Introduction
To build on my last chapter, I would like to ask this question; if it is up to the library to provide new experiences, or to provide for existing wants. This problem lies at the center of this essay. The question of what kind of collections a library should have, and how it should be formed. So far I have discussed the need for expertise, as well as a willingness and interest from the part of the patrons to interact and use the collections at the library. Either must be present in order for the motivation for a certain text to be brought into the collection, as well as for a collection to be created in the first place.
Providing for patrons
By presenting the patron with a wide selection of the texts that the librarians know that the patrons would want to consume (Feel good novels, detective novels, movies and cook books etc) will the librarians make sure that the patron almost always leaves the library with something to consume. As a result the patron will always leave the library somewhat happy. This form of preemptive and predictive form of acquisition is the most common form used in Swedish and other public libraries.
This approach has been discussed a bit in the earlier chapter, when I discussed how many, if not most patrons already at least somewhat know what they are after when entering the library. To make sure that these patrons leave happy it is vital that they are able to reach their texts as easily and quickly as possible. This can be done in a number of ways, firstly making sure that the search computers as well as the spaces where the reserved books are easy to reach. The second way is to make sure that the layout of the library is easy to navigate for those that know what they are after.
To minimize traffic and optimize throughput does it make the most sense from a patron point of view to add the most popular items front and center, at least if the goal is convenience. New titles are often presented in prominent positions of the library.
The library often crests specialty collections of the most well read topics and trends amounts that library patrons. Detective novels, feel good novels and historical dramas are common examples of specialty collections that are created. Now these are of course not static, and must adapt and change as the tastes of the patrons evolve as well. For, say, fifteen year olds, the feel good novel was not nearly as popular in the libraries I worked at.
This setup is great if we wish to be as effective as possible, when it comes to giving patrons the texts they want, as fast as possible. This system also allows the patrons to easily find similar texts to the ones that they are already looking for, something that is vital in non fiction collections, but non the less rather useful in fiction collections as well.
While this is a very effective way to make sure that the patrons get the books they are looking for, as well as making sure they don’t need to spend more time in the library than absolutely necessary, it also risks making sure the patrons miss much of what the library has to offer. It is less likely that a patron will pick up a gothic horror novel or a graphic novel if they already have all they feel they need in the feel good section for example.
Inspire new experiences
There is another way of creating a collection, that instead aims to inspire and present the patrons with new forms of media, rather than to simply provide a convenient way of getting the media that the patrons already know that they want. There are some examples in which the Swedish libraries are already doing this, but I believe that we can go a lot further in presenting patrons with new experiences and forms of media.
As books in Sweden and the west become cheaper and more easily to acquire, I would argue that at least some of the public libraries should move towards media forms that are harder to acquire or consume. This could be VHS classics and cheap VHS players, or laser disks and ways to watch them, as well as ways to play old video games or VR technology that is currently out of most patrons’ abilities, either due to price, or scarcity. As technology moves forward more and more of these media forms will be left behind.
I argue that it is time that libraries as centers for art and knowledge embrace these forms of media as well. Much media is already lost simply due to the fact that the ways of experiencing them are lost, or default to acquire. A library that is built and curated this way, must by its nature be a lot more strict when it comes to the curation of its collections.
Due to the added work and infrastructure that is needed for each specialty collection would these collections be a lot smaller, and as a result need to be a lot more heavily and strictly curated. In other words a series of deep collections, rather than a few wide collections. This leads me to the last of my arguments before my conclusions, who gets to decide what kind of media to collect and what will be in it.
Inspire and provide
Much of the logic that I have presented in this text can be found echoed, and indeed being co-opted from the logic of store layouts. Should the goal be to get the customers to find the items they are looking for as fast as possible, or is it rather to make sure that the customer leaves with as many items as possible?
Now, both approaches are more or less useful depending on what store that you are running. In a supermarket it would make more sense to have stable items front and center, and then have the tempting offers on the way towards the register, while in a specialty store like a jewelry or electronics store, it might be more profitable to have the most commonly bought items in the back, to force the customers to walk past all the other options available to them, and as a result enticing more purchase.
While the library does not share a store’s profit goal, at least in theory, is it not a perfect allegory. But it is nonetheless an interesting framework upon which we can better understand what a library should and should not be. Just like a store, a library is there to provide a service, to aid in some goal that the patron or customer wishes to achieve, the biggest difference is that the library is free.
In this text I have presented two approaches to answering the question of what a library should be and how it should function. Just as with a store will the needs and uses of a library vary somewhat between institutions, user demographic and collection.
A university library for example would most likely keep the most relevant course materials for their specific schools easy to reach, while the less borrowed and used collections might be pushed more towards the back. This is assuming that the library is not strictly following an already established model.
The question of what a public library should be is less cut and dry, and while my personal preferences should have been made very apparent by now, can I see the value in both approaches. And it comes back to the core problem of what a library should do. Should the public library challenge its users’ habits and experiences, or cater to them? While the library of Odd Things by its very nature caters to the idea of expanding the users experiences and preferences, it must also cater to already existing preferences, partly due to the importance of nostalgia and interconnectedness rooted in the project.
The question of what a library should or not focus on leads me to the topic of my next chapter. Who gets to decide what a library should or should not be? Librarians, patrons or policy makers.
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An Unused Frequency 