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March 22, 2007
Acquisitions
I was in a library today which sensibly had a stand at the front door which displays the new titles it has acquired recently. That's a very good thing to do, in my view, it is not only interesting but it introduces the reader to the idea of what a library does.
On the stand I counted six titles from the imprint "Silhouette". These are romantic tales by authors with improbable invented names, all in paperback. The jackets have handsome heroes dancing in ballrooms with young ladies in long green dresses on the front cover and hairstyling from 1937. All well and good if the stand had perhaps a hundred or more other books on it, but there were only ten books altogether. And no, the other new titles weren't by Jeffrey Archer or Nell Freudenberger. What kind of an image of the library does that convey? We worry about whether young people use our libraries - look no further. This display wanted to make me scream and run-- and I'm as old as Richard Charkin. Well almost. I know people like these books-- but what about everything else that is written and published?
Posted by Tim Coates at March 22, 2007 9:02 PM
Comments
Please name and shame
Posted by: Bill Neave at March 22, 2007 11:50 PM
Bill, thanks. I decline your offer, but I will add my suspicion that this library uses the now fashionable "supplier selection" - so untangle that one. Someone specified a profile for this-- and a supplier has a profile in its collection that permits this. See how mediocrity perpetuates itself. Not, of course, that Harlequin or Silhouette are mediocre, it's the size of the dose (like the number of spoonsfull of sugar) that is sickly.
Posted by: Tim at March 22, 2007 11:56 PM