A few months back I was asked about placing a hold on the title pictured to the left. I couldn’t find it in the Library system, nor was it to be found in any academic library to be order inter-library loan. Oh well, wait, or borrow it from a friend, or buy it.
A public library fulfills the needs of the community it services. We get a budget, and although in these economic times slashed as it may be, it must be used to stock the shelves with books and media that circulates in our service area. When more than 3 people put a written request in for a title, we buy it, because that’s what is requested.
There are presently over 700 patron requests for this title system wide. Tax payer dollars are being spent to put this book on the shelf. Now, this book is not The Help, Cutting For Stone, or The DaVinci Code. It’s a fan-fiction take off of the Twilight series, it has extreme sexual behavior and it has a very specific reader group, and believe me when I tell you it is by NO means “like any other love story we have on the shelves” (as one adamant patron said to me when she was disappointed that we didn’t have a copy to lend). It’s gotten to the point that when I fill a hold for any title that has the words “shades” or “grey” in it I inwardly hope the requester is not expecting this book and they just didn’t want to ask for help. By the way it is a series, there are two more to the trilogy.
Why doesn’t anyone donate their trilogy to the Library? That way the needs of the few does not spend the tax dollars of the many. I’ll take your donation, just put it in a brown paper bag please.
Grafedie
Grafedie in the Library 