FutureLibrary

Tighter than a tin o’ sardines November 9, 2009

Lack of space is no doubt an issue for many libraries. And that’s not surprising. New material is constantly being purchased, and probably at a higher rate than old stock is taken out of production. The result are jam packed shelves, full trolleys and regrettably, items withdrawn from public view.

The nature of the beast -limited space and ever burgeoning stock- results in thousands of dollars of library material having to be housed in staff areas due to no space, until such a time as stock is moved and the next lot can be moved into the public arena.

Obviously this plays havoc with customer searches. They find the item and go to the stated location. Little do they realize it has found a happy, but quiet home amongst other lonely items behind the desk which long for their music to be heard or video watched. More and more frequently, customers will timidly approach you pleading to view the DVDs or CDs behind the desk.

There are a few options available:

• Build a bigger library (good luck)
• Be ruthless in your weeding
• Have more trolleys on hand to house the overflow, if you have the room
• Have the overflow material on display as customers enter and exit the library
• The ultimate is to have little or no books in the library. That would sure free up some space and put it to much better use.

Remember, libraries, except for a chosen few, are not book repositories. The quicker they are digitized and clouded the better.