Oh, DUH. (Library collection specialties)

[gement]

So, last night at the post-ducky cocoa social hour, someone asked me to explain what sort of differences there would be between a small-town Idaho library collection and the Seattle library collection, particularly what would stand out in Seattle, and my mind went a little blank. I pointed out that Lewiston wouldn't have a really big section on poly or other alternative relationship structures, said something lame about local environmental interest, couldn't remember anything about Seattle other than the political interests of the people I generally hang out with, felt lame, and then belatedly remembered that SPL has the Seattle Collection, which is a fantastic and one-of-a-kind local resource. So I acquitted myself okay.

Then I walked off the bus this morning thinking, "oh, right, Lewiston's a little shy on its Ethiopian language materials, isn't it?" I spent all spring quarter hearing about how hard SPL works on immigrant and minority outreach, but do I remember during a conversation that was just gift-wrapped as a PR opportunity? Naw.

So I'm mentioning it here. Their multilingual collection ROCKS.

Collections should also be specialized branch by branch, not just system by system. The Cap Hill branch has an excellent GLBTQ selection, in both fiction and nonfiction. Other branches in less flamboyant parts of town don't have as much call for that material to be browsable on the shelf, but may a have much larger multilingual collection, children's or teen/YA program, ethnic studies and ethnically focused fiction, or popular fiction and video selection, depending on preferences expressed by the patrons. Or any combination thereof. Mix and match.

Thereby have I geeked. Any questions?

Comments

[sistawendy.livejournal.com]

What would Lewiston have that Seattle wouldn't?

Dang it, now I have to go off to omniglot.com and learn the Ethiopian alphabet. Darn you. Darn you to heck.

[gement.livejournal.com]

I've been trying to think about that, and I keep coming to the conclusion that Seattle is just soooo much bigger that, maybe barring some of the rarer Lewis and Clark stuff, its collection completely encompasses Lewiston's. That said, I can make some proportional guesses.

My hometown patron base: The patron population has a dip in the middle; a lot of 50+, a lot of 18-, and all the sassy twenty-somethings are off in Seattle or Portland. It's also very economically depressed. In general, the political atmosphere is conservative and people are looking for pleasure reading, how-to (get a job, fix your house, save your health), or the ever-popular children's books.

My hometown library (Asotin County Library in the supercool VALNET regional library cooperative) had a collection that was more strongly geared toward genre pleasure reading, with a large children's section. In the last few years, one of the librarians was making a concerted effort to expand the Young Adult (teen) section as well, and give it a stronger sense of place.
For its size, there's a decently large Spanish-language collection, and proportionally a larger collection of Westerns than I suspect SPL carries.

ACL also has a teeny tiny satellite branch that I never investigated in person. It's not staffed by a Librarian and it has limited open hours, so I suspect that it mostly exists for a children's section, a quick fiction fix, access to an encyclopedia, and a holds shelf to get orders for other branches. As I have never actually been there, this may be baseless slander.

[memegarden.livejournal.com]

It probably has some local-interest stuff that Seattle doesn't. I would expect small-town libraries to have things by local authors and about local history, geography, etc., that might not be standard in other libraries.