Q&A: Wendy Bartlett, Collection Development Coordinator, Cuyahoga Cty. P.L.
By Heather McCormack Jul 7, 2011At this year's BookExpo America, I had the distinct pleasure of hearing Wendy Bartlett, collection development coordinator of Cuyahoga County Public Library, hold forth on the art and science of buying for demand. That is, giving the people what they want—and anticipating what they don't know they'll desire for information and entertainment. Her bold comments on reviews, publisher catalogs, and especially the midlist raised eyebrows, not to mention ire, among librarians and publishers in the audience and in my Twitterstream. See my "BEA Survival Diaries" post for details.
So she could clarify her successful formula (Cuyahoga has a two-to-one holds ratio—and a budget of $3.9 million for print and about $400,00 for ebooks), I asked for an interview, and she generously agreed. What follows is a crash course in patron-focused collection development that relies heavily on the supposedly dying book review culture. Anyone with a stake in the publishing ecosystem should take note.
HM: At the "Buying for Demand" panel at BookExpo America, moderated by EarlyWord's Nora Rawlinson and also featuring Cathy Langer of the Tattered Cover [both pictured with Bartlett below, from left to right], you referred to the midlist as "the junk in the middle," and this shocked many librarians who read my post because they collect a lot of genre fiction, which many would typically define as midlist. Were you thinking of genre fiction when you made your comment?
WB: I didn't say we didn't buy midlist; I said we didn't buy bad midlist. With over 21 million items circulated last year, we absolutely buy genre fiction, and by the boatload! What I am passionate about is buying good midlist, good anything, for that matter. I see over and over librarians accepting standing orders and titles in their vendor's lists that get mixed or bad reviews, when it's their job to put their collection money on titles that their customers will find irresistible. They seem to think if there's the remotest chance someone will want it, they have to buy it. News flash: no customers want this stuff.
HM: Have you routinely collected circulation data to check the results of your research? I guess I am looking for an example of a book you auto-ordered versus one you put more thought into selecting. Was there much of a difference in circulation?
WB: I have never auto-ordered anything and never will. I see bad choices crop up on our weeding lists and whatever is languishing on our shelves. If I read a middling review and thought, "Oh, well, I'll give it a shot," inevitably that book sat and was weeded with very weak circs. I learned fast to trust the reviewers and my readers to know bad from good!
HM: I would also like to know how you define "midlist." I am wondering if it differs from how most publishers and librarians view it.
WB: Midlist for us is anything that's not frontlist. If it's not a best-selling author, then it's midlist. Lots of lovely stuff there—and not so lovely. The difference? Badly written frontlist still moves because the fan base is there. Badly written midlist does not. Those books actually need to be better from the get-go. A huge challenge for new writers.
HM: What in your mind are the most valuable collection management/RA tools? I am especially curious about how much faith you have in book reviews.
WB: The most valuable collection management RA tools on the face of the earth are my customers' reactions and word of mouth, followed by my staff. Then we rely heavily on prepub reviews: Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, blogs; all the normal stuff people look at. I think what is different about how we buy is the enormous credibility we give our customers to tell us what they want.
HM: I assumed correctly that your midlist comment was limited to print, meaning no ebooks, as many librarians wondered, simply because there is a lot of original ebook publishing that is viewed as midlist and to dismiss that would be bad collection development. But I am curious how you've come to such a staunch conclusion.
WB: Yes, I meant print. As I said, I think my team and I are very unique in that we spend a lot of time in branches waiting on customers and talking to staff. Most centralized selectors are in an office, and they don't get the instant feedback. If I make a buying mistake, I see it staring back at me from the shelves of 29 locations. I work a circulation desk shift for four hours every other Sunday. My staff subs when someone calls off in the branches, and we cover staff meetings. That's not counting our official branch visits.
I'm staunch because I see bad selections languishing on new shelves and good selections flying every day. The weeding lists are helpful, but they just bear out when we see the "shelf sitters."
HM: Do you approach buying ebooks differently than print? Do you put your RA team to work the same way you do with print titles? I want a sketch of your buying process here. I would imagine there's less gold to glean because so much ebook stuff is frontlist and automatic purchases, but you tell me.
WB: What we have started to do is to buy titles simultaneously. If we work a catalog and pick up someone's new title, we try to buy it that same day in ebook form as well, but that's frustrating for us because our vendor—and maybe this is true of all vendors—doesn't allow you to purchase the title until 30 days before publication. Soooo not good enough! Our print versions are available for holds up to a year ahead of time, and I would love for that to be true of ebook versions.
Yes, I do approach ebooks differently if only because the title selection is so limited. Very frustrating! We'd carry much more in ebook form if we could. So the RA people just deal with print, and if they love a book, we do our best to secure it in any format, including ebook.
HM: As self-publishing explodes even more, and original ebook publishing takes off, I think libraries could become even more important centers of discovery. RA experts like you and your team will be more relevant. What is your philosophy on the library as liaison between publishers and the reading public? Do you think this is a powerful argument toward libraries getting better ebook loaning models?
WB: I do, actually. I think the next Joe Hill, Cory Doctorow, and Julia Quinn will come up this way, and if we aren't there to promote those titles, then ultimately the publishers will lose. I really don't think they get that at all.
HM: Do you think ebooks will change the traditional definition of midlist? As a book review editor, I think they have the potential to help authors launch faster. Have you observed any of that happening at Cuyahoga?
WB: See above, but yes, yes, yes! Haven't seen it in anything but print, but we do this all the time with underappreciated/undiscovered print, and I think that will carry over, for some genres much more than others, in ebooks.
HM: At the panel, you mentioned that you buy as much print as electronic, but do you envision that changing in the next five years?
WB: I guess it will have to, but honestly, I would have told you it should have impacted us by now, and it hasn't. Maybe this is unique to my area, as we are hit hard by the Great Recession. Maybe we are behind the curve. I keep expecting a tipping point, but it doesn't come. Is it because library customers are somewhat late adapters in general? Surely, we'll see this in the next 12 to 24 months, I think, but, man, are we loving how it is now!
HM: What advice do you have for your fellow librarians trying to build and maintain print collections that remain popular while keeping an eye on rising ebook demand, especially those that have smaller budgets than you?
WB: Here's what we try to do: buy the big titles so customers can count on us as a reliable source for their favorite frontlist authors; then buy what authors we can afford in cooking, sci-fi/fantasy, paranormal romance, and romance. Those are the bigger ebook readers for us. Categories that at least for us are not translating into ebook sales are inspirational and cozy mysteries-unless it's a frontlist cozy author. Finally, we buy summer reading titles for teens and other superpopular teen authors like Sarah Dessen. That demographic is flocking to ebooks, at least for us.
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