The more general point I was probably trying to make

[oursin]

On reflection, my reaction to the 'what's wrong with public libraries' question boiled down to the same reaction I've had to similar phenomena in other spheres. It's not so much that I'm saying 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' or that outreach per se or extension of services is a bad thing, but that what I perceive is a failure to engage with a

Comments

[green_knight]

In trying to cater to everybody what happens is that my local library drifts more and more towards the lowest common denominator.

Which means that *nobody* is satisfied. More, faster computers are useless if you are logged out after thirty minutes and can't access half the web thanks to extreme net-nannying. My local library has a huuuge collection of Mills & Boon - _but_ most of them are more than three years old. They just bought until capacity and stopped - blocking shelfspace for sensible books, and not satisfying the needs for people who inhale the stuff and want to inhale them as they come out.

Instead of encouraging research (and facilitating it by having a decent catalogue and clueful librarians) they sell off good books and tell users to google.

Etc.
And, sadly, my library is better stocked than the ultra-local public one, and - once you've substracted kids, large print and Mills&Boons - about the same size. Now if I had the same _shelfspace_...

[oursin]

Well, yes, there is the space element - though when I see some of the shelving arrangements in public libraries which seem to scatter books thinly throughout a much larger space which could surely be more efficiently deployed, I wonder how big an element that is compared to new philosophies about how the interior spaces should look. (I don't want a library to look like Waterstones: I want it to look like a library.) And there used to be (not sure if there still is) an arrangement whereby individual UK public libraries were responsible for keeping different portions of lesser-used reserve stocks for ILL purposes. And had their own secondary stores. But knowing there's a mechanism for finding specific things isn't the same as the possibility of serendipitous discoveries.

[green_knight]

I think that it's a mistake to solely cater to the popular, or the seemingly popular - viz large numbers of rubbish books in my local libraries *which aren't taken out* that nonetheless displace others

[londonkds]

The problem with partnerships with research libraries is that much academic content is now online and subject to rigid institution-member-only access contracts.

[green_knight]

This library is a small local outpost - no charge for loans from the network - but without a catalogue that functions, no-one knows what's there, and there aren't enough books for the librarian to even demonstrate what a kid would be look for and how.

Numbers - based on observation - who comes in, who spends time. If 'library user=person who wants free internet access' then the whole library thing becomes pointless; that's not a library.

Our system is ancient enough to use a piece of paper glued into the book. If the first stamp dates to the publication date, and there are only two or three more until now, and some of the books you've bought off the library had sheets that were filled to the brim, then that might not be a scientific study, but it sure as hell makes you wonder who controls what remains in the collection.

[richenda]

Scene

Public library Reference section

Characters

Me and Another

Another: "Quiet in here, ain't it?"
Me: "Well, it is a library."
Another: gazes at me in a completely uncomprehending manner

[richenda]

I don't demand "quiet as the grave", but it seems reasonable to me that the Reference Section should be quiet enough to read in.

[movingfinger]

That went quite a while ago. Which is why I'm not in there.

[serrana]

C's in library school, as I may have mentioned before, and he has a classmate who recently gave a brown bag at the local university reference library. Said classmate's topic was "How research libraries of the future will be more like bookstores." Talk-giver works at a bookstore.

According to second classmate, who attended the talk and works at the university library, the reaction of library staff who attended the talk ranged from "What the hell?!?" to "We are never, ever going to give this guy a job."