"The days of libraries saying, 'We must have that, because it's good for people,' are beyond us."

Someone mentioned upthread working at B&N and being asked to photocopy pages. When I worked at a B&N (in the Twin Cities suburbs), I was astounded at the number of parents of kids doing book reports who didn't seem to know what a library even was or how to use it. The public library was right down the street!

OK, not really. I'll return the books.
I missed the library amnesty week - it was Thanksgiving week at my local library, and all the other libraries do amnesty at Christmas. So I called them. "Hi, are you doing that amnesty thing?" "No, we did that at Thanksgiving."
Big discussion of fines ensued. And, basically, they don't go farther than $3.00 per book, no matter how long you neglect to return them. It's a very forgiving system.

In my experience, most of them do. I have picked up a lot of books that way.

I had a guy do this to me when I worked in a charity bookshop. The bloody book was only about €6, and he just 'wanted a couple of articles' out of it. He was really insulted when I wouldn't let him 'borrow' it to take across the road to the copy shop. People are dicks.

WTF??! (i work with rare books and have actually had nightmares about patrons drinking/eating at the tables)

yay for suburbs

I enjoy going to the tall library just because it's fun to wander through the stacks. I'm particularly fond of the "reserve" floor, because those librarians (often students) have a clock that ticks away the time you have to borrow a "reserved" book. it's a very stressful floor. Like, they actually time it to the minute - the two hours that you get to take something from the reserves. "9:47 a.m. GO!" And you best be getting that book back by 11:47 a.m., because they fine you $50.00 an hour, and the hour starts the minute you failed to return the book.
How do I know this? Well, you figure it out.

Anyway, I live in the "five college" area of Mass., so the local libraries are very good, and the borrowing system among the colleges/university is splendid.
The colleges are very nice about letting the libraries be open to anyone. Lots of crazy, failed PhD. candidates (or so I assume)sitting in the comfy chairs at the Smith library, for instance.
The private colleges have the most comfy areas for reading. I might have to write a field guide to comfy college libraries!
Mount Holyoke is beyond the pale - SO comfy.
I'm very fortunate to have the library wealth that I do.

And Beth Parker? I still have my CLAMS card. (Cape and Islands Library System).

they may say it, but not "generally"

This is the Audubon Field Guild to North American Wildflowers. I bought it from the Chilmark Library book sale. They must have had duplicates—no way they'd get rid of the only copy of such an essential book

More essential than the Newmark or the Petersons?

my local branch is always fantastic.

Haha the official answer to this would be "no" -- the person quoted here is just slipping up and mixing stuff around. Leslie meant to say "we're beyond it," but had the "it" part of the subject at the beginning of the sentence.

(The main idiomatic use of "beyond" here will always be the exasperated "it's beyond me/us" for "I can't understand/imagine it!")

Which is a dodging answer - the question the article would seem to want to ask is "Yes, we know, but why aren't you getting rid of last year's Catherine Cookson novels, which are in a burst of popularity but will wane, instead of stuff that there will always be a steady but low demand for?"

(xpost beaten by nabisco!)

As for "what do they do with these books?", a lot of liberries have books sales to help with the underfunding aspect.

From the horse's mouth:

http://www.ala.org/Template.cfm?Section=libraryfunding&Template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=139034

except the zillions of americans that hate to read

it is an incredibly complicated balancing act and they are fucking saints

There used to be an actual Starbucks in our main library when I first moved here. It is gone now.

I don't really mind it so much in a public library, but at a university library it's a bit ridiculous. I really think there's a difference between what a public library is supposed to do (keep people who can't or won't buy books reading and thus literate and thus better citizens; give them access to information) and what a university library should do (promote deep research; archive materials). The systems need to be connected, and all, but coffee is a public library doesn't seem to be the end of the world.

Hmmm, maybe I should send a resume?

-- TOMB07

lmao, this thinking worked SOOOO well with microfilm

Obviously I check the local system (13 libraries including three university libraries) first when I want something, but if they don't have it, ILL isn't a first or last resort, it's the ONLY resort.

So do I! I feel your pain.