by: Lynda Edwards
Public library books are sent to the dumpster when they violate what some Lafayette librarians jokingly call the “three booger rule.”
The term refers to books too soiled, stinky or damaged to be saved. The Lafayette Public Library will need to junk 24,511 such books this year.
Library administrator Teresa Elberson used a battered copy of “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” to explain.
“See, the pages smell bad and are covered with stains you really don’t want to identify,” Elberson said. “The cover is barely held together with Scotch tape. It’s cheaper to replace it than repair it.”
Discards include books so unloved they haven’t circulated for years. Hopelessly outdated electronics guides and old almanacs fall into this category. Some once-hot books have so outlived their trendiness, not even the Friends of the Library volunteers, who gleaned 6,968 books from the collection to sell, thought they could use them at the March book sale.
“What do you do with 30 copies of Doris Day’s autobiography?” library Director Sona Dombourian asked. “When it first came out (in 1975), everyone wanted to read it. But if items haven’t circulated for years, they have to go so we can make room for new publications. Even in this digital age, there are people of all ages who want print books. Print books offer a different sensory experience than e-books or using Kindle.”
E-books are 8 percent of the collection, DVDs about 30 percent, while print is 53 percent. Dombourian has $475,000 to spend on books in 2014, what she calls a “remarkably generous budget.”
She and Elberson have the fascinating task of becoming literary cool-hunters. They must look beyond the vampires, zombies, “Hunger Games” knockoffs, Grisham mysteries and get-rich-now bestsellers to spot the next genre, topic or author about to explode into a pop cultural phenomenon. They read reviews, follow bloggers, snap smartphone photos of new bookstore displays and monitor authors on national tours. Dombourian counts shelves Target allots to authors and genres while Elberson does the same at Wal-Mart.
When African-American science fiction romance emerged as a hot new genre, Dombourian added books from the genre to the libraries’ science fiction, romance and African-American sections. Dombourian showed a photo of Barnes & Noble’s first “paranormal teen romance” display to her librarians so they could discuss how to cull from horror, young adult, fantasy and romance titles to create enthralling book displays.
Bad reviews do not mean Lafayette residents won’t want to read a book.
“The new Bridget Jones novel got bad reviews partly because the author killed off Mark Darcy, but we already have a waiting list of people who want to read it,” Dombourian said.
The librarians also must decide what trendy technology to buy. They dodged a bullet by not buying a lot of laser discs but are unsure about how big the demand for Blu-ray Discs will become. VHS tapes were officially declared dead last year when not one of them was checked out by anyone at any Lafayette library, according to Elberson. The VHS tapes are boxed up and sitting in a warehouse with the 24,511 junked books.
“Our record albums and cassette tapes are in the warehouse, too,” Elberson said. “I knew they would die when automakers no longer included cassette players in cars. CDs may be the next item that patrons abandon because they prefer downloading.”
But they both realize there are Lafayette residents who crave the old technology. Dombourian met some shoppers in their 20s who were buying Beatles and Rolling Stones vinyl for the album art. And the Friends of the Library members are pondering how to put together themed groups of VHS tapes or cassettes and sell them on eBay to collectors who still cherish VCRs and Walkmans.
from: The Advertiser
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