Editorial: Balancing Act

We're way beyond "give 'em what they want"

Francine Fialkoff, Editor -- Library Journal, 7/15/2005

We've come a long way from the simplistic "give 'em what they want" (with its concomitant centralized collection development) vs. "give 'em what they need" debate that riled librarians some 20 years ago. The panels at this year's Day of Dialog (see p. 17) preceding the BookExpo America show underscored just how far. Impacted by television, magazines, the Internet, and every other type of consumer media and technology, libraries currently deliver a much richer and more complex mix of materials than ever before. Downloadable video? In the works. Downloadable audio? Here already. Graphic novels? A format, not a genre. Popular books? On the shelves in bulk the same day as they are in the bookstores, weeded when the rush is over.

What's driving all these changes? Community demand, demographics, and new technology, both for the user and the librarian. [For more on acquisitions trends and tools, see Rick Lugg and Ruth Fischer's "Acquisitions' Next Step," p. 30, and the netConnect mailed with this issue of LJ.]

In Gwinnett County PL, GA, "traditional ways" have been upended "when 65 percent of search [for books and other materials] happens from home," says materials management director Mabel Anne Kincheloe. "It's a totally different perspective. We look at it as an opportunity to market...to expand our customer base." Search from home also increases the pressure to speed up ordering and delivery of titles.

Phoenix PL has a deal with Baker & Taylor (B&T) and BWI for the two vendors to do nearly all its collection development via sophisticated selection profiles. The library is "retaining $1 million" for its own selections, says collection development coordinator Kathleen Sullivan.

King County PL, WA, is moving from using "vendor [i.e., wholesaler]-produced lists to vendor tools," says Angelina Benedetti, manager of selection and orders. "We have to do the work on one end or the other," she says, "either culling vendor lists or creating our own." Nevertheless, her team doesn't have much time to select books, she says. "We have to spend a lot of time selling centralized collection development to the rest of the staff." That's partly because they pulled money for buying from the community libraries. "It's difficult for front-line staff to use vendor tools," says Benedetti, in part justifying the shift.

There's a word of caution in all this, not only from librarians but from vendors as well. "Profiles are recommended lists," says B&T's George Coe, "they're not recommended orders." Adds Ingram veteran Larry Price, "We don't know your community." Nevertheless, says Coe, "Wouldn't it be nice if circ statistics could feed back into [our] systems to give trends…. Why are we duplicating efforts across multiple libraries when the end result is the same…. I'm not defining it for you."

On the other hand, Brodart's Lauren Lee, a librarian, notes, "There's only so far you can go with automated [lists]. You need participation at all levels, [including] public service." Both Lee and Benedetti agree that "selection is more art than science."

On the most basic level, the media-driven "give 'em what they want" philosophy seems to have prevailed, at least across the top tier of what is ordered by public libraries. There's more to libraries than the popular, however, as Gold Coast PL's (NY) Cathleen Towey is quick to point out.

"We have a role as a nonprofit in promoting things that are beautiful, well written, memorable, provocative," says Towey, who also teaches readers' advisory and collection development at the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies at Queens College, NY. "We have to have that on the shelf, too."

Most librarians, and the wholesalers who work with them, understand this duality: offsetting the popular with the edifying. "That's the challenge of the next five or ten years," says B&T's Coe. "If we want our communities to pay taxes and fund us, we must balance what we think is good and what our communities are asking us for."

fialkoff@reedbusiness.com