Ken Dowlin: Book Dumper, by Nicholson Baker
The Weeding War, by John Berry
Baker's article is from: Reclaiming San Francisco: History, Politics, Culture
Table of Contents, lists Baker
Politics & Libraries: Every great librarian is a politician, by John Berry
Kevin Starr, speaking at SFPL on its history
Hawaii fires Bart Kane over outsourcing contract
Prince George County Maryland, Bart Kane fired again
"Critics here complain that the North Carolina-based Baker & Taylor - which gets paid $20.94 per book regardless of its list price - fails to send reference volumes, current best sellers, children's and young adult books, but sends an inordinate number of paperback fiction and duplicates. The 5 1/2-year, $11.2 million contract went into effect in July."
The identities of the two books previously discussed, read many years back, have not yet been determined.
ALA, Outsourcing and Privatization
"ALA affirms that publicly funded libraries should remain directly accountable to the publics they serve. Therefore, the American Library Association opposes the shifting of policy making and management oversight of library services from the public to the private for-profit sector."
ALA, Keeping Public Libraries Public
A Checklist for Communities Considering
Privatization of Public Libraries
- Can a private company maintain the level of public trust that has been earned by the local library?
- Will the library director always make the operational decisions that are in the best interest of the community, even if those decisions reduce or do not contribute to the private company’s profit?
- Can or should library services be provided through private companies?
- Does the relationship between a public library and its community change when a library is privatized?
- Does the role of the library as a public good change when the library is privatized?
NYPL Ditches Controversial Renovation Plans, 5/14
It Is My Library!, by John Berry 7/14
Brechin is a local historian and author. He teaches at UC Berkeley. He became involved when Dowlin's book dump surfaced.
12/24/1995, Closure of old SF Main, by Kevin Starr
Kevin Starr, historian and author, former California State Librarian, and former SFPL Director, would go on to write a scathing denunciation of Ken Dowlin's book dump. Starr explained about how much money and effort had gone into building up SFPL's Main Collection. Starr explained that to maintain it you must have one topic area specialist librarian assigned to each section. They must know both the subject matter and the present collection contents. New acquisitions and any culling are done together, evaluating each volume on both its own merits, as well as in relation to what else is in the collection. So both acquisitions and culling must be done incrementally, and never in batches too large. Of course this will be further complicated when there is a steady stream of donated books which also must be given such careful consideration for inclusion into the collection.
Starr also published drawings he'd had prepared back in the 1970's. At that time it was already clear that SFPL was outgrowing it's main. So he wanted to expanded it by building a geodesic dome on the lot behind it. Tearing down old buildings is wasteful. Better just to supplement them with additional structures. Also, a dome is a very low cost way of getting a great deal of floor space. It is also very efficient in terms of materials and energy, as it has the highest ratio of enclosed volume relative to outer surface area. An expanding collection, plus the need for computers and study tables, does mean that there has to be a great deal of floor space. Far too often library buildings are designed for their external visual effect, as they are a way of trying to extend local real estate price bubbles, rather than for the actual library services they are supposed to be for.
When SFPL's new main opened the SF Chronicle's Architecture Critic ( Art Tempco? ) showered it with adulation. He particularly liked the open sight lines afforded by the low shelves, and the "air bridges" ( cut away places in the floors ).
When library staff realized that the book collection would not fit onto the shelves they were flabbergasted. So they got out tape measures and started trying to figure it out. Dowlin was of course nowhere to be found. What it came down to was these very features the Chronicle's critic praised. Soon this would all be the subject of several shows of Michael Krazny's KQED Forum. Dowlin had their Public Relations person speak for him. She lied about the collection destruction, and this made the public reaction even worse.
Some people felt that behind Dowlin was the President of the Library Commission, a Pacific Bell Vice President, and that the real intent was that libraries become bookless, and that Pacific Bell would get the contract for all the electronic media services. Some started putting up on telephone poles Wanted Dead or Alive posters against this Commission President.
Several years later Nicholson Baker would receive an award from the First Amendment Foundation for his Freedom of Information Act suit against SFPL. In his acceptance speech he parodied the Chronicle's Architecture Critic.
Lots of library buildings have been built since. Most of them do have some of the same features, areas with low shelves and floor cutaways. But these are kept within sensible limits. After the Dowlin episode, no one has dared try to build one with less shelf space, or to do reckless collection liquidation.
How Buildings Learn, by Stuart Brand, 1995
Brand is the founder of the Whole Earth Catalog, and he is writing about how old buildings are both maintained and adapted for purposes entirely different from what they were originally built for.
S.F. Library Workers' Unheard-of Tactic / They're holding no-confidence vote on their chief, 1/16/97
John E. Buschman
JOHN E. BUSCHMAN is Department Chair, Collection Development Librarian, and Professor-Librarian, Rider University Library, Lawrenceville, New Jersey. His previous book, Critical Approaches to Information Technology in Librarianship, was published by Greenwood Press. He has published many articles and is co-editor of the journal Progressive Librarian and on the Coordinating Committee of the Progressive Librarians Guild. Prior to his current administrative appointment, he served on the National Council of the American Association of University Professors.
The framework of critical analysis : the new public philosophy and the public sphere. Introduction : crisis culture and the need for a defense of librarianship in the public sphere ; The new public philosophy and critical educational analysis : the context of public cultural institutions ; The public sphere : rounding out the context of librarianship -- Studies in librarianship and the dismantling of the public sphere. Follow the money : library funding and information capitalism ; Co-opted or rolling over? Follow-the-leader library management and the new public philosophy ; On customer-driven librarianship ; Drifting toward the corporate model : a brief look at ALA ; Notes on postmodern technology, technocracy, and libraries ; Conclusion : toward a sustainable case for librarianship : the public sphere and democratic possibility.
the newest of his many works:
Libraries, classrooms, and the interests of democracy : marking the limits of neoliberalism, 2012
Should we be bothered by library marketing and advertising in the classroom, and if so, why? : an introduction -- An historical view I : a précis on the entanglements of democracy, education, and libraries in America -- An historical view II : a précis on advertising in schools, marketing in libraries, and the appeal of neoliberalism -- From theoretical to empirical critiques of advertising : have they deepened understanding of democracy and our educative institutions? -- Tocqueville and the centrifugal/centripetal forces within America : why (and how much) our practices in libraries and classrooms matter -- A practical communitarianism : educative institutions, social bonds, and neoliberalism's incursions -- Deliberative democratic theory's deeper critique : the profound effects of neoliberalism's grammar in educative institutions -- Looking ahead at neoliberalism's trajectory : the continuing interests of democracy and educative institutions : a conclusion
Questioning library neutrality : essays from Progressive librarian / edited by Alison Lewis, 2008
Patron Driven Acquisitions
Most talk about PDAs is pertaining to e-books and in academic libraries, but here we find:
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