Sunday, August 17, 2008

Obama at the library

The UAPL has 15 copies of Obama's Audacity, and 12 copies of his Dreams, and 8 copies (6 titles) of juvy-groovy pro-Obama books. The newest, #1 Obama-critical title, called Obama Nation, has one copy on-order with 9 requests. I don't know what the tipping point is for ordering second copies, but the standard appears to vary depending on the political slant of the title. There were always multiple copies (one had 16) of anti-Bush books available, but few copies of any alternative view. Same way with conservative Christian books in general. But I've blogged about that before (see my list). Librarians are so liberal, they fall off the cliff for whatever Democrat is running. If I want to read Obama Nation, I'll probably have to buy it. I think that's why they don't get many requests. We get tired of waiting and go to Barnes and Noble. They may be liberal, but they're not stupid.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Shaker Heights has 7 copies on order. They must have been psychic that it might go #1. Cleveland Public has many already in circulation--but some are cataloged as fiction, some as biography! Interesting.

Anonymous said...

My limit was 6 holds per copy. If I had one copy and six holds I ordered another copy. As it would circulate for 14 days as a new book it would be three months at most for anyone to get a copy.

Sometimes I bought the needed copies, sometimes I leased them, but I always ordered what the patrons were reserving.

I didn't care about the political slant of the books, just that I got what the patrons wanted.

I thought that is what a good librarian was supposed to do... was I wrong? Was there a political agenda I was to follow in collection development? I didn't get that memo from the ALA :)

Anonymous said...

Libraries are putting this book into the fiction section, right???

Norma said...

Sununu: Yes, unfortunately that reflects the level of professionalism. But I've seen stranger. Trying to do a "shelf search" (call number) in a PL today is virtually impossible. Books are assigned randomly, it seems. Clerks who do fiction might put it there; those who do biography, there; those who do post WWII novices, there. Maybe even in academic libraries. Professional librarians are busy playing with the latest widgets and gigaws and the next bond issue.

Anonymous said...

However the Libray of Congress catalogs it in E901, Biographies where it correctly belongs. In my local libray it is in the 328s.

A good librarian would catalog it appropriately. Fiction is not an appropriate classification.

Norma said...

It was either cataloged by a careless clerk working on a quota for low wages, or a clever librarian (also getting a low wage) making a statement about ALA politics.

If ALA paid attention to business and stayed out of left wing politics, maybe they'd both be making more money.