Lots of People Want to Check Out this Library

 Kate Dwyer. "Lots of People Want to Check Out this Library", New York Times,  January 16, 2022, p. ST3. 

After Dr. Mackesy's death, a SWAT-team-like group of librarians and conseravtionists spent three weeks combing through his book-filled, 7,400-squre-foot house to select 35,000 volumes to add to the university's libraries. 

Surprise discoveries included an 18th century Rousseau text with charred covers (found in the kitchen), a "pristine" copy of a rare 1950s exphibition catalog showing Wassily Kandinsky's paintings, posters from the May 1968 protests when stuents in Paris occupies the Sorbonne, a hand-drawn Christmas card from the filmmaker John Waters and the orginial recordings of the thorists at that 1966 structuralism conference. 

"For years, everyone had said, 'There's got to be recordings of those lectures,'" said Liz Mengel, associate director of collections and acadmic serivices for the Sheridan Libraries at John Hopinks.  "Well, we finally foudnd the recordings of those lectures.  They were hidden in a cabinet behind a bookshelf behind a couch."  Several first editions by 20th-century poets and novelists sat on a shelf in the laundry room. 

After the librarians from Hopkins and nearby Loyola Notre Dame were finished selecting their donations, the remaining books were carted away by a dealer, so Dr. Macksey's son could prepare the house to be sold. 

COMMENT

When a professor who was known to be a book collector died, libraries got first crack at his collection which turned out to be a dragon's hoarde of hidden treasure.  It was especially generous of the heirs to let the librarians pick what they wanted since they could have just gone straight to the book dealers.  It was also perceptive of the librarians to take the offer since some librarians seem to think that it's not worth their time to accept and paruse the collections of retired or deceased faculty.   

Readers Have Many Opinions on How to Cull Your Book Collection

Stephanie Merry. "Readers Have Many Opinions on How to Cull Your Book Collection and Also Why You Never Should." Washington Post. August 2, 2020. https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/readers-have-many-opinions-on-how-to-cull-your-book-collection--and-also-why-you-never-should/2020/07/31/c5a6d044-d26f-11ea-8c55-61e7fa5e82ab_story.html

It’s a dilemma all collectors of books face at one time or another,” writes commenter RBSchultz. “When I last moved, I gave away to the local library my vast collection of World War II and Vietnam War books so that others might enjoy them. After I moved, I decided that my collection of photography books was too heavy and large in volume. These went to my local Friends of the San Francisco Library where the sale proceeds supported the library. My vast collection of polar and mountaineering books will ultimately go to auction.

...

When Jacques Caillault complained that the local library had no interest in a personal library, commenter gareilly offered some helpful alternatives:
“I don’t suppose you would be willing to ship your books here, to The Friends of the Temple Public Library, in Temple Texas. When our world isn’t falling apart, we have two sales a year of donated books. The money funds a book mobile (we are saving to buy a second one), kid and adult programs in the library and special needs, such as installing a “Free Little Library” at a local elementary school. If you aren’t willing to reward us with your stash, search online for a library group closer to home. Talk to them, not the main librarian, who probably has more on their plate than we know. A volunteer group would have the members to sort your stash. Once, we got thousands of books from a chess master who passed on. That donation, properly marketed brought our group thousands of dollars, but I am sure the head librarian would have turned it down if she’d seen the specialty chess books in the collection. Our group had the resources and time to make sure those books found good homes.”

COMMENT

     Libraries that accept donations and hold book sales perform an essential public service.  People who like to read inevitably acquire too many books.  The books have to go someplace. 

    With Friends of the Library providing volunteer help, book sales can help with funding. However, many librarians, overly focused on money, have failed to grasp the public service aspect of accepting book donations.  The librarian prejudice against book sales is so strong that one such volunteer suggests avoiding the librarians all together.  

American Gods

Neil Gaiman, American Gods. Tenth Anniversary Edition. Author's preferred text. 2011.

     "Hinzelmann, have you heard of eagle stones?"
     "Up north of Rhinelander? Nope, that's Eagle River. Can't say I have."
     "How about Thunderbirds?"
     "Well, there was the Thunderbird Framing Gallery up on Fifth Street, but that closed down.  I'm not helping, am I?"
     "Tell you what, why don't you go look at the library.  Good people, although they may be kind of distracted by the library sale on this week. I showed you where the library was, didn't I?"
     Shadow nodded and said so long.  He wished he'd thought of the library himself.  [p.372]

COMMENT

      The entire library episode actually extends from p. 372-377 -- too long for me to type out.  What does Shadow do at the library?  He requests a library card,  has a discussion with a librarian about a man who stole rare library books, researches Native American traditions, talks to a neighbor and purchases weeded library books at the library book sale.  
     Two of these book sale books are probably perfectly appropriate to weed, but one of them should certainly have been kept in the collection unless it was a duplicate-- Minutes of the Lakeside City Council, 1872-1884.  If this was indeed the only copy of local history it was completely irresponsible for librarians to send it to the book sale.  However, the contents of this imaginary book turn out to be a plot point since is contains evidence about children killed by a resident demon.  In real life Gaiman is an outspoken supporter of libraries. As a writer, he had to to betray the librarians and send this particular  book to the book sale in order to give his character  more time to read it.  

Can't. Just. Stop.

 

Sharon Begley, Can't. Just. Stop.: An Investigation of Compulsions, Simon & Schuster, 2017.

Although I mercilessly cull old clothing, papers and even books (donating them to the local library), I keep these things, and a few others, because they connect me to people and times I will never see again. They are little tiles in the mosaic of personal identity. Our stuff expands that identity, deepens the meaning of our lives, provides security, and attaches us to our own past as well as to a world beyond ourselves. [p. 203]

COMMENT

   This library anecdote comes from a chapter on Compulsive Hoarding.  The word "bibliomania" specifically refers to book hoarding.  Hoarding is driven not so much by greed for stuff as by an ability to imagine something potentially useful in each hoarded object.  Begley describes one Victorian bibliomaniac, Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872), who was driven by anxiety at seeing the destruction of books dismantled for their gold inlays.  In his old age, Phillipps wanted to sell his collection to the British national library, but the librarians were not interested. Ironically, the immense hoarded collection did, in fact, save books that would otherwise have been lost or destroyed.  Some of these books eventually ended up in libraries and archives.

    The emotional value of books is something some librarians refuse to take seriously.  Begley describes how she hangs on to certain sentimental objects from the past, but is able to let go books go since they are going to support a good cause (the library).  In Carbon Ideologies Vol. II, William Vollmann writes "Of all things I owned I valued most my books.  I hoped that someone would use them after me." [p. 629]

   In another blog post (What to Do With the Stuff That's Cluttering Your Home) I talk about a library administrator who thought the library booksale was "inefficient."  This man openly mocked the emotional and sentimental attachment that people have to books, and fairly often the literature of librarianship similarly ridicules love of books, particularly when people object to weeding projects.  These librarians are surprised and offended when their patrons oppose throwing out books of little value in order to make space for things that are likely to be used more often.  They accuse patrons who oppose weeding of being, essentially, hoarders.  Yet the fact that something has seen little use in the past says nothing at all about its value in the future.  One recurring library anecdote tells of discovering hidden treasure in dusty stacks.  When the dusty stacks are thrown away, the hidden treasure goes with them.

     The problem as I see it is that typical library weeding policies define only what is bad and valueless, but not what is good and worth keeping. Denigrating whole shelves of books as worthless actually is offensive to anyone who values literacy, scholarship and education.  On the other hand, a policy that described how to find and save hidden treasures would go a long way towards reassuring people that librarians are making honest and well-considered decisions about how to clear out the clutter.

What to Do With the Stuff That's Cluttering Your Home

Rhonda Kaysan, "What to Do With the Stuff That's Cluttering Your Home," New York Times, Sunday, January 26, 2019, p BU9.

Charities that will take specific donations:...
Books and other Media

• Libraries: Call first to find out their policy for taking gently used books.  Even libraries that do not generally take donations often have a collection day for annual book sales. 

COMMENT

   Some years ago I worked with an especially arrogant male library administrator who foolishly believed that libraries should be run "more like a business."  This man used his administrative power to eliminate the library book sale which was breaking although not making much money.  He claimed it was "inefficient," but I suspect that he actually just hated print books.  He strongly believed in the mythological "death of print" and thought his own advocacy to replace print libraries with ebooks was "cutting edge."

    Fast forward to now.  That same library has re-instated the book sale as a popular periodic event.  What that administrator never grasped was that library book sales are an important public service whether or not the library makes money.  People who buy books need a way to get rid of the ones they don't want to keep.  The New York Times article points out that "used bookstores buy books," but "some stores can be quite selective."  The library becomes a place to re-distribute books in order to support a culture of reading.  Unsold books may still end up in the recycle bin, but not until they have been thoroughly picked over by people who might want to read or re-sell them.

   That same administrator, by the way, failed to grasp that non-ownership is actually one of the biggest benefits of libraries.   He believed if information were cheap enough people would always prefer to store electronic files on  their computers instead of using libraries.  It's not at all clear where he got the idea that organizing digital files is a simple, pleasant or convenient task.  It's actually a great service to be able read zillions of books without having to keep and organize them.  At the library, I can always take a chance on something that I may not end up liking well enough to read all the way through.