Wallowing in books...

[fajrdrako]

What a lovely morning! maaseru and I went to the book sale held by the Friends of the National Library at St. Laurent shopping centre this morning. It was wonderful; one of the best such book sales I've ever seen. Most books were $1 or $2 each; some were more. My pièce de résistance was 412: a wonderful book I am still excited about, Vézelay: The Great Romanesque Church by Veronique Rouchon Mouilleron. Gorgeous. There's detail and description of every carving, with elucidation of their meanings. Brilliant visual detail of 12th century clothing and artifacts - we even see the belt loops in a miller's kilt.

The other books I got were:

• Winnie Ille Pu by A.A.Milne (Winnie the Pooh in Latin. I have it in hardcover, but it's easier to carry around in paperback.)


• Crackdown by Val McDermid


• Poisoned Cherries by Quintin Jardine


• The Owls of Gloucester by Edward Marston


• The Distant Echo by Val McDermid


• Where Evil Sleeps by Valerie Wilson Wesley


• Hello Bunny Alice by Laura Wilson


• Ladies' Man by John Ramster


• Death's Own Door by Andrew Taylor

You might guess from these, quite rightly, that I've been in the mood to read mysteries lately.

• The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. I've read this one twice, but I didn't own a copy. Now I do. Too bad they didn't have A Thread of Grace.


• The Lover's Tongue: A Merry Romp Through the Language of Love and Sex by Mark Morton


• The Age of Chivalry by the National Geographic Society (pretty, pretty picures)


• Illuminated Manuscripts: Medieval Hunting Scenes - "the Hunting Book" by Gaston Phoebus by Gabriel Bise (more pretty, pretty pictures)

Now... to get ready for Beulah's 75th birthday party.

Comments

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

the Sparrow. What a great book.

Isn't it wonderful? I want to get A Thread of Grace, too. I love Russell's writing. It is - in its style, pacing and emotive power - just wonderful. Her Dorothy Dunnett inspiration really shows.

I use libraries so much it's easier than it used to be to avoid buying books, and goodness knows I don't have a lot of space for them. But so many of the books I want aren't in libraries - I appreciate a book-buying spree now and again.

[monsieureden.livejournal.com]

I never made it to Thread of Grace. I intended to but it was new and everyone at the library wanted it, and I got busy with school.

Remind me to read it.

I emailed Russell via her site to tell her Sparrow was great and she emailed back! We talked a bit about Dunnett. I thought that was super nice of her to do.

True, when you find a rare book, buy it, and libraries don't have everything. I guess most things I've wanted I've managed to find via interloan or our collection (we do have a decent collection).

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I think I liked A Thread of Grace best of all three books.

I should send Russell e-mail or a letter, I really should.

I think all our libraries should have much bigger medieval collections.

[monsieureden.livejournal.com]

"I think all our libraries should have much bigger medieval collections."

haha, well most of those go to university libraries, as do books I look for on Eden's era.

Public libraries, at least in the States, cater to the demand of the community, and that tends to not be medieval or English Civil War books so much. :(

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure how the buying decisions are made in our libraries. Yes, the good history books go to universities, and thank goodness they are somewhere. The public libraries do get bestsellers, but they seem to be relatively short-lived. I suppose they try to get variety, and to reflect multiculturalism.

[monsieureden.livejournal.com]

There's always a balance between getting a good variety and getting what the community wants, especially now that interloan provides SO much, it's less necessary to have it all in your collection.

I am planning on taking a collection development class soon so I'm sure I'll learn more. :)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

What an interesting subject!

So - do different communities really have different needs? Different tastes? Is it a matter of demographics?

[monsieureden.livejournal.com]

"So - do different communities really have different needs? Different tastes? Is it a matter of demographics?"

Yep, as would make sense if you have a community more business based or more rural, one more family orientated or mostly senior.

My childhood library went through a big change from when I was young to now. When I was a kid, the community was largely corporate and it reflected in their collection (they had big reading rooms and mostly business related databases). Now the community is more multi-cultural and very family orientated, so they've had to change accordingly. Most libraries can't afford to provide it all so they look at who their audience is.

In the community where I work, it's very hard to get school based milleges passed because there's a higher senior population, whereas it may be easier in another community. This sort of reflects how the community might react to what's in their library.

Some things in the collection come directly via patron personal requests. Since the library is funded by patron taxes, that makes sense. Yet the library still has a responsibility to provide variety of information, so there are things we purchase that may not be requested, because it should be available. This is where librarians make judgement calls, and that's going to depend on the librarian.

And of course all of this depends on your budget and space (do you have room for X or Y? can you afford it? how much?), both of which are directly related to your community's budget and how much they pay towards taxes. Our collection is big and we have a big library because we have a rich community and they pay a lot in taxes! Many neighboring libraries have had to shut down databases or collections that we still run because they can not fund it based on what their community gives them.

My salary is higher than someone of my same position in another community because the community I work for is richer.

Other kinds of libraries (special, medical, school) of course work differently, and some public libraries might work differently outside of Michigan. I don't know. :)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I've no idea how the money towards libraries is funded here. I should probably look it up. I always thought the Library Board determined how much went to each branch, and had a certain autonomy in the matter. Mind you, I don't know now how far the jurisdiction of the Ottawa Public Library extends.

So in your area, what constitutes a 'community'? Are you talking about branch libraries or library systems, or is it a different concept altogether? I noticed people on the LMB list talking about county libraries - is that the kind of thing you mean?

[monsieureden.livejournal.com]

There's all kinds. In my area, mostly library by city, meaning a city builds a library and the residents of that city (or township, or town) pay towards it. Then that library can contract with other local libraries and that makes up a system, so residents paying towards their library may then use other libraries. You usually get specific privileges at the library you pay towards, i.e. using certain databases or placing holds or interloan.

We also are on a system for interloan in the state.

Whether or not you can (or will) contract with said systems is often up to the board. But most local libraries are on some kind of system.

There are county libraries too. My county library is a law library w/ a special collection that covers mostly the history of the county. You would be hard pressed to find a bestseller there. It's next door to the county courts.

Then there are state libraries, funded mostly by state, and then there are district libraries (which work nearly independently from their city).

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

It sounds as if - the rule is, there is no rule! Libraries can exist for any number of purposes with all sorts of types of funding.

Which I suppose is more or less true here, though I really haven't looked closely at the way the OPL is set up, and I should. I bet there's information on their web pages, which I look at daily - but not for that kind of information, it's to look for books and (often) renew the ones I have already.

[monsieureden.livejournal.com]

True, but the funding is extremely important down to the detail, as we have found through our court case.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I bet!