Why is that new book not on order?
Some of you may have been puzzled lately… there are lots of new books coming out in July that aren’t in our catalog, so you can’t put holds on them. You might be wondering – are we not ordering the latest Stieg Larrson novel, The Girl Who Played With Fire?
Don’t fear, we haven’t forgotten about all those summer bestsellers here on the second floor. We’re approaching the end of our fiscal year here at the library. This means we can’t order new books until we roll over into the new 2009-2010 buying year.
So keep checking back. You should be able to find July (and later) releases in our catalog by mid-July.
(And of course, you can always make a purchase request online.)
Posted by Lisa, a second floor librarian
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Could you please give us some info on how acquisition decisions are made. I have no arguments on your book acquisitions in general, but sometimes acquisitions in other media, especially music and audio book CD’s, seems baffling. For example, the library always seems to be stocked up on the latest rap artist, and yet has absolutely nothing by, say, Hank Williams Sr., who is perhaps the most important artist in his field. Likewise there is a lot of light junk reading in the audio books for CD’s, but very little in the way of serious literature. So I’d be interested in how these choices are made, and if there’s any input from the public besides the lowest common denominator in pop tastes.
Hello Kern,
Thanks for your comment. The two librarians who select our music CDs and audiobooks respond below:
Christopher (music CDs):
“Our CD collection is quite broad and covers many genres and eras. Items are added based on their genre (an example might be Celtic music), popularity (Amazon sales or Billboard Top 100) and by patron requests. All told, patron requests are a large percentage of what we add to this collection each year. As you can imagine, keeping everything a patron might want is nearly impossible with the sheer volume of genres, artists and titles available. Patron requests do help in this matter.
Unfortunately, CDs do have a finite lifespan. We employ a CD buffer to repair scratched discs, but damage occasionally occurs beyond what can be repaired. With that and items being lost, there are often artists or genres that need to be re-purchased. Titles do go out of print, which leave gaps in what we have at any one time. Feel free to request titles where you find our collection lacking, we will gladly consider them for purchase. If they are out of print, we can try to locate them for you via our Interlibrary Loan program.”
Carrie (audiobooks):
“In selecting materials for the audiobooks collection, I try to balance demand (buying the most popular materials) with having a diverse collection with something for everyone. Patron requests, reviews and awards play a large role in choosing materials. A couple of things make buying audiobooks especially challenging. One is the durability of the formats: it is hard to maintain a collection that can be damaged so easily. Titles often go out of print, others are just never produced in audio. Another is the proliferation of formats. Currently, I am buying titles on CD, pre-loaded audio, and downloadable from Library2Go. Every time a new format comes along, that means having to rebuild a collection. I am always happy to get input from the public and will buy suggested materials if they are available in audio format.”
To suggest a purchase, click on “Request Materials” in the list of links on the left of the page.
I hope this helps. Thanks for your interest in the collection at our library. If you have further comments or questions, please don’t hesitate to let us know.
- Lisa, a second floor librarian