I've spent quite a bit of time looking through Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and Booklist at various titles which might be purchased. I also took some time to look at the New York Times Bestseller Lists and the Publishers Weekly Bestseller Lists. Only a few books on the bestseller lists interest me.
Free Lunch by David Kay Johnston looks to be an appropriately United States populist anti-government spending book.
I put several books on reserve. Many of the books which I was interested in were not available currently in our library system. I put
Deep Economy by Bill McKibben and
Blessed Unrest by Paul Hawken on hold. I found a near perfect book title
Nim Chimpsky: The Chimp Who Would be Human by Elizabeth Hess about a chimp that was used for human language experimentation.
I also would have liked to get
Matter by Iain Banks but no copy was available in our library system yet. There were a few other books that were not available as well,
Simple Prosperity by David Wann, and
Fueling Our Future: An Introduction to Sustainable Energy by Robert L. Evans. I often limit which books I can read to what I can get for free.
I checked by SfSite and Locus Magazine and picked out two relatively new titles to request. They are
Dust by Elizabeth Bear about a generation starship, and
Inside Straight by George R.R. Martin, a superhero novel part of the Wildcards series.
Some people may think, I can order any book for purchase that I want. This is not true. My tastes may not match exactly with the customers that borrow books from the library. Some of the books will match closely, others won't. Before I put a book in for purchase, I have to consider whether or not people will read the book in question. If I cannot convince myself and the other people at the library that the book will not be used multiple times I will not order the book for purchase.
Part of this decision is based on demographics who lives in the community, what ethnic groups, how many young people, how many old people, religious or philosophical affiliations. We try and match our books with the interests of the community. If the books and material don't match on some level not many people will use the library.
The other thing which we use is statistics. We keep track of what books are being used and how many times books are being read. We try and order materials that are used in specific subjects and by authors which people read. Having material which people are not interested in is counterproductive.
There is also the question of quality. This is a very hard thing to determine. Sometimes, we will order books simply because they are of exceptional quality or merit, even if they don't exactly match with the community. However, this is fairly rare. Most books or library material is not that exceptional.
