Old classics eliminated at Virginia library
Not a censorship issue per se, but with similar effect: the Fairfax county library system in Virginia is eliminating thousands of classics and other revered literature to make way for more popular modern novels, computers, audiovisual areas, and individual study carrels in the libraries. Lisa Rein of the Washington Post (Jan. 3) reports:
"You can't find "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" at the Fairfax City Regional Library anymore. Or "The Education of Henry Adams" at Sherwood Regional. Want Emily Dickinson's "Final Harvest"? Don't look to the Kingstowne branch.
"It's not that the books are checked out. They're just gone. No one was reading them, so librarians took them off the shelves and dumped them.
"Along with those classics, thousands of novels and nonfiction works have been eliminated from the Fairfax County collection after a new computer software program showed that no one had checked them out in at least 24 months.
"Public libraries have always weeded out old or unpopular books to make way for newer titles. But the region's largest library system is taking turnover to a new level.
"Like Borders and Barnes & Noble, Fairfax is responding aggressively to market preferences, calculating the system's return on its investment by each foot of space on the library bookshelves -- and figuring out which products will generate the biggest buzz. So books that people actually want are easy to find, but many books that no one is reading are gone -- even if they are classics..."
Thanks to Fred Stoss for posting a link to this article on the SRRT Action Council email forum of the American Library Association.
"You can't find "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" at the Fairfax City Regional Library anymore. Or "The Education of Henry Adams" at Sherwood Regional. Want Emily Dickinson's "Final Harvest"? Don't look to the Kingstowne branch.
"It's not that the books are checked out. They're just gone. No one was reading them, so librarians took them off the shelves and dumped them.
"Along with those classics, thousands of novels and nonfiction works have been eliminated from the Fairfax County collection after a new computer software program showed that no one had checked them out in at least 24 months.
"Public libraries have always weeded out old or unpopular books to make way for newer titles. But the region's largest library system is taking turnover to a new level.
"Like Borders and Barnes & Noble, Fairfax is responding aggressively to market preferences, calculating the system's return on its investment by each foot of space on the library bookshelves -- and figuring out which products will generate the biggest buzz. So books that people actually want are easy to find, but many books that no one is reading are gone -- even if they are classics..."
Thanks to Fred Stoss for posting a link to this article on the SRRT Action Council email forum of the American Library Association.
posted by Stephen Denney | 8:31 PM
2 Comments:
I am sure that even though some of the classics may be removed from this particular library, they are available to the patrons through Interlibrary Loan. As we have a huge space problem in the small library where I work, I understand the need to weed out what is not being used. However, we have e-books that are the classics and any book in libraries across Canada are available to our patrons.
Ironically, when I started Fahrenheit 451 Banned Book Club, we ended up checking the shelves for many of the classics which had disappeared over the years and had to order them. Now they go out most frequently during the months when we run the book club.
The classics will always be with us.
In a follow up to my last comment, let me say that my co-workers were concerned enough about the weeding out of classics (not in our particular library) that we have put up a display of them. To our delight, they are being rediscovered and we find ourselves having to restock the display daily.
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