Comments on: Libraries and a Literary Education

By: Charming Billy

Charming Billy — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 17:11:25 +0000

Even a good size, high quality public library system like mine has very little depth to it. In Bradbury’s day librarians were much more comfortable making readers eat their vegetables, so to speak, than they are now. Libraries were supposed to be edifying, high minded places. In practice they were sometimes stuffy and pompous but often refreshingly quirky. Now they’re neither, sadly. The high minded, edifying library ethic was transferred from collection development to political posturing, but it’s still still stuffy and pompous.

By: Bobbi P

Bobbi P — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 15:58:39 +0000

I will always remember being at ALA when fresh out of library school and sitting at lunch with another librarian my age. She said libraries should follow the book store model and have 15+ copies of whatever is hot. My response was that that was very short-sighted. Also, I serve 11,000 patrons. Typically 40 of them want the new Patterson/Evanovich/etc. Spending a large chunk of my budget on so many copies of something for 40 people really screws the 10,960 people who want something else.
My library is in the very fourtunate position of having ample funding even though our service population is only 11,000. We are able to collect a lot of midlist fiction that other libraries don’t. We also have a fantatic ILL program in Illinois that serves our patrons well. I hope that my patrons can find something fun each time they’re in the stacks.

By: Cut Both Ways

Cut Both Ways — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 19:07:27 +0000

This is as good a time as any to remind people that WE are the book gestapo in Fahrenheit 451. The government follows the people’s mandate.

http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2012/06/ray_bradbury_fahrenheit_451.php

By: teetop

teetop — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 21:23:35 +0000

If you are good student, then you can self-educate well at a large public library. Charles Bukowski is another writer who learned his craft by checking out books at LAPL. But it would be hard for any but the most driven.

By: Solo Boy

Solo Boy — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 20:34:42 +0000

Hhhmmm. I always thought “Fahrenheit 451″ was more of an argument against television than about book burning. In any case, it might be nice to point out that the stereotypical book censor is no longer limited to ‘Nazis and red-necks.’ The left/liberals are turning out to be even greater (better?) censors than the right. Besides, red-necks don’t care enough to want to burn or censor books!

By: Michelle S.

Michelle S. — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 18:36:53 +0000

“Could the public library really substitute for college in most places?” I’d have to say no. When I was a kid I loved browsing the public library for books I never would have found otherwise, but now about half of what I get from the library is through ILL (which where I am costs money, and doesn’t seem to be very well advertised). I’m thinking of paying to join the local college’s library, though I don’t think that comes with database access. I understand the need to have bestsellers, but I do wish more public libraries had a better balance. This is making me miss my epic browsing sessions at my old university’s library.

By: Ideal Reading

Ideal Reading — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 17:47:13 +0000

My experience also agrees that a college library will have much more depth than a typical public library (especially if it’s a university focused on research). However, even if you never attend a class, for the most part you should be able to walk into the college library, sit down with any of the books and read/take notes from as much as you want.

By: not a hipster librarian

not a hipster librarian — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 17:37:48 +0000

“Could potential writers who wanted to educate themselves the Bradburyan way do so at most public libraries?” I don’t see why they couldn’t. Just because the libraries you checked don’t have a particular author that you were searching for doesn’t mean that there isn’t great depth to those libraries’ collections. If a potential writer needed the exact author you couldn’t find, they could most likely get through interlibrary loan.

“Could the public library really substitute for college in most places?” Depends on the degree. For example, it would be hard to get a good education in medicine back in Ray’s day or today by only reading textbooks. Want to start a small business? The library could help you quite a bit and you wouldn’t have to pay for a business degree.

By: GetAClue

GetAClue — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 15:39:29 +0000

Wolverines!

By: The Librarian With No Name

The Librarian With No Name — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 15:14:25 +0000

I grew up with a small town library with a total collection of 15,000 books. An even larger proportion of the collection consisted of popular (or, to be honest, once-popular) fiction, and the vast majority of the books would have been considered badly outdated in any metropolitan library system.

I’d have been completely out of luck if I’d had to rely on my library for my continuing education. As it was, I was braced for the upcoming nuclear war with the Soviet Union well into 1996.