Do you find libraries lacking in the books they supply?
@allyoftherain (7208)
United States
March 21, 2010 2:49pm CST
I like libraries! Don't get me wrong. They're great for free-reads when I'm out of books and out of money. I go to the library all the time. But I find whenever I want to read a bestseller or a popular book, they never have it! Not in the sense that they don't have copies of the book, but that they're never there. They have dozens of copies all checked out and on hold. There's even a waiting list. Those books never spend time on the shelves.
The funny thing is that bookstores have these same books all the time. They pile up the copies until you can't help but find them. I guess it's because bookstores lose money whenever you don't get the book from them. Libraries are federally funded and it doesn't matter if they can't provide you with the book, they'll still get money.
Now, personally I think people should read more than just the bestsellers, but I like to be able to read books that my friends have actually heard of from time to time.
Do you think libraries are lacking when it comes to providing the best sellers?
3 people like this
4 responses
@Porcospino (31365)
• Denmark
23 Mar 10
At my local library you can borrow books and films. If you want to read a popular book there is sometimes a waiting list, but I am usually able to get the book in a month or two. It is a lot harder to get the popular films, and sometimes I have to wait many, many months to get the film that I am interested in. I am able to make reservations online, and that is very nice. I get an email when I can pick up the book or the film. I am able to get books from other libraries if my own library doesn't have the books that I am interested in, and I can do that online as well.
@hvedra (1619)
•
22 Mar 10
Libraries have become weirder and weirder. Ours actually does stock thirty copies of bestsellers - usually the kind of novel you can pick up cheap anyway and will soon be in every charity shop in town. Meanwhile, if you want something that isn't pulp fiction they act like you are asking them to supply subersive literature.
Our local library was caught throwing new and nearly new books in the skip to "make room" for more title. They claimed that they were only getting rid of books that were old and hadn't been borrowed for a year - so egg was on faces when the local paper caught them throwing away books that were less than two years old and had been borrowed a month before they were thrown away.
What also happened was they reduced the size of the stacks. Before they were seven shelves high and now they are five! They claim the shelves are full but when there are a lot less of them you need fewer books to fill them.
Their other habit was having one book in a serial but not the others - usually a book from the middle somewhere and then wondering why nobody wants it!
@laglen (19759)
• United States
21 Mar 10
Not at all. When I want a specific book, I go on the website and put in a request. Then when they have it ready for me, they call. Really easy. I do not expect them to have so many copies of one book, they get the same funding and probably try to get more variety.
@antarcticpostcards (472)
• United States
22 Mar 10
I do not have that problem exactly, as I very rarely read popular books when they are new and if I do I just go buy it or wait a little while for them to start flooding the used bookstore. I do have the selection problem when I am looking for specific things often, though. Right now I have been trying to find books about my local city and it is hard to find ones that are not missing, in repair, or actually check outable. Most of the books even the fiction ones are in the reference section and half the time the reference section has the stuff unfindable because stuff has not been reshelved.
