[78-L] Music Sale

[Michael Biel]

From: Mike Harkin <xxm.harkin at yahoo.com>
> How can a library provide service and be a resource if
> they're selling everything off?   Mike in Plovdiv

I agree 100%, but many librarians will tell you that libraries are not
archives.  A RESEARCH library has more reason for retaining everything,
but most libraries do not serve researchers, just readers, and they need
to keep currently wanted materials.  Things that are not used are not
retained.  I've tried to explain to some that researchers want to be the
first to use materials, but once again, that is not of concern to many
librarians who only know how to catalog stuff and have never done
research or USED their library. 
As a matter of fact, I started collecting books because I discovered in
grad school that I couldn't trust that a book I had used in a library
would still be in their catalog next time I needed it.

For media, our university library only wanted the LATEST format, so out
went the films, filmstrips, and LPs.  I did get a lot of them.  They
also dumped their phonographs and projectors and I got more than a dozen
of each. When the Soviet Union broke up, about a year or two later I got
about 100 books about the USSR from their disposal sales.  Obsolete.  

Once a student of mine misplaced a book and he asked me to help keep
them from charging him more than twice what the book was worth -- it
might have been $75.  Today I'd just check on Amazon or ebay and get a
cheap copy, but luckily the kid FOUND the book in time.  About 8 months
later THAT DAMN BOOK WAS IN THEIR DISPOSAL SALE FOR A QUARTER.  I
grabbed it and stormed into the librarian's office.  I ripped him a new
one, and for the next 20 years I didn't let him forget it.  No kid who
ever came to me had to pay a fine for a lost book.

Right now, most libraries are relying on the internet, and the shelves
could be empty and nobody would notice.  You need a book, check in
inter-library loan.  Or buy it on line.

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com