of the shelves and different subjects would make sense so, for example, literary anthologies would be shelved with the general fiction and not at another end of the building with books on carpentry.
![[Disappointed]](graemlins/disappointed.gif)
It ought to be possible to get at least briefly lost in a library. And to come across books you did not expect.
And there must certainly be books - and ideally rooms - that even the librarians don't know are there.
There should be something of MR James and JL Borges about the place. As well as Mr Decimal Dewey.
[ 03. April 2014, 13:24: Message edited by: ken ]
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Ken
L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle.
Posts: 39579 | From: London | Registered: Mar 2002
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Pomona
Shipmate
# 17175
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Jane R:
For patrons seriously allergic to cats, by the time they have run the gauntlet to find the books they want and get to the 'safe room' they will be wheezing uncontrollably and possibly on the verge of collapse (and anyone seriously allergic to cat hair is likely to be allergic to dog hair as well, so putting Basset hounds in that room leaves them with nowhere to go).
And have you ever met a cat? Making one room in the library off-limits to them will instantly make that room the place they most want to be... the library staff will spend half their time evicting cats from the cat exclusion zone and the rest of it trying to stop them eating the fish from the tank in the children's library.
People allergic to cats are allergic to an enzyme in their saliva, not to their fur - cat allergies and dog allergies are quite different, though obviously some allergy-prone people have both.
There are hypoallergenic cats who produce much less of the enzyme, eg Siberans and Abyssinians.
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Consider the work of God: Who is able to straighten what he has bent? [Ecclesiastes 7:13]
Posts: 5319 | From: UK | Registered: Jun 2012
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Jade Constable:
People allergic to cats are allergic to an enzyme in their saliva, not to their fur
That depends. I usually come out in a rash if a cat rubs up against my legs, but am not otherwise allergic to them.
And there needs to be a section of ancient manuscripts and illuminated books. Something like this.
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ExclamationMark
Shipmate
# 14715
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
Is there something you'd like to tell us?
It's to start up and use if someone disturbs me/the peace with a mobile, rustling papers, coughing etc .... I can't read with any extraneous noise
Posts: 3845 | From: A new Jerusalem | Registered: Apr 2009
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ken
Ship's Roundhead
# 2460
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Posted
There should certainly be quiet places in an ideal library. There ought also to be rather less quiet places. And there should be rooms that are hard to find containing no books less than three hundred years old. And rooms slightly easier to find containing some books much, much, older than that, a few available to read, others chained up, others under lock and key. And there should be rooms with large numbers of exceedingly beautiful PhD students hard-a-literature-search.
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Ken
L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle.
Posts: 39579 | From: London | Registered: Mar 2002
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mark_in_manchester
not waving, but...
# 15978
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Posted
Then you'll not be heartened Ken by the news that my erstwhile university employer announced they were re-branding the library as a 'just-in-time information delivery system'.
Yes, they did mean binning all the stock.
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"We are punished by our sins, not for them" - Elbert Hubbard
(so good, I wanted to see it after my posts and not only after those of shipmate JBohn from whom I stole it)
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ken
Ship's Roundhead
# 2460
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Posted
![[Projectile]](graemlins/puke2.gif)
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Ken
L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle.
Posts: 39579 | From: London | Registered: Mar 2002
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Stephen
Shipmate
# 40
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
You can only get so far with an online catalogue. You can't really judge a book by its title: I need to see it before I know whether it's something I want to take out, not pay a reservation fee, wait two weeks and then find I don't like it.
The reservation fee does annoy me - as most of the books now have to be ordered rather than being freely available on the shelves, it does essentially mean the library isn't really "free" any more. I wouldn't mind if we had a larger selection on the shelves, but it's sort of "we have one book by Dickens, you want more? You pay." [/QB]
They're a mean lot aren't they? Here we don't have to pay if the item is in stock or in the local partnership scheme - ie most of south and west Wales. If it's via inter-library loan or they order it new then yes you do have to pay
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Best Wishes
Stephen
'Be still,then, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the nations and I will be exalted in the earth' Ps46 v10
Posts: 3954 | From: Alto C Clef Country | Registered: May 2001
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Enoch
Shipmate
# 14322
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by mark_in_manchester:
Then you'll not be heartened Ken by the news that my erstwhile university employer announced they were re-branding the library as a 'just-in-time information delivery system'. ...
That's W1A territory. I agree with Ken.
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Brexit wrexit - Sir Graham Watson
Posts: 7610 | From: Bristol UK(was European Green Capital 2015, now Ljubljana) | Registered: Nov 2008
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OddJob
Shipmate
# 17591
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Posted
A bland, characterless warehouse. From which the readers are barred. And only 5 degrees Celcius in winter. That’s the formula my employers are adopting for a new, state of the art library which we’re building. But this should actually make books more accessible, especially our vast collection of obscure, niche tomes. The books may be stored in the warehouse, but its low build and energy costs and automation mean we can store a much larger and wider range of books than a traditional library. And the 5 degrees cold, besides cutting heating costs, is actually better for keeping paper than the 20 or so degrees our bodies may crave.
The automation can retrieve anything at a few minutes’ notice and bring it the welcoming ‘front of house’ - probably as quickly as you’d find it in a traditional library after finding an available librarian - again automation keeps staffing costs down and enables us to spend the money on books instead. Frequently-used publications will still be accessible near the front desk.
The building will also contain classrooms to explain to a younger, book-deprived generation the wealth of information and inspiration available in print.
Social facilities will also exist in the building, which I regard as an architectural landmark (the front of house part that is, not the book warehouse).
I’m looking forward to seeing it in operation.
My pipe/Tamnavulin/McEwans 80 Shilling dream is to have time to spend in any library. Or even reading a broadsheet rag each day. But it ranks below reviving piano playing.
Posts: 97 | From: West Midlands | Registered: Mar 2013
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lilBuddha
Shipmate
# 14333
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
quote:
Originally posted by Jade Constable:
People allergic to cats are allergic to an enzyme in their saliva, not to their fur
That depends. I usually come out in a rash if a cat rubs up against my legs, but am not otherwise allergic to them. [/URL]
If a cat rubs against you, you are coming in contact with their saliva. They lick their fur constantly. Mind, I like cats, but it is a fiction that they are clean.
No animals in libraries, save fish and other critters which depend upon containment to survive. Certainly none allowed to roam the stacks.
And no food anywhere near the books. A lovely cafe adjacent to the entrance, oh yes, but no eating near books.
quote:
Originally posted by OddJob:
The automation can retrieve anything at a few minutes’ notice and bring it the welcoming ‘front of house’ -
But browsing is the manner in which many find books they'd otherwise not. This is why online book sellers are horrible.
ETA: No smoking in the building whatsoever, sorry Pancho. Violators will be burned atop the books they ruin.
[ 04. April 2014, 22:55: Message edited by: lilBuddha ]
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I put on my rockin' shoes in the morning
Hallellou, hallellou
Posts: 17627 | From: the round earth's imagined corners | Registered: Dec 2008
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Pulsator Organorum Ineptus
Shipmate
# 2515
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Posted
In my local library, having the books shelved in shelfmark order would be a great improvement.
It's absolutely hopeless going in to get a specific book. On one occasion I had the entire staff of six scouring the library and its back rooms for a book of poetry by Ted Hughes. According to the online catalogue, there were three copies in the building.
There isn't much point in having a catalogue if it's impossible to locate the books.
Posts: 695 | From: Bronteland | Registered: Mar 2002
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cliffdweller
Shipmate
# 13338
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Posted
What you are describing is found in the Amsterdam Bibliotheek. Spent a lovely day there last summer...
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"Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid." -Frederick Buechner
Posts: 11242 | From: a small canyon overlooking the city | Registered: Jan 2008
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Arabella Purity Winterbottom
Trumpeting hope
# 3434
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Posted
I'm feeling very lucky reading this thread. Our central library fulfils rather a lot of the ideas people are suggesting. Sadly, there isn't a train, which I would love.
The things I really like about the library:
- lots of space around the books
- lots of books arranged in lovely curving shelves
- an excellent children's area at one end of the main floor
- an equally excellent young adult section which has its own computers, study areas and power points
- free wifi
- several quiet rooms you can book, one with a piano
- regular talks on all sorts of things - at the moment the talks are on legal issues for those caring for the elderly
- lots of sitting places, even lying down places (there is a couch arrangement running right round the edge of the main floor)
- a fantastic local history section which takes up more than half of the top floor
- a handily placed cafe on the mezzanine, which is open to the library but not actually in the library
I'm a bit worried though, because the councillor who almost singlehandedly kept our city libraries reasonably free and accessible retired at the last election.
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Hell is full of the talented and Heaven is full of the energetic. St Jane Frances de Chantal
Posts: 3702 | From: Aotearoa, New Zealand | Registered: Oct 2002
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Enoch
Shipmate
# 14322
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by OddJob:
A bland, characterless warehouse. From which the readers are barred. And only 5 degrees Celcius in winter. That’s the formula my employers are adopting for a new, state of the art library which we’re building. But this should actually make books more accessible, especially our vast collection of obscure, niche tomes. The books may be stored in the warehouse, but its low build and energy costs and automation mean we can store a much larger and wider range of books than a traditional library. And the 5 degrees cold, besides cutting heating costs, is actually better for keeping paper than the 20 or so degrees our bodies may crave.
The automation can retrieve anything at a few minutes’ notice and bring it the welcoming ‘front of house’ - probably as quickly as you’d find it in a traditional library after finding an available librarian - again automation keeps staffing costs down and enables us to spend the money on books instead. Frequently-used publications will still be accessible near the front desk.
The building will also contain classrooms to explain to a younger, book-deprived generation the wealth of information and inspiration available in print.
Social facilities will also exist in the building, which I regard as an architectural landmark (the front of house part that is, not the book warehouse).
I’m looking forward to seeing it in operation.
My pipe/Tamnavulin/McEwans 80 Shilling dream is to have time to spend in any library. Or even reading a broadsheet rag each day. But it ranks below reviving piano playing.
Typical of the sort of library that would appeal to an architect rather than the person who reads books. If you can only get a book by asking for it, and have no access to the shelves to browse, there is no prospect of ever finding anything that you don't already know that you want. To my mind, however many architectural prizes it wins, that fails as a library. It gets another
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Brexit wrexit - Sir Graham Watson
Posts: 7610 | From: Bristol UK(was European Green Capital 2015, now Ljubljana) | Registered: Nov 2008
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Ethne Alba
Shipmate
# 5804
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Posted
I agree, that library would not be much use to me.
For me, libraries are for mooching, for discovering, for my eye catching the cover of a book nothing to do with why i am in there, libraries are for delight and holding books.
Which means that in all probability i am a dinasaur.
Posts: 3126 | Registered: Apr 2004
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mark_in_manchester
not waving, but...
# 15978
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by mark_in_manchester:
quote:
Then you'll not be heartened Ken by the news that my erstwhile university employer announced they were re-branding the library as a 'just-in-time information delivery system'. ...
That's W1A territory. I agree with Ken.
You made me laugh, and I went digging for another quote. I'd like to link to it, but it might blow my cover a little - I'm sure Google-Fu will do so anyway if anyone is interested.
quote:
As the physical collections reduce, library space will be repurposed [sic] to provide a wide range of technology
enabled high quality learning, research and collaboration spaces.
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"We are punished by our sins, not for them" - Elbert Hubbard
(so good, I wanted to see it after my posts and not only after those of shipmate JBohn from whom I stole it)
Posts: 1596 | Registered: Oct 2010
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mark_in_manchester
not waving, but...
# 15978
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Posted
...and here's a post-script. Last night I was reading Pelikan 'the melody of theology'. He has a section on libraries. The erudite company here will probably know about Luther's missing commentary on Romans which was thought lost, turned up in a Vatican archive 500 years later, and sparked a whole new chapter in Luther-ology. I didn't, and found it amazing. He also quotes from the University of Uppsala, which calls its library 'a hospital for the soul'.
The irony is that my copy of Pelikan turned up in one of those odd, windowless 'storage spaces' which sometimes exist in large institutions (in this case, the university I have mentioned) - ones which no-one is paying a space charge for, which have no official status, and which therefore get used to store all sorts of things which no-one knows quite what to do with.
In this one, between dusty racks of interesting, obsolete measurement equipment, lie shallow, curving and slightly convex pools of text-books, MSc theses and PhD theses. Across the open pages of outlying documents are imprinted the boots and wheelbarrow-tracks of the porters who sporadically barrow in the contents of another reading room, or retired professors bookcases - and pour them into the soup. Quite an archive.
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"We are punished by our sins, not for them" - Elbert Hubbard
(so good, I wanted to see it after my posts and not only after those of shipmate JBohn from whom I stole it)
Posts: 1596 | Registered: Oct 2010
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Lamb Chopped
Ship's kebab
# 5528
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Posted
I was horrified when my denomination dumped the library at headquarters several years ago--WTF were they thinking???? All the sensible people showed up with wheelbarrows to scoop up the goodies. At least 95% of it has never been digitized and probably never will be. And unless you're willing and able to pay the extortionate fees at [cough, cough], you won't be able to get reasonable access to duplicate sources anyway.
[rends garments] Why, O Lord, why?
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Er, this is what I've been up to (book).
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!
Posts: 20059 | From: off in left field somewhere | Registered: Feb 2004
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Chorister
Completely Frocked
# 473
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Posted
I recently visited a library on opening day and was very impressed with what I saw. The whole place was divided into zones, with specially shaped shelves for children's books (one shaped like a rocket) and a chill-out zone for teenagers with comfy chairs and a drinks machine. Everything was geared to making people linger and start to read inside the building, rather than just choose a book and check out.
I always liked libraries when I was young, but I would have liked this one better.
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Retired, sitting back and watching others for a change.
Posts: 34626 | From: Cream Tealand | Registered: Jun 2001
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
As far as I'm concerned we don't have any public libraries in this county any more. I wish we did, but I struggle to find anything I want out of the Top 40 Books (or however many it is) or the 6-8 shelves of DVDs that are all that are left of what used to be an entire section.
Even the catalogue has been ruthlessly pruned, so many of the old favourites (some out of print) that I used to enjoy borrowing have been consigned to the scrapheap or secondhand stall.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Pancho
Shipmate
# 13533
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by ken:
quote:
Originally posted by Pancho:
There would be clear, visible and easy-to-understand maps to help guide patrons around the library. The layout of the shelves and different subjects would make sense so, for example, literary anthologies would be shelved with the general fiction and not at another end of the building with books on carpentry.
It ought to be possible to get at least briefly lost in a library. And to come across books you did not expect.
And there must certainly be books - and ideally rooms - that even the librarians don't know are there.
There should be something of MR James and JL Borges about the place. As well as Mr Decimal Dewey.
Oh, noooo. I mean, yes! But no.
There are two types of patrons basically (and this is even more true of bookstores): the rushers and the idlers. You and I and most people on the ship are probably idlers but a whole lot of people are rushers. They're the ones who park in the 5 minute zone and rush in asking for this or that bestseller or that Newberry Medal winner for junior's book report due on Tuesday. It is for their sake that we place large, attractive visible maps and signage throughout the labyrinthine stacks of dusty tomes so that the dude desperately seeking a copy of Chicken Soup for the Agoraphobic's Soul can zip in and out in five minutes flat and leave all the lollygaggers to browse among the books in peace.
[ 16. April 2014, 21:13: Message edited by: Pancho ]
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“But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the market places and calling to their playmates, ‘We piped to you, and you did not dance;
we wailed, and you did not mourn.’"
Posts: 1988 | From: Alta California | Registered: Mar 2008
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Sir Kevin
Ship's Gaffer
# 3492
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
When I visited the new Birmingham Central Library the first thing I saw was a science area just inside the front doors where you could build your own robot. I then took the wrong turning and found myself passing by a bar on the way to the theatre; outside is a sort of amphitheatre where they plan to hold concerts and performances in better weather. The library also has three roof gardens, one with veg so that people can bring their children to see what vegetables look like when growing, one with a space for outdoor performances, and all three give a great view over Birmingham. You can see for miles - right to distant hills.
I was very impressed by their new library altogether.
Can you talk to the architect and city planner of our local libraries? We could use another Irish-owned pub downtown!
By the way, that is an awesome work of architecture; IT MUST HAVE COST A SMALL FORTUNE!
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If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Writing is currently my hobby, not yet my profession.
Posts: 30517 | From: White Hart Lane | Registered: Oct 2002
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Rev per Minute
Shipmate
# 69
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Posted
Sir Kevin, the official cost was about £190 million - say USD320m.
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"Allons-y!" "Geronimo!" "Oh, for God's sake!" The Day of the Doctor
At the end of the day, we face our Maker alongside Jesus. RIP ken
Posts: 2696 | From: my desk (if I can find the keyboard under this mess) | Registered: May 2001
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Sighthound
Shipmate
# 15185
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Posted
Books, books and more books.
My local library has gradually reduced the amount of space given to books. It now actually has empty bookshelves, and it refuses donations.
It's almost as if, somewhere along the way, librarians have come to the conclusion that books are deeply uncool, and that a whole shift of business is needed. I wouldn't be that surprised if they started selling fish and chips or installing rows of pool tables.
That other desirable quality, silence, is long gone. One would find more quietness on Victoria Station.
[ 18. April 2014, 16:18: Message edited by: Sighthound ]
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Supporter of Tia Greyhound and Lurcher Rescue.http://tiagreyhounds.org/
Posts: 168 | From: England | Registered: Sep 2009
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Garasu
Shipmate
# 17152
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Sighthound:
It's almost as if, somewhere along the way, librarians have come to the conclusion that books are deeply uncool, and that a whole shift of business is needed.
This is basically it. All our advertising basically says: "We think libraries are boring too"!
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"Could I believe in the doctrine without believing in the deity?". - Modesitt, L. E., Jr., 1943- Imager.
Posts: 889 | From: Surrey Heath (England) | Registered: Jun 2012
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Sir Kevin
Ship's Gaffer
# 3492
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Posted
My library still has lots of books and they got me the one required for the Ship's book group from another location in about a day!
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If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Writing is currently my hobby, not yet my profession.
Posts: 30517 | From: White Hart Lane | Registered: Oct 2002
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Roselyn
Shipmate
# 17859
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Posted
Try to make sure that the place Librarians work is worker friendly. Too many libraries win architectural awards while being impossible to run effectively and efficiently...They let their imaginations run wild and stop thinking logically.
Posts: 98 | From: gold coast gld australia | Registered: Oct 2013
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Doublethink.
Ship's Foolwise Unperson
# 1984
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Posted
A thing that stops me using libraries for books is the size of the fines. I am disorganised, by the time I return the book I might as well have bought it in the first place.
This is even more true now both second hand and new books are cheaper. I can literally buy a paperback at the shop up the road for 50p. And the stuff I can't buy cheaply, they don't have in.
[ 21. April 2014, 08:22: Message edited by: Doublethink ]
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All political thinking for years past has been vitiated in the same way. People can foresee the future only when it coincides with their own wishes, and the most grossly obvious facts can be ignored when they are unwelcome. George Orwell
Posts: 19219 | From: Erehwon | Registered: Aug 2005
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Palimpsest
Shipmate
# 16772
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Posted
I've had periods of time when it was too hard to return books on time due to other pressures. That's when it's appropriate to buy them yourself.
I don't have the exact numbers, but I recall reading once that in the first year of operation of the Boston Public Library, there were about 10,000 circulations of books. 3 were lost and had the user had to pay for the replacement and 12 people had to pay fines for overdue books. How low the virtuous have fallen.
Posts: 2990 | From: Seattle WA. US | Registered: Nov 2011
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JoannaP
Shipmate
# 4493
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Posted
One of the wonderful things about my library is that, on days when books are due back, it send me an email, with a link to the page where I can renew them online.
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"Freedom for the pike is death for the minnow." R. H. Tawney (quoted by Isaiah Berlin)
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." Benjamin Franklin
Posts: 1877 | From: England | Registered: May 2003
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Jane R
Shipmate
# 331
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Posted
Doublethink: quote:
This is even more true now both second hand and new books are cheaper. I can literally buy a paperback at the shop up the road for 50p.
I wish I had a bookshop like that near me. Last time I bought a new book (last week, in fact) it cost £7.99. The second hand shops around here charge £1.50+ for paperbacks in good condition. The only source of really cheap books is (ironically) the library's sales of unwanted stock... and I hate myself every time I buy a book there because it feels like encouraging them to get rid of their stock, but how else can I make sure my favourites get a good home?
Sighthound: quote:
It's almost as if, somewhere along the way, librarians have come to the conclusion that books are deeply uncool, and that a whole shift of business is needed.
There are two problems, actually. The first is that (British) libraries are not allowed to charge people to borrow books, but are allowed to make charges if you borrow something else - such as a DVD. So the book-related services are not self-financing and are dependent on the size of the library's budget from the government (local authority, really, but ultimately the government). By contrast, if there's a demand for DVD loans (for example), the librarians can set borrowing charges that (hopefully) cover the cost of providing the service.
The second is that libraries have to market their services (or Do Outreach, asyermightsay) to people who don't use them regularly and Promote Reading to the masses. That was part of their original mission, so this is fine, but nowadays that means enticing people through the door with shiny new computers and a nice cheap café and all the latest magazines and DVDs and only allowing them to catch sight of the dreaded Books when they have been softened up, on the frog-in-boiling-water principle.
Unfortunately that makes life difficult for the regular book addicts who are just trying to get their daily fix as quickly as possible before the last bus goes, but you can't please all the people all the time...
Posts: 3958 | From: Jorvik | Registered: May 2001
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Leorning Cniht
Shipmate
# 17564
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Jane R:
nowadays that means enticing people through the door with shiny new computers and a nice cheap café and all the latest magazines and DVDs and only allowing them to catch sight of the dreaded Books when they have been softened up, on the frog-in-boiling-water principle.
I hear this a lot. Is there any evidence that it works?
Is the idea to familiarize people with the library so it isn't scary, or is anyone under the impression that people are likely to pop in for a cup of tea, and decide on the spur of the moment to give this reading lark a go?
Posts: 5026 | From: USA | Registered: Feb 2013
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Huia
Shipmate
# 3473
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Posted
I know my branch, which is temporarily housed in a shopping mall has after school activities, some unrelated to reading that are aimed at teens. Staff just casually leave books such as graphic novels or those with high interest to the age group lying around and it does seem to be having an impact on books taken out by this group.
Librarians are a sneaky bunch ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
Huia
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Charity gives food from the table, Justice gives a place at the table.
Posts: 10382 | From: Te Wai Pounamu | Registered: Oct 2002
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Jane R
Shipmate
# 331
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Posted
Leorning Cniht, on frogs in boiling water: quote:
I hear this a lot. Is there any evidence that it works?
I don't know (maybe someone who still works in a library will be able to answer that) but that's why they do it.
Mostly I like my library (I even buy coffee in the café) but I do find their habit of putting books on random displays irritating. If it's not "On Shelf", its location should be "On the "This Month's Recommendations" display" or "Next to the black sofa in the café" or "Behind the reference librarian's desk" or whatever, so that those of us who are looking for it don't have to waste time wandering all over the library.
They're trying to make the library look more like a bookshop, of course.
Posts: 3958 | From: Jorvik | Registered: May 2001
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Barnabas Aus
Shipmate
# 15869
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Posted
quote:
quote:
Originally posted by Jane R:
nowadays that means enticing people through the door with shiny new computers and a nice cheap café and all the latest magazines and DVDs and only allowing them to catch sight of the dreaded Books when they have been softened up, on the frog-in-boiling-water principle.
I hear this a lot. Is there any evidence that it works?
Is the idea to familiarize people with the library so it isn't scary, or is anyone under the impression that people are likely to pop in for a cup of tea, and decide on the spur of the moment to give this reading lark a go?
In our Australian state, where libraries are free by Act of Parliament, the use of outreach programs and the provision of services such as cafes and free wi-fi has certainly enhanced patronage and seems to have enhanced borrowing. Fiction borrowing increases year on year, non-fiction is only just plateauing, internet hours have increased by over 500% and attendance at programs such as author visits are up by almost 40% in the last five years. Genre-based shelving seems to be the mode in which Gen Y borrowers operate, and many libraries have adopted it successfully. In 2012-13 ebooks constituted only 0.1% of loans.
Nationally, the public library network coordinated a national year of reading in 2012. This had about three times the reach per head of population than the original UK project. While we struggle for adequate funding, all sectors of the community value libraries highly, and a re vocal in opposition to reduction of services.
Posts: 375 | From: Hunter Valley NSW | Registered: Sep 2010
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Jane R
Shipmate
# 331
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Posted
Barnabas Aus: quote:
While we struggle for adequate funding, all sectors of the community value libraries highly, and are vocal in opposition to reduction of services.
This is the real value of outreach for libraries, I think. In the UK they are constantly fighting against an attitude of 'if you want books you should buy them in bookshops' with a side order of 'and now we have the Internet we don't need books anyway', promoted at every opportunity by people who should really know better. In the last round of funding cuts anyone who objected to library closures was characterized as selfish; the only alternative was 'cutting services to vulnerable people' - ignoring the fact that libraries provide services to vulnerable people and suggesting that anyone who cared about libraries must be middle-class, affluent and Completely Out of Touch With Reality.
(BTW it was Leorning Cniht who asked if the 'frog in boiling water' approach worked, although I did post the first paragraph you quoted.)
Posts: 3958 | From: Jorvik | Registered: May 2001
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