To: Friedrich Schiller, Sämtliche Werke, 1835, and the other German works of PT 2XXX
Dear Werke:
I am sorry I had to take you from the shelves, in all 12 volumes of beautiful cracking covers and yellowing paper. Apparently your lack of barcode signaled that no one had checked you out in almost 20 years. I am not a rare book expert, but I am pretty sure, given the death of Schiller in 1805, you are a first or second edition.
To the rest of you, some of you are even older than the Schiller and some of you are relatively new scholarly works that have obviously not been opened once since you were purchased. Some of you were donations in memory, ex libris Professor Long-Since-Passed-Away.
Most likely none of you will ever be read again.*
Sincerely,
Steven
- Quoting Steven’s new supervisor in charge of the logistics of moving things to the up-town storage facility: “If we do our jobs correctly, hopefully no more than 3% of all these works will ever be requested again.”
The Globe and Mail has a great article about Canada’s “thriving” libraries.
Long the subject of warnings that the Internet would spell their demise, public libraries are booming through new branches, more resources and more computers.
The article notes how libraries are expanding to be become public spaces which just happen to hold books. I didn’t know this, but there are branches of the Toronto Public Library which have hosted concerts, much to my shock (although the OPAC still sucks). Branches are being built all over the country, apparently, with the new Grande Bibliothèque in Montreal hosting double the number of patrons expected, 8,000 daily.
And, if that wasn’t enough, it just isn’t all computers, coffee shops and video games in the library. Circulation has gone up:
While there are no national statistics, the canadian Urban Libraries Council, which represents public libraries in cities with more than 100,000 people, says circulation increased more than 25 per cent between 1996 and 2005; visits went up by more than 20 per cent in the same period.
The article attributes the increase to the more “service-oriented culture” (i.e. no “ssssh”-ing). Whatever it is, this is great to hear. Finally professionals are getting the message and it is working for both librarians and users. The article concludes:
Many librarians argue that instead of weakening libraries, the Internet has magnified the need for accurate, reliable information, and in, in some cases, the service of trained professionals…[Says CLA Pres. Prof. Schrader:] “I believe that there will always be a very important role–and more important than people really recognize–for librarians to play in helping people find information.”
