[PLUG-TALK] Multnomah county libraries - any large ones still open?

Ted Mittelstaedt tedm at portlandia-it.com
Mon Nov 27 16:18:09 UTC 2023


I think the goal of the Multnomah County Library today is for the entire
collection to be checked out at any given time.

They have this "hold" system thing online you know, have had it for years
now.  Nowadays when my wife (a teacher) goes to the library for media she
goes online first the only time she goes into an actual library building is
to pick up holds.  I suspect the same is true for most users.

We can only hope that somewhere is a warehouse of every book and that each
year as copyrights fall off of them that they get converted to google books
or some such.

Ted

-----Original Message-----
From: PLUG-talk <plug-talk-bounces at lists.pdxlinux.org> On Behalf Of Russell
Senior
Sent: Sunday, November 26, 2023 5:50 PM
To: plug-talk at lists.pdxlinux.org
Subject: Re: [PLUG-TALK] Multnomah county libraries - any large ones still
open?

>>>>> "Keith" == Keith Lofstrom <keithl at keithl.com> writes:

    Keith> I frequently use public and university libraries, learning
    Keith> about oddball science subjects mostly.  Good libraries shelve
    Keith> the book that I *should* read next to the book that I went to
    Keith> shelf to find.  Books in inaccessible warehouses lack this
    Keith> feature, as do very small libraries.

Libraries generally shelve materials in subject order, either Library of
Congress order in academic libraries or Dewey Decimal in public libraries,
not particularly the whim of local librarians.

Libraries aren't "archives" or the "universe of knowledge" though, the
materials they have in their collection and placed on shelves is constrained
by shelf space and tends to be selected to start with based collection
development librarian judgement and patron requests, and stays on shelves
based on circulation (both the frequency of checkouts and reshelvings) and
also the "does someone else already have it" factor.

Some libraries (though, apparently, not currently including MultCoLib) have
a feature in their catalog system called "Virtual Browse". That is, they'll
show you book covers of materials (which you can click, if they look
interesting) of what *would* be next to the thing you are looking for,
including e-books that wouldn't have a spine on a shelf.

If you are looking for some interesting library practice critique, I can
recommend https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholson_Baker. He also wrote an
interesting book about the lead up to WWII:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Smoke

    Keith> I recently visited the Hollywood library - I remember a
    Keith> different building and larger collection years ago.

    Keith> What are the largest libraries still open in the Multnomah
    Keith> County system?

A bunch (half?) of Multnomah County's system is being remodelled right now,
which obviously impacts public shelf space in the short term. I don't know
the answer to your specific question, but I bet a MultCoLib reference
librarian would.


--
Russell Senior
russell at pdxlinux.org
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