Bibliofile

Libraries have gone through some immense changes in the past twenty-five years. With the introduction of the Internet, the rise of mega bookstores, and a bull economy, there are many who feel the need for libraries, in general, has diminished. Despite this, I believe the reports of libraries’ demise are greatly exaggerated.

In ancient times, libraries were regarded as luxuries, playgrounds for the wealthy. Seneca the Younger, a Roman statesman and philosopher felt that “it is in the homes of the idlest men that you find the biggest libraries-range upon range of books, ceiling high…. You could forgive this if it were all due to a zeal for leaning. But these libraries of the works of piety and genius are collected for mere show, to ornament the walls of the house”(Petroski 28).During the Middle Ages, churches and monasteries were the only main vessels for libraries.[1]

However, it wasn’t until the 18^th century that the idea of the public library first took root in Colonial New England. Benjamin Franklin “donated a collection of 116 books to the town of Franklin, Massachusetts, in 1785, thereby founding the first public library of any sort in the United States” (Tisdale 66). Franklin had also founded the Library Company of Philadelphia in 1731. Franklin described it as “ the mother of all the North American subscription libraries” (Shera 32); where members paid a small fee in order to use the library. Books were loaned only to members of the company. Franklin ultimately believed that libraries “improved the general conversation of the Americans, made common tradesman and farmers as intelligent as most gentlemen from other countries, and perhaps have contributed in some degree to the stand so generally made through the colonies in defense of their privileges”(Shera 32).

Even though Benjamin Franklin is considered the father of the American public library, Andrew Carnegie was instrumental in establishing and building public libraries across the United States. He unknowingly contributed to Franklin’s ideal of libraries being democratic social agencies by donating $56 million for the construction of 1,689 public libraries. Carnegie built his first public libraries in and around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, his financial home base.The Allegheny Library opened in 1890, and the Braddock Library opened in 1889. Other libraries were built in Homestead, Duquesne, and the town of Carnegie. The first Carnegie Library, outside of Western Pennsylvania, was built in Fairfield, Iowa in 1893.[2] Also, “for his own philanthropic project, Carnegie largely skipped over universities, in which the self-educated man had scant interest, in favor of public libraries which he believed could be systematically dispersed”(Jones 6). However, “Andrew Carnegie repeatedly stated that his public library buildings weren’t philanthropy because they ‘only help those who help themselves’”(Jones 11).

Franklin and Carnegie obviously considered libraries to be important, but in recent years, libraries have been criticized for being places of intimidation. In his 1981 satirical essay, “How to Organize a Public Library”, Umberto Eco lambasted libraries for being stringent and unwelcoming. Here are some of his (sic) suggestions:

7. In so far as possible, no photocopier should be available; if such a machine does exist, access to it must be made very time consuming and toilsome, fees should be higher than those in any neighborhood copy shop, and the maximum number of copied pages permitted should not exceed two or three.

8. The librarian must consider the reader an enemy, a waster of time, (otherwise he or she would be at work), and a potential thief.

11. Interlibrary loans must be impossible or at best, must require months. The ideal course, in any event, is to ensure that the impossibility of discovering the contents of other libraries.[…]

13. Opening hours must coincide precisely with local office hours, determined by foresighted discussions with trade union officials and the Chamber of Commerce; total closing on Saturday, Sunday, evenings, and mealtimes goes without saying.

14. It must be impossible to find any refreshment inside the library, under any circumstances; and it must also be impossible to leave the library to seek sustenance elsewhere without first returning all books in use, so that, after having a cup of coffee, the student must fill out requests for them again.[.....] ( Eco 209-211).

Unfortunately, there are some that agree with Eco’s observations. In Renee Feinberg’s article, “B&N: the New College Library?”, she reports that there are an increasing number of college and graduate students who are doing academic research at Barnes and Noble rather than their own college libraries because of some of the aforementioned reasons. One student she interviewed found “Fordham’s [University] library hours inconvenient and thought her university library ‘too academic’ and aesthetically unappealing with ‘that thin carpeting’. She criticized the ‘clinical’ and ‘sterile’ look of the institutional décor there” (Feinberg 52). Feinberg goes on to say, “for reading and studying, these students preferred the ambiance of B&N…They expressed frustration with library collections, limited hours of access, semester loans, damaged pages, insufficient copies, as well as their discomfort with the physical plant and with the presence of authority” (Feinberg 53). Also, “students uniformly expressed their dissatisfaction with their library collections. They complained not about the increased use of technology but about the absence of materials, especially new books” (Feinberg 53).

In another article entitled, “Libraries Battle Bookstores”, a writer for American Libraries, quoted one 54-year-old man as saying that “he came to Borders {another mega book store} ‘for entertainment.’ He describes the library as a ‘place of drudgery, mental labor, and usually where you go to sweat it out…. a little-less-than-pleasant memory’.”

Are libraries such horrible, depressing places as Eco, Feinberg’s interview subjects, and others suggest? Are bookstores better than libraries? Do libraries have anything to learn from bookstores in terms of budgeting and customer service? According to Steve Coffman, libraries may fare better if they were run like bookstores. In his article, “What If You Ran Your Library Like a Bookstore?”, Coffman points out that:

He also points out that “according to the Barnes & Noble Annual Report (May 1997), a typical superstore rakes in some $7.5-$10.5 million a year and employs a staff of about 34”(Coffman 41). It may cost B&N $613,000 to operate annually while it may cost $882,000 a year to operate a comparable branch in the Los Angeles area. “ The average staff operating cost per open hour at the bookstore is $120.41; the same size library pays out $ 269.23 in personnel costs per open hour- more than twice the B&N model ….The bookstore stays open a full 98 hours per week with just 34 workers, while it takes the library 32 employees just to cover 63 hours a week”(42-43 Coffman). He suggests that libraries “stay open a lot more hours. Most superstores are open everyday from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m., including Saturday and Sunday-the two biggest book-selling days. Libraries are often closed altogether on Sunday, forfeiting the weekend hours when most people could most easily use them…And you would have a lot more money, a result of paying your staff a lot less than you do now and getting a lot more public-service hours out of them” (Coffman 44). Finally, Coffmanpoints out that although libraries “like to flaunt our references services (no matter how inadequate they may sometimes be), many of our patrons would never know the difference if we stopped offering them tomorrow” (Coffman 45).

What if a library were to put into effect the changes Coffman suggests? They are interesting suggestions, but I believe they would eventually backfire. Cutting library staff salaries would lead to reduced morale and a higher turnover rate. I also believe that operating a library with a skeleton crew would affect customer service negatively. The library environment would turn into a cold impersonal space with under paid, under educated, and uninspired staff. The library would eventually turn into a bookstore. As for Coffman’s comment about reference services, this is one aspect of the library that could be considered superior to that of bookstores.

J. Raymond takes this observation one step further in his article, “Libraries Have Little to Fear from Bookstores”. Raymond, a bookstore clerk in an unnamed North Carolina superstore, writes that even though superstores “offer good selection, are open reasonably ample hours, and provide comforting amenities such as couches and coffee, they typically offer less-and inferior- customer service than your average library. They pay employees lamentably little which keeps staff turnover very high and morale very low. Their classification system is flawed and frustrating” (Raymond 41). Libraries, ultimately, “offer first rate reference assistance and moreover encourage you to use it”. Also, “using the library generally costs nothing since its services-except those that add fees-have already been paid for…It’s thus the very best bargain for the education-conscious and the autodidacts among us, no small benefit for those on fixed incomes”(Raymond 42). Raymond goes on to say that bookstores are in no position to supplant libraries, especially since books and magazines cost so much to buy. “These centers still constitute oases of learning in our cities and towns, and we should therefore be wary of aping the latest mercantile trends” (Raymond 42).

Finally, the public library may be the only competition against mega bookstores in some smaller and remote cities across the United States. In Francine Fialkoff’s article, “Mimicking the Library”, she writes “in some smaller cities where independents [bookstores] are being crushed by superstores, the only bastion of local diversity and retrospective, deep collections left may be the public library” (Fialkoff 136).

But what if your remote, small, rural town does not have a mega bookstore available to it? In her article, “Net or Not, People Need libraries”, Dorothy M. Broderick brings up the fact that a superstore is of no use to some people if they can’t afford to travel to it. “Let’s discuss the availability of bookstores, even for those with money. I don’t know how large a community has to be to have super bookstores, but I do know Empire, Kansas, doesn’t qualify. If you own a car and can afford the time, the toll, and the gasoline, you can drive 50 miles to Topeka and find a Barnes & Noble. Otherwise, you’re limited to a few aisles of a mishmash of books in two stores…Without the public library, we’d have no access to current political thought. Having money can’t provide access when the materials aren’t available for sale. So can we agree that when we talk about libraries and access to information, we’re talking about all of the United States and not just large metropolitan areas?” (Broderick 62).

Broderick’s article also brings up some important concerns regarding libraries and the Internet. Does the Internet pose a realistic threat to libraries? Are public libraries unnecessary now that books and information are freely available on the Internet as “one Nashville investment advisor recently suggested” (Broderick 62)? Broderick “went through a recent mail-order catalog to see what it would cost to put together just the minimum equipment needed to access those ‘free’ books on the Net. The total comes to about $1,500. For an individual earning $7 per hour, working 40 hours a week (gross income $14,560), we are talking here of an expenditure totaling over 10% of annual income. Ponder that as you read comments from people glibly dismissing libraries…. Moreover, the items on that list will provide the individual only with access to the Internet. It is highly questionable that even those with reasonable incomes can afford Lexis/Nexis, Dialog and other specialized databases” (Broderick 62). She finishes her article by saying, “neither books nor libraries are obsolete, nor about to become so. Just ask the general public if it would like to give up the few dollars of tax money spent on supporting libraries in exchange for what it would cost personally to obtain the same access. And don’t be surprised when the answer is a resounding no! Believe it or not, society needs us” (Broderick 64). Douglas Herbert reiterates this feeling in his article, “Libraries lend a lifestyle”: “Until personal computers become universally affordable, the logic goes, the library will remain the haven of choice for the unwired” (Herbert 1).

The Internet also “might be the forerunner of a future service of the institution, with people lost in the Internet turning to libraries to search out the information they seek. The librarian could be the professional practitioner and expert guide. Even as you turn to a professional lawyer when your affairs become too confused or to a professional doctor when your usual regimen is not working, so you may turn to a professional librarian when you are lost on the Information Highway” (Martin 172).

The 1990’s saw the longest instance of prosperity since the 1950’s. Industrial production continues unabated. Unemployment is relatively low. The Dow Jones average index of the stock prices reached 3,000 in 1980, 4,000 by 1990, and over 9,000 before the end of the decade.[3]

Are libraries still vital during this time of great affluence? Will the general public still want tocontribute to libraries to help build and maintain them? “Remarkable changes have occurred in the twentieth century. At the end this is a different country from what it was in the beginning-different technologically, economically, politically, and socially. The remaining links are capitalism and democracy, the force that drives and the force that combines. So long as these hold, we have a future” (Martin 170). New library buildings have been built, most notably the new San Francisco Public Library in 1996. Old library structures, like the New York Public Library’s main reading room in 1998, have been renovated. Chicago Mayor Richard Daleywas instrumental in opening 18 new publiclibraries from 1993 to 1997.[4]

So, what can libraries do to stay vital in the 21^st century? Undoubtedly libraries have changed from mere information centers to bustling community centers. Some, like Dorothy Broderick, believe that libraries are “social agencies”. “Social agencies are where we learn how to relate to each other as members of the human race and build a civilized society. Without those relationships, no amount of that thing called ‘information’ means a hill of beans” (Broderick 63). Some libraries are trying to keep the social aspect of libraries alive while still trying to compete with mega bookstores and the like. For example, in Miami, the World Series champion Florida Marlins baseball team provides 5,000 pairs of tickets every summer to the Miami Public Library. Any child who reads 10 books or more gets one. Atthe McAuliffe Library in Farmington, Mass., a checkout counter featuring first-run movies spares browsers the trip to Blockbuster. At the central branch of the Multnomah County Library System in Portland, Ore., a new overdue-book policy has met with great success. “Better Latte than Never” is the gentle admonishment inscribed 65,000 postcards sent recently to delinquent borrowers by the library’s six-month-old, in house Starbucks café. In a sop- make that a sip- to laggards, the store promised a free hot beverage to bookworms who turned in their hoarded tomes (Herbert 1). Therefore, “libraries must remain a place, one of the few remaining, where people come together” (Berry 15).¨

[1] Henry Petroski, The Book on the Bookshelf(New York: Knopf,1999)40.

[2] Theodore Jones, Carnegie Libraries Across America: a Public Legacy(New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1997) 2&8

[3] Lowell A. Martin, Enrichment: a History of the Public Library in the United States in the Twentieth Century (Maryland:Scarecrow, 1998) 169.

[4] Douglas Herbert, “Libraries Lend a Lifestyle,”Christian Science Monitor17 Dec. 1997, 1C

References
Berry,John et all. “PLA in Charlotte: Looking to the Electronic Future.”

Library Journal1 May 2000: 12+.
Broderick, Dorothy M. “Net or Not, People Need Libraries.”

American Libraries Jan. 1998: 62+.
Coffman, Steve. “What if You Ran Your Library Like a Bookstore?”

American Libraries Mar. 1998: 40+
Eco, Umberto. How to Travel with a Salmon & Other Essays.

Tisdale, Sallie. “Silence, Please. The Public Library as Entertainment Center.”

Publication of the Department of Library & Information Science
University of Pittsburgh
135 N. Bellefield Ave.
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
Last updated December 11, 2000