I myself am not often a library patron (I have having a time-limit for reading a book when I have such limited time as I do right now). However, I very much think that libraries are important to provide books for those who cannot afford to buy them and to those who have a love of reading and want access to many different books.

I don't know if libraries would really cull classics, though I would hope not. I can understand the response to demand, though, as libraries need to meet the demands of the general public if they are to remain viable in the future.

Wow, I thought I was the only one who did that! Checking out books so they are not culled. But guess what? That doesn't save them at my public library. And I have offered to buy titles but they say no--they have to go to the book sale to benefit the library. And dealers, and others wishing to pay an entrance fee, get in for first dibs. All the money goes to non-stop technology upgrades and popular best-sellers. Can you stand it?

For an interesting read about that subject, check out (hee) Nicholas Basbanes book A Splendor of Letters. One chapter focus on just that issue

My parents couldn't afford to get me books, so the library was my heaven. Its where I learned to read, and where I spent most of my free time. But I rarely go there now. For one thing, they never have the new releases I am looking for, and they rarely have the unusual books. For another - our city's budget is a mess, and they have been culling not just books from the library, but hours and staff as well. We have three libraries here, in the fastest growing city in the country. And they already have closed them for Sundays, and are talking about closing the two branches permanently.

Our society wants people to be literate. To cut libraries is about the most short sighted idea that they could do.

Our library is limited on space, and I notice that most of what they cull are multiple copies of the same title. They put them out on a table in the lobby for the general public to purchase priced anywhere from a quarter to a few dollars.

My mother was an elementary school teacher. A few years ago, before she died (at the too-young age of 64), the original school building was being torn down to make way for a new one. It was decided that many of the old books from the original library wouldn't be moved to the new building, and many of them were either given away or destroyed.

You can imagine my surprise when my mother presented me with an old, tattered, oft-repaired book. When the librarian was going through the old books deciding which ones to cull, she had opened this book and looked at the borrower's card in the back. On Feburary 16, 1957, someone named Brenda was the very first to check out the book, called Miss Boo is Sixteen, and the last person to check out that book, on September 28, 1972, was me. The librarian gave the book to my mother to give to me as a memento. It was an unexpected treasure and a reminder of things past.

Wow, libaries open on a Sunday! As far as I know they are always closed on that day here in the UK.
You don't find many of the 'classics' on the shelves these days but the libraries have a central store where these types of books are kept.
Cuts in funding also mean that the many smaller branches in country towns are usually closed for one/two days a week.
But, if you order a book (and I almost always order something each time I visit our Mobile Library -50pence/30 cents a book) they will do their best to find it for you and if it is not available within the county they will search elsewhere and failing that will usually buy a copy.
It is necessary to be patient however. I picked up a book last week that I had ordered in Dec 2004!
Books seem to be left on the shelves until they fall to pieces so library sales are not much of a bargain.

I volunteer at a very small community library which was once a once room church. We keep the classics but anything else which hasn't been checked out for several years gets put into our barn and then sold at book sale to earn money for newer books. We are a totally volunteer group. It's difficult sometimes getting rid of books but we have such limited shelf space and there comes a time when you just haves to make more room.

I've worked in various libraries over the years. And yes, I have, sadly, noticed a trend to cull the classics mainly in our public libraries. Often they can be bought for pennies at our several annual book sales. Usually the reason given is lack of shelf space and poor physical condition of older copies of classics. However, I frequent the nearby University Library more and more, because often I find they are less apt to cull their classics or their older copies. Thus I am more likely to find a work by Mark Twain or Dickens at the Univ.

As for Interlibrary loans, I've never had to pay for this service in our public libraries. And both Univ. and Public libraries are always open on Sundays. Usually opening time is 1 P.M. to leave the morning free for church-goers.

I've worked in various libraries over the years. And yes, I have, sadly, noticed a trend to cull the classics mainly in our public libraries. Often they can be bought for pennies at our several annual book sales. Usually the reason given is lack of shelf space and poor physical condition of older copies of classics. However, I frequent the nearby University Library more and more, because often I find they are less apt to cull their classics or their older copies. Thus I am more likely to find a work by Mark Twain or Dickens at the Univ.

As for Interlibrary loans, I've never had to pay for this service in our public libraries. And both Univ. and Public libraries are always open on Sundays. Usually opening time is 1 P.M. to leave the morning free for church-goers.

Sorry! somehow this got posted twice....:-(

I am a medical librarian, but generally "weeding" of a library collection follows rules set up by each library. One is almost always the last circulation date. The cut may be 2 or more years (more or less--dependent on space & the subject of the book, as well as redundency in the collection). However, inter-library loan can fill the gaps, since generally there is a "union list" of who owns what so that almost any title is ultimately available. I avail myself of ILL frequently, and the last group of books I got were obtained from West Point Military Library, a university in Mississippi, and the 3rd one escapes me. (I live in NJ). No library can house everything; not even the Library of Congress.

color, I love that story - how observant and thoughtful of that librarian! BTW if their school library was anything like the one at our school - the books that were tossed were out of date. We had some that talked about someday in the future when man walks the moon...

>No library can house everything; not even the Library of Congress.

Actually, I thought they did - isn't a copy of everything published sent there, or has that changed? (one of my most memorable days in DC a few years back was visiting the LofC. Incredible interior, and oh yeah, the books were cool too)

Interlibrary loans were a life saver in grad school. At that time (20 years ago) there was no charge.

veer, in our state, libraries usually were open on Sundays, in the pm (I know other places where this is not done) so I am used to a 7 day library.

I don't go to the library sale in our city, usually nothing I want. But the one in Phoenix is fantastic - in fact they have an entire warehouse that is open to the public one weekend a month. Visiting there is like opening a treasure chest. Well, you do need to separate the wheat from the chaff, but my entire collection of Angela Thirkle book are from there, with the original art work on the dust jackets. Should they still be in the library? Probably. But they are now in a safe place on my shelves where they can be appreciated. Just too bad no one will be able to find it on the library shelves.

My little library is a branch of the big library-we have virtually NO classics on our shelves-the rationale being that if a classic is "required" or "needed" (the implication being only students assigned to read them would be interested) we can have a copy sent out from downtown-it takes anywhere from 3 days to a week if it's on the shlf, who know how long if it's out.

I sent a link for this thread to my son...who revealed to me in response that when he was shelving books in his "career" as a library "page" (yes, that really was the title that the teen age workers had) he would often "lose" the little circulation slips that were in some of the books so that they wouldn't be culled!

Now most libraries are automated, so the books have a bar code instead of a little slip in the back. I loved that little slip. The best books always ahd been checked out the post so I looked for those that had lots of stamps on the card.

Now the librarians can read the bar codes to find out whether or not a book is being taken out, The best way to keep books from being weeded out is to borrow them frequently. Public libraries live and die by their circulation numbers and would not weed out a book that is checked out frequently.

Am I the only one who misses library cards? I remember how excited I was to be able to throw away my children's card so I could get the teen card, and then oh to finally be able to check out books in the adult section! (tho my sis had been getting these for me for years)

I

We still have library cards in my town tho they are "read" by a computer. Which also displays your overdue books. Of which I always have a few. Sigh. But we have no fines in our town so unless someone else has requested the book, I can keep things til I'm done with them.

I remember getting my first library card. My mother tried to leave me in the children's room while she went to get books for herself. A stern librarian barred the doorway with her desk. She demanded, "Do you have a LIBRARY CARD?" I said no. "Can you WRITE YOUR NAME?" Stricken, I said no. I was four years old and this was before Sesame Street. "Then you CAN'T COME IN!" I was humiliated--and I went home and learned to write my name immediately.

My local library (which I have written about in another thread) is a busy and yes, vibrant place. Yet it is closed on Sundays, and in the summer it is closed all weekend! (Sniff) Driving by on those lazy summer days and seeing the building locked and dark makes me so sad. Often the days are very hot, and I often wonder if it would not be a good thing to have the library open so that seniors and others who cannot afford air conditioning could relax there. Oh well, I'm not in charge of the decisions or the budget.

When I lived in California, I used to check out armloads of books to prevent them from being culled. That library had loads of idiosyncratic books, most long out of print, that I loved. I haven't had the time to investigate the culling procedures in my new home town - but I will...

Cindy...I miss the card catalog...

Vee - we have eleven libraries in Harrow; one of them, the nearest to the town centre, has just started opening on Sunday afternoon as an experiment.

I do hope it succeeds....

I'm afraid I don't use libraries very much. When I take my daughter to a Saturday drama class, I tend to disappear into the library and find a book of short stories to read. (That's not always easy!) But I've found from bitter experience that actually taking books out of libraries just means fines when I forget to return them...

Hee, veronica, me too. As well as those yearly volumes of the Reader's Guide (?name) - those huge green tomes that held every article I'd ever want to read. One of the reasons I loved research was using these - and one of the reasons I was so slow was that I kept finding articles I was interested in but had no bearing on my subject!

With computer searches, its all so much easier and faster. But there was something about sitting in the reference room with all those indexes(not the plural, I know) and with everyone else, quietly shifting through it all.

We have a wonderful library that is open on Sundays for three hours during the school year.

Did you know that libraries can now "rent" multiple copies of bestsellers? When the demand dies down, the book seller takes them back and resells them as used books.

When I lived in Singapore, there were little book rental businesses in many malls. You pay a few dollars for the book you want and when you're finished you take it back. The bookseller gives you a portion of your money back that is determined by the number of days you had the book.

So they culled some books - that's nothing. Back where I grew up (Hamburg, Germany), they've culled my entire childhood library! Gone completely. Maybe the area was too affluent & status conscious, and people didn't want to be seen borrowing things...

While I understand and partially share the love of card catalogues and lending slips, I also remember feeling very peeved when the librarian laughed at me because my borrower number appeared three times in a row on a particular book's slip (I was only 8 or 9, and easily embarrassed).

I still do this. There's a particularly beautiful book of Chinese paintings in my lovely little local library, which I borrow every other month...

anyanka...there were two cookbooks that essentially I loaned back to the library now and then...one on breads and one about cooking with children. With today's new internets renewal systems, and reserve systems, they would probably only land in the library for a few minutes now and then.

Hmm, at our local branch, a book is at risk to be "culled" if it has been checked out fewer than three times in the preceeding year. While it may not be the best system, public libraries are meant to serve the public. By and large, that same public is checking out the bestsellers rather than classics and when space is limited, such as at a smaller branch, it only makes sense that the shelf space is dedicated to books that patrons will read. Funding is partially determined by patronage and circ numbers. Our central branch keeps a much larger collection where "classics" are not culled as quickly and one can order a book delivered to one's local branch, including inter-library loans, at no charge.
Unfortunately, having books available which one might think the public "should" read is no guarantee they will. My branch did a display with staff picks, many of which would be called classics and higher-brow literature. Amazing how the books stayed on the display, especially since this branch is located in one of the wealthier and well-educated areas of the county. Yet, the newest Evanovich book had a long, long waiting list...

I have to add--Good Lord! I don't miss the card catalog. For me, that would be like doing my laundry in a wringer washer.

I work the circulation desk at my little branch library-and I love the computer system! We can look at any of the library system's collections and tell you if the book is on the shelf or when it is due, call and have them sent out, renew from home, request from home-I am with bookmom-I wouldn't want to go back to the card catalog.

I adore the online catalog. I love being able to virtually browse the library shelves from my home. Peering through all those little cards was an effort even when I was young. Love being able to place my reserves and just running in to pick up my book when time is short. When it isn't it's hard to turn away from browsing the actual shelves.

No I don't want to go back to the days pre computer. I wrote my masters thesis on an electric typewriter with carbon paper. Computers are a god send, sometimes.

I don't know if others are like me - but when I say I miss library cards, Readers Guide to Periodicals and such, I am really saying that I miss the magic libraries once held for me as a child and young adult. For a lonely child who often didn't fit in, it was a place that opened up the world for me. I think of how I used to browse the shelves at the library. I'd start with the As and look for books that intrigued me. I ended up picking some classic literature, good literature, and just plain good reads that I never would have found if those books were culled because no one was checking them out. Now, these types of books are so seldom on the shelves or seldom recommended, that I do my browsing at the local indie rather than going to the library.

Then there is the culling of staff, and the lack of personal attention. I still remember a wonderful lady named Pricilla McCloud, the children's librarian who later became the head librarian at our branch. I could always depend on her help when I wanted books on a subject, or just 'whats a good book I should read" and she'd find a few which would lead her to more ideas... Librarians like her knew my name, knew my interests, knew what authors might intrigue me.

Now, the librarians are replaced by computer check out machines. There is one librarian at the reference desk who is usually helping out folk on the public computers.

>public libraries are meant to serve the public. By and large, that same public is checking out the bestsellers rather than classics and when space is limited, such as at a smaller branch, it only makes sense that the shelf space is dedicated to books that patrons will read

bookmom I agree to an extent. However the library should still have good copies of the books that have been popular in years passed (not necessarily books that anyone 'should' read) or at the very least books that are being required by school districts. And they should have librarians who know what's out there, ones who are available to help the public that they are catering to.

Unfortunately budget cuts in our community have severly slashed the libraries ability to run. There is a bond election in May that will determine whether or not two of the three libraries in our area will close. And this is such a conservative area that I suspect it will fail.