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By David Rothman

image "Librarians said they had not had to make major increases in purchases of books and DVDs, only shrewder ones—buying extra copies of, say, a John Grisham novel and cutting back on books that might not have as large a readership." – New York Times piece on libraries during recessions—when budgets decline but demand goes up.

The TeleRead take: I’ve warned before about DVDs and other media displacing books. And of course the Times article raises another issue—bestsellers pushing aside less popular titles. Just what’s the mission of the library? To be a poor man’s Blockbuster or Barnes & Noble, or to offer items you can’t find elsewhere?

Needless to say, the savings from e-books could reduce the number of ugly choices that librarians have to make (imagine if nothing else the handling and storage expenses associated with paper books). And a well-stocked national digital library system, offering economies of scale, could slash costs even more. TeleRead anyone? Why can’t we have some big-time economic stimulus for literacy, which fares better when many different items are available to match readers’ needs and interests?

As I see it, by the way, local fiction has an important role to play since people often can relate better to books set amid the familiar. Furthermore, even recreational reading or maybe especially recreational reading can promote literacy.

(Thanks to Garson O’Toole for spotting the Times piece. Library shot is from Cincinnati via Wikipedia.)

 
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