
How the N.Y. Public Library Fills Its Shelves - CaliforniaKarl
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/02/nyregion/new-york-library-books.html
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systemtest
I am surprised that the library has 1 million cardholders. I don't know how
much a subscription costs but in the Netherlands that would translate into
roughly 30-40 million euro in revenue per year. That's a huge amount for a
library.

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bane
It's free. In most (probably all, but I don't want to make that claim) areas
of the U.S., people are entitled to use the local public library system
operated by the county they pay taxes in.

You simply walk in, say "I would like a library card" and show some ID with
your name and address on it and that's it.

Many public library systems in the U.S. have an incredible list of books and
services they offer their communities. The ones in the counties near me offer
everything from computer classes to maker areas with free 3d printers and
other equipment and usually offer many on-line services like ebooks,
audiobooks, etc. As a result, they are heavily used and enjoyed. They're
highly responsive to children and young users with huge dedicated sections of
child and young adult literature and a few even have robust comic book and
manga collections!

Even the rural system I grew up using, which had very tiny libraries, were
network connected back in the late 80s and you could "order" books or items
from anywhere in the system and have it show up in a day. Most central county
libraries also contain many historic records going back hundreds of years --
land records, old newspapers, important legal documents, etc. You can't
usually take them from the library, but anybody can view them. If anybody
wants a legal way to watch movies or listen to music without buying them and
for free, just go check out the massive music and movie section at your local
library.

The National Library (the Library of Congress) is free, and the most
impressive active collection of material I've ever encountered anywhere. It
includes everything from 500 year old violins and original composer folios to
Graphic Novels.

There are also private (paid) libraries that house special focused
collections. Usually certain research libraries for law or medicine. But I've
also seen some foreign language private libraries for certain communities when
the local system doesn't offer enough in their home language.

I'm actually curious, what other countries have similar systems, and what's
the library system like in your home country? The other country I'm the most
familiar with has good libraries, but their almost entirely private and
usually dedicated to one or two major topic areas. Bookstores seem to fill in
the rest.

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justaguyhere
One of the American marvels is their library system. I've been to NYPL
libraries, they are awesome, especially the bigger ones. The public libraries
in smaller towns aren't that good (their book collections could be
small/uninteresting), but they are still hubs for various activities - movies,
free classes, kids stuff etc.

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adestefan
Even the small libraries are great because of intra-library lending. There's a
robust network of libraries across the nation that lets you get almost any
book you'd like. In most states the public university system is also part of
the lending network and any library in the state can get books from there.

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pnutjam
I belong to a library system with two branches, that are relatively large and
well funded, but I can also walk into a branch in several other town libraries
and get a card due to library agreements.

I can also get a special card good at any library in my state, for a fee.

My parents live in an area that isn't serviced by a local library, but can buy
into a nearby library. Although no library is usually indicative of an area
that isn't worth living in and doesn't fund schools well, IMHO.

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crdrost
At first the numbers shocked me (500k books, 16 reviewers) because they entail
something like ~100 books added per reviewer per day (~250 workdays/year, 2k
books per workday).

Then I saw the numbers of copies ordered for the top 10 titles and realized
that they're adding many _books_ with the same _title_ and potentially in the
range of ~10 copies per title on average -- so that seems much less strange,
reviewers only need to approve about 10 titles per day or so.

So then the question is, how much they have to comb through to get there. The
article only gives one data point here:

> Politics and dieting regimens — keto, Paleo and vegan — get a close look
> from Wayne Roylance, 58, a selector who reviews more than 4,000 adult titles
> a month. Of those, he typically picks about 1,500 for the shelves.

Actually that one made me burst out laughing at work. (Since they weren't
talking about "titles" before, my reading initially placed the end of that
first sentence as a commentary on the magnitude of Wayne's porn addiction,
rather than a material fact to be considered.)

That number doesn't quite square up... ~20 weekdays per month means he's
reviewing 200 per day, which is doable but a bit much (sort of a Marie Kondo
thing, processing one item a minute by holding it up for 30 seconds and
keeping it if it "sparks joy", is 480/day-ish), but I am very surprised that
he picks 75 per day rather than the earlier estimate of ~10. Maybe I was wrong
and indeed most of their books are singular rather than duplicates of one
title?

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ahi
Title selection is heavily automated / outsourced. Selectors have lists from
publishers and the library community to work off of so whatever the actual
number is, it definitely follows the 80:20 rule. Most of the 1500 Wayne picks,
he won't even think about.

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pmoriarty
I've often wondered why so many libraries tend to have odd/obscure works by
famous authors, but not the books that they're actually famous for. (
_Clarification_ : I mean the famous books aren't even in the collection, not
that they're merely checked out by someone else.)

Also, this is a not a comment on the NYPL, which I've been to only a handful
of times a long time ago, but I've been really disappointed by too many books
in too many libraries being really trashy and in poor taste. I'm not sure if
it's a matter of the library just catering to the lowest common denominator,
the book collection reflecting the community's donations, or of the book
selectors themselves being poorly educated and having trashy tastes, but it
really makes me scratch my head sometimes.

University libraries and private libraries tend to be much better in this
regard, with public libraries being typically way worse.

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pwaivers
The famous books probably get rented more quickly.

They say in this article that public interest largely drives what the library
buys. Even if you consider a book "trashy", it still may be very popular and
culturally relevant.

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JoeAltmaier
There must be more discrimination than that. Then wouldn't the library be full
of porn and romance novels? The two largest volume of new publications per
year.

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kaikai
Libraries are full of romance novels. If you’ve ever stood in line to check
out a book you may have noticed how popular they are. I’m glad that people are
reading, and don’t see a reason to pass judgement on the people reading them
or pretend that libraries should be filled with the literary equivalent of
broccoli.

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cheez
Hey man, broccoli is delicious.

