Op-ed about libraries

This past weekend’s Conway Daily Sun ran an editorial by David Shribman (read it here), who questioned the Fairfax County, Va. library system’s decision (see their version here) to eliminate old unused titles, even though they are commonly considered to be classics, to make room for what people are actually coming to the library for and checking out. Most libraries, including Madison’s, have a policy that dictates how weeding is to be done, and while one criterion is use, it is also recommended that a bibliography of “best books” for your particular type of library is used so that you don’t get rid of “The Mill on the Floss” even though no one’s read it for 23 years. I think the library Shribman is talking about is facing the issue many libraries face: that the way libraries are being used is changing and that every library in every town doesn’t need to be an archive, especially when access to material is so easy now with computerized interlibrary loan systems. The Fairfax County library system is running short of space and must make decisions about what they need to store at the library and what they can provide access to instead. The Madison Library is not a big library and cannot possibly hold every title that every person in Madison may need at some point, but due to the NH State Library’s and OCLC’s sophisticated interlibrary loan system, we can certainly find just about any classic title that someone in town is looking for in a reasonable amount of time.