SO MANY BOOKS, SO LITTLE SPACE Publique Deposited
The E-Sylum: Volume 5, Number 43, October 27, 2002, Article 10
SO MANY BOOKS, SO LITTLE SPACE
Dick Johnson and Joel Orosz recommended a story
published October 26th in The New York Times.
Joel writes: "Here is a virtual halloween horror story for
bibliophiles." Some excerpts follow, with a link to the
original article (free registration required):"At some point, even ardent bibliophiles begin to view
their beloved books as a burden. Maybe it is when the
cover finally falls off that college edition of Ezra Pound,
or the paperbacks begin to warp as they are forced into
shelves that once seemed spacious. But few in this
particular fix can bring themselves to take effective
remedial action.It might be comforting to know that professionals have
similar problems. In the lexicon of library science,
managing such unwieldy growth is known as weeding. It's
the closest most New Yorkers will ever get to gardening.The city library system offers two opposing models to
emulate: the research libraries, like the flagship on Fifth
Avenue, which rarely discard anything, or the many branch
libraries, where collections are tailored to patrons' tastes.
Both approaches have committed advocates.""If just one person requests a particular book every 50
years, we want to have it on hand," says Paul LeClerc, the
president of the New York Public Library. He is speaking
of the research facilities, particularly the system's
magnificent humanities library. Its five million books are
housed in 88 miles of shelves, extending underneath the
whole of Bryant Park, between 40th and 42nd Streets.
Lounging visitors thus relax directly above what the
library calls the nation's memory."- 2002-10-27
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