> Are you saying that libraries should only have sensible holdings? Which ones are those? You're being facetious, but this is precisely the question libraries

> Are you saying that libraries should only have sensible holdings? Which ones are those? You're being facetious, but this is precisely the question libraries have always faced, through thin times and fat, regardless of the social and political winds. They have only so much shelf space and face the simple fact nobody will come to a location that doesn't offer them anything they want. There's a very old political debate at bottom: Should a government institution give the taxpayers what they want, or should it focus more on giving them what the better-educated types decide they need? Go the first way and you're competing with Wal-Mart and Barnes & Noble; go the second and you have a wonderful temple to Sanctioned Knowledge that, to a first approximation, nobody really cares about. So, yes, what are 'sensible' holdings? Do you have any answers?