Quote:
Originally Posted by desertgrandma
They refuse to shelve fiction by genre. Only by author.
"Because its too hard for our volunteers to know where a book goes" 
Does anyone else remember finding wonderful new authors by browsing the 'mystery' or 'science fiction' or whatever section for hours? |
Now that part is just sad.
A few years back my county's library system must have put a new person in charge of obtaining new stuff because yes, there is a large selection of non-book media that has become even bigger, but the book selection increased even more.
My favorite change was when science fiction and fantasy were seperated. The library uses a service that tells them how to classify each book and then a colored label is applied to the spine of the book to allow for easy shelving with a second sticker showing the first letter of the author's last name to even make that part easier. Sometimes I think the service has some severe malfunctions because of a series books 1, 4, and 5 are in SF, but 2 and 6 are with fantasy, and 3 is in romance.
While this doesn't happen often, I found it quite annoying for a while. When I discussed it with a librarian she agreed that made no sense whatsoever, but doing whatever the program says works better because the librarians are no longer disagreeing about where a book should be shelved. Now I'm accustomed to it and just happy that the library has the book.
About a year ago e-books were added to the Overdrive selection for audiobooks and the selection is not growing as quickly as I would like, at least it is growing. When I request a book be purchased, usually the next in a series, I request it as an epub format. Often it still comes as a paperback, but I have hopes.
