Book Selection: enriching the mix

[Pat Wallace <DENWALL@AOL.COM>]

Forward from  Patricia D. Wallace,  Chair, Hawaii Working Group
(ALA Social Responsibility Round Table /Alternatives in Print Division)
SLIS graduate student, Texas Women's University
Denwall@aol.com

The following message has been cross-posted; please excuse any
 duplication
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To: denwall@aol.com
From: jkim@borg.com (Joan Kimball)
Hart's Hill Elementary School Library, Whitesboro, NY
Subject: Hawaii: enriching the mix
Date: Jan 7, 1997

Pat,
Please emphasize that many minds enrich the mix.  Spreading widely the
decisions for buying increases the variety of books available in a
particular system.

Joan Kimball (jkim@borg.com)
Clinton, NY
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From: "James B. Casey" <jimcasey@lib.oak-lawn.il.us>
A public library administrator and Member of ALA Council.
To:  <publib@nysernet.org>
Subject: Re: Hawaii Horror
Date:  Jan. 9, 1997

I would agree with much of what Robert Finch has stated,
and add that a librarian's knowledge of a specific community,
student body and clientele is as essential as the librarian's
knowledge of the collection.  Comprehensive outsourcing of
selection and all technical services functions not only
separates the librarian from the collection, but the collection
from the patron.  Communities are ever changing - as are their
library service needs.  Librarians who work the desk, travel
on bookmobiles, visit the schools, lecture to the local Kiwanis,
etc. are the professionals who should be best equipped to build
the collection.  The more remote and robotic the collection
development process becomes, the less relevant it is likely to
be.  In such cases, circulations per volume, circulations per
capita, and circulations generated as a result of materials
expenditures would probably all reveal diminished
effectiveness.  Where are the cost savings then?

Outsourcing should be used selectively and carefully - and
always under the supervision of librarians.  Outsourcing isn't
a bad idea at all as long as it isn't seized upon as some kind
of  comprehensive and total solution.

The more basic concern here isn't outsourcing, but determining
of priorities and valuation of services provided by libraries and
librarians.  If top library managers are being increasingly
recruited from outside of the library profession, it is logical
that they might come to see cost saving as a "bottom line" and
make decisions with less sensitivity to the value of the services
which libraries and librarians provide.

James B. Casey - My own views as a public library administrator
and Member of ALA Council.
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