Collection Reflection

Two years ago, I wrote a post on taking over collection development for the Young Adult video game collection at my library. A few things have changed since then, and some questions emerged which I thought it might be helpful to answer here. In the last year, I've been able to grow the video game collection at this location (kept behind the desk for security reasons) to a modest number of games. This means that when people come in looking for games I at least have something  to show them to confirm that we do order games. Sometimes managing a collection that's almost always circulating--and therefore intangible--is hard to market to patrons. I periodically remind my co-workers that we do have video games in the collection, and I keep my ears open when patrons are at the circulation desk. There's been more than one occasion that I've sprinted over there to let patrons know what we have and guide them through the process of putting games at other locations on hold. T...

I got this email from a staff member today. It may have made my Monday. It isn't about being a digital-only evangelist, it's about helping people (patrons AND staff) see things differently than before. It's about print, about digital. About audio. About Fiction. About Non-fiction. About librarians. About. Everything. That's why I come to work. "Cool! Thanks for sharing. And, btw, I think we’ve had a discussion or two about how much I hate e-books, got to have my hardcover books. Well… My husband got me a Kindle for Christmas and I thought, oh shoot, this is going to be wasted money. But I’ve got to at least give it a good-faith effort. So I picked a book— The Game by Tom (Hinshel) Wood, who is one of my favorite authors—and gave it a go. Tough sledding at first, but about halfway through I was sold. So much easier reading in bed at night; also easier reading when I go out to eat, takes up so much less space. There are only a couple of drawbacks I’...

Good Morning! Still thinking about what it means to be inclusive as a public librarian. I can't tell you how irritated I get when I see librarians talking down to the public they're supposed to be welcoming. That goes both ways, too. There is no reason to make people feel bad for liking esoteric or obscure things either. There is no reason to make people feel bad about anything they like, really. But, honestly, enjoying highbrow items doesn't carry the same stigma as liking "popular" materials. Some day soon, I hope we all just get tired of trying to prop up our own tastes by putting down everyone else. Huh. I'm too cold to reflect on anything else just now.