I read this article on Washingtonpost.com about the Fairfax County public libraries, their limited shelf space, and the sacrifices that they must make in terms of which books they keep. It’s a pretty interesting read, and while I don’t feel strongly about it one way or the other, I can see how some people would.
How do you feel about a public library purging older, sometimes “classic” books/authors from their collection to make room for more popular items?
Actually, ‘Mockingbird’ is just listed as an example of one of the books that meets the criteria for possible culling. I don’t think it’s actually been discarded from Reston. They also said this:
“Classics such as Ernest Hemingway’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls” and Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” are among the titles that haven’t been checked out in two years and could be eliminated. Librarians so far have decided to keep them.”
I doubt any of the really well known classics will be dumped, but how many lesser known books that may be valuable will we lose?
And I think I’m going to start a petition this minute to have “The Mermaid Chair” removed from all libraries everywhere. 😉
I read this article as well, and (for example), it didn’t sit with me to well that “To Kill a Mockingbird” wasn’t going to be available at the Reston Regional.
Granted, we’re blessed in this county with so many libraries that no one will really be unable to get one of the classic novels, but it’s very disconcerting.
What I took away from the article is that they’re more in favor of the Oprah’s Club, “trendy” type books. I guess as long as we don’t have a million copies of “The Mermaid Chair” and nothing else, it will probably be OK.
Where do I sign that petition?