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Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site brl-vgr.ARPA
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!floyd!harpo!seismo!brl-vgr!wmartin
From: wmartin@brl-vgr.ARPA (Will Martin )
Newsgroups: net.books
Subject: Re: libraries
Message-ID: <20@brl-vgr.ARPA>
Date: Mon, 9-Apr-84 15:00:16 EST
Article-I.D.: brl-vgr.20
Posted: Mon Apr  9 15:00:16 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 11-Apr-84 00:27:11 EST
References: <1580@mit-eddie.UUCP>
Organization: Ballistics Research Lab
Lines: 25

First off, as someone who just started seeing netnews again in February
after a year's hiatus, there seems to be something missing regarding
the "libraries" postings in net.books -- was there some discussion here
regarding the role of libraries and comparing others to the Boston one
that led into this info on the Boston Public Library's problems?

Reading the referenced article didn't give me an impression that this
library is doing bad -- I prefer my library to stick with books,
have a preservationist attitude (so the books I want to see will
BE there when I want to see them), and NOT buy more copies of
current best-sellers than it has to.  (I'm on the reserve list
for NAME OF THE ROSE here in St. Louis myself; I still don't want
them to buy 27 copies so that I don't have to wait! As I recall
the article, it said the BPL had 8 or 10 copies -- that's plenty!)

Main libraries ARE more important than branches -- a main library
should have a copy of EVERY book the system owns. Branches have
extra copies, never the only copy.  People who take the effort to go 
to the main library should get more services than those who only go to
branches.  Branches are for convenience only, and to keep the
kids out of the main library, where they are a bother to real people.

So the BPL sounds like it's doing fine by me...

Will