Mike Nelson has made a point I never thought about.WM: I thought about it a lot. Many other patrons apparently did likewise. Librarians think about it. Closed shelves are antithetical to a public library. People coming in are at a variety of levels in sophistication about reading and finding materials. The argument for open shelves holds that those who wish to become educated need to know not only the book they want to read, but the books in the area around the book they want to read (this excludes fiction). Open shelves allow patrons to find out more about a subject than any particular book can unfold.
I would argue that a public library is, but it's very nature, an educational institution, therefore should not ignore it's opportunities to be a telling influence on any patron who walks in the door. For a new or infrequent patron to go to the shelves with a librarian or aide who says, "here's the book you wanted, the books around it from here to here [pointing] are about the subject you're interested in."
But now that we have scanners and PC's, is it REALLY necessary to have shelves open to the public? Can't we now tell if a book is IN the library based on the computer record? Wouldn't it cost less money to have someone pick books from stacks?
WM: The cost has to be assessed through the library's mission and the value we as a society place on self-education, continuing education, and lifelong education. Among Minneapolis librarians, I have heard long and loud that closed shelves are not a good idea and they cite reasons, many them site specific. Theirs are practical. cost attached reasons.
I say that the computers are valuable, but the computers are programmed to reflect the library's cataloging practice. Frankly, MPL has never been really good at creating and maintaining cataloging excellence. Usually, if I want a book printed before around 1995, I use the Hennepin Co. Library on-line catalog first, then use the MPL on-line catalog to see if we own it or order it through inter-library loan. In my judgment, MPL is in no position to have both a poor catalog and closed shelves. (Recreating the catalog that Henn. Co. had was expensive. Henn. Co.'s library director discontinued using their terrific standards citing cost only a few short years ago. As a patron of libraries, I think that decision was penny wise and dollar foolish, particularly as we become more computer dependent.
Let's face it, when America wastes as much money as it does on military advents and corporate welfare, we MUST adjust by finding somewhere to cut.WM: The implications of the sentence above scare the bejezus outta me. War preparedness is so expensive we need to make cuts in public information. How then do you propose that we inculcate in our citizenry their responsibilities as citizens if we refuse to give them access to the tools to be a responsible citizen? I cite your quote at the bottom of this page.
And, just by chance, this also affects what kind of building we use for libraries. Environment-controlled warehouses then become feasible.
WM: There is a very delicate balance to be ridden in library design and implementation between Edifice Complex and unacceptability. Those of us who cared a lot about a new library made an effort over a period of years, through one avenue or another, to make sure the board heard that an air-conditioned warehouse was not an acceptable solution to divesting itself of the failed design and failing building MPL had. The reasons given were probably many and various. I cited the mission of the public library, which is basically to provide some of the tools for life-long self-education, as the standard I expected of any design to herald. I also wanted it to be designed to be functional for staff, noticeable and a prominent part of public life in the center of the city.
From the results we are about to build, I think perhaps that the loudest patrons were thinking along the same lines I was. However, I do think it was a political mistake to have presented the Referendum as it was without the voters understanding clearly that the library needed could not truly be brought in for $110 million. Voters approved $140 million, $30 million of which went to improve community library facilities. The political "wisdom" was that the library would raise, through some method or another (this was hugely unclear at the time and the library had no grant making capability to speak of), another amount for the planetarium and the true cost of a new library. I think that figure should have been roughly $50 million, but I'm guesstimating it, so it's not real reliable. But voters did approve a referendum and support it with so those parameters.
The only voice in the wilderness I heard during the election process came from Wally Swan, who was an incumbent Board of Estimates and Taxation Member. He said, quite clearly, that our financial picture was not good and the library cost would not improve the picture. Too few voters heeded the warning.
In order to get the backing of the mayor and city council, the library agreed that the new library would not require any more staff members than it had slots for presently. Ergo, the horizontal design and the board's insistence that they keep the bigger block they already had, knock down the library, and find an interim location.
The voters may have been precipitate in approving the referendum, but once the library was knocked down, it is not conceivable that we not build a new library. It would be another case of penny wise dollar foolish. We cannot delay it either, since we have only a hugely inadequate and largely frustrating-to-the-patrons interim solution. As a city, we have, through the referendum committed to this path.
At this point in our history, with a Patriot Act which allows the government to seize library computers to find out what patrons have been checking out, it would be disastrous not to have an open, available to all repository for government documents, books, videos, cds, and periodicals. One where every soul in the polis can walk in the door to double check that he/she's not the crazy ones. And the Bill of Rights still reads the same.
WizardMarks, Central
-------------- Jim Mork--Cooper
"Only a LUNATIC would cut schools in order to pay for more bombs."
"Depart from me, you cursed of my Father. Inasmuch as you have not done it to the least of these my brethren, you have not done it unto me." Get your free Web-based E-mail at http://www.startribune.com/stribmail
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