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In your model, how do you expect anyone without a current academic affiliation to get hold of obscure books? (Interlibrary loan is a significant partial answer

by waqf 10y ago

In your model, how do you expect anyone without a current academic affiliation to get hold of obscure books? (Interlibrary loan is a significant partial answer here, but as soon as you take ILL into your model you realize that you want to curate the set of all books owned by all libraries collectively. If you locally optimize each library individually then you get too many copies of the common books and too few of the others.)

mindcrime 10y ago
Interlibrary Loan aside, if you live anywhere near a university with an academic library, you can usually buy a membership even if you aren't otherwise affiliated with the university. Locally, I know both UNC and Duke offer programs of that nature. I have previously kept up a UNC library card so I can use their math/CS library. Which reminds me, I should probably go renew that... I haven't been over there in a while. Also, used bookstores, and Internet retailers like Amazon, Ebay, etc. Not all books that are "obscure" are necessarily expensive in the "rare, hard to find, valuable" sense (although to be fair, some obviously are).
- jdmichal 10y ago
  Also, don't forget that community colleges also have libraries, and they're probably a lot more lax than large universities. For instance, one local community college even partnered with the city to create an integrated community-college library.
stinkytaco 10y ago
Optimization of all libraries is a losing battle. Better have lots of well used libraries, which then have budgets for larger collections and more collaboration. Part of a well used library is community support and a collection that serves the communities needs. This leads to bigger budgets, and so on. A public library is there to serve its community. Participating in ILL is part of that mission, so reciprocating is also necessary. But the library has to optimize for its customers first and others second.

by waqf 10y ago

mindcrime 10y ago

Interlibrary Loan aside, if you live anywhere near a university with an academic library, you can usually buy a membership even if you aren't otherwise affiliated with the university. Locally, I know both UNC and Duke offer programs of that nature. I have previously kept up a UNC library card so I can use their math/CS library. Which reminds me, I should probably go renew that... I haven't been over there in a while. Also, used bookstores, and Internet retailers like Amazon, Ebay, etc. Not all books that are "obscure" are necessarily expensive in the "rare, hard to find, valuable" sense (although to be fair, some obviously are).

jdmichal 10y ago
Also, don't forget that community colleges also have libraries, and they're probably a lot more lax than large universities. For instance, one local community college even partnered with the city to create an integrated community-college library.

stinkytaco 10y ago

Optimization of all libraries is a losing battle. Better have lots of well used libraries, which then have budgets for larger collections and more collaboration. Part of a well used library is community support and a collection that serves the communities needs. This leads to bigger budgets, and so on. A public library is there to serve its community. Participating in ILL is part of that mission, so reciprocating is also necessary. But the library has to optimize for its customers first and others second.