My local county library system, until very recently, has purchased all the books I’ve requested, and some librarian pride kicked in when the titles I suggested for purchase, ranging from Maria Bamford’s “Sure, I’ll Join Your Cult” to Brendan O’Neill’s “A Heretic’s Manifesto” to Emily Wells’s “A Matter of Appearance,” ended up with holds lists on them.
Due to changes in the way Pima County readers have been accessing library materials, the library is investing in the purchase of materials that we expect to be of higher interest to readers at all of our library locations. We have had to make the hard decision to purchase fewer items recommended through the Suggest a Purchase form, if we do not anticipate the item will be popular with enough readers. If you are interested in Interlibrary Loan, you must wait one year from the U.S. publication date.
At the time I requested “Hijacking Bitcoin,” it was a #1 bestseller in the category of “Online Trading E-Commerce” (I re-submitted my request with this information, to no avail), and it appears to have topped other Amazon categories as well. I would think that a county of a million people would generate adequate interest in this title. I am unsure how to interpret the Library’s response— titles will no longer be purchased unless they are predicted to be popular at every location? They do have a floating collection, so that may be part of it. Are more customers accessing digital versions of titles, so that only the most popular books will be purchased in print?
When I examined the book further, I realized the publisher was listed as “Roger Ver,” and it appears not to have been reviewed in any library journals, so it would fall outside some of the general guidelines of most collection development policies. “Demand” factors in as well, though, and in the past I advised my staff to review the Amazon bestsellers and purchase titles they thought would appeal to the community.
I did find reviews in other places, such as Blockworks, X, and Medium, and I found a write-up in Crypto News. Nonstandard, yes, but now that I am retired I no longer have access to library journals, so like other patrons I get my information elsewhere, and I evaluate reviews on the quality of the writing. With self-publishing growing and review journals showing bias, should collection development policies be reconsidered, especially when it comes to experts writing on particular topics?
Image: Roger Ver.jpg/ Wikimedia Commons
Incidentally, my other two most recent requests were also denied— Elizabeth Day’s Friendaholic: Confessions of a Friendship Addict (this was prior to the templated response) and John Daniel Davidson’s Pagan America: The Decline of Christianity and the Dark Age to Come. The former was published by 4th Estate GB and most likely has more appeal across the pond (where the author is based), while the latter was published by Regnery, a conservative publisher. I could only find a review of “Friendaholic” in The Guardian. For the latter title I could only find reviews in First Things and The Federalist, where Davidson is a senior editor. Based on the evidence at hand I cannot leap to the conclusion that the library’s purchasing decisions are political, but the danger is that people may assume they are (at the one hour and thirty-five minute mark of this interview, Davidson discusses taking over city councils and libraries due to persecution and rejecting neutrality in the public square since the cultural left has abandoned it).
I’m still unsure what I think about Bitcoin and am eager to read about it from all sides, so was looking forward to Ver’s perspective. I was interested in evaluating Davidson’s arguments in “Pagan America” to see where I agree and disagree. “Pagan America” is available through Hoopla, but I would prefer the print version. Perhaps “Hijacking Bitcoin” will eventually show up in Hoopla as well.
One of the things I loved about working in libraries over the decades was stumbling upon all kinds of little gems in the stacks and reading off the beaten path. My feeling is, when in doubt, buy the book.
Top Image: 'Buy a book' at Hay-on-Wye - geograph.org.uk - 3026664.jpg/ Wikimedia Commons
1. Have friends/family also request the book. This might help establish demand.
2. Buy a copy and donate to the library. Ask the director specifically to add it to the collection, perhaps with a follow up email copying in the county official that oversees the library, indicating the worth/value of the book.
As an aside, but very possibly a factor, given the millions of border crosses that Pima County processed, have collection funds been reduced?
The library in Port Angeles where I used to live sold off books a couple times a year (three dollars for a grocery bag full). A surprising number of the books I bought this way were recently donated books. I know this for fact because some that I donated ended up there fairly quickly. So No. 2. may be a futile gesture. Hoopla and other media/computer subscriptions probably eat significantly into costs which other wise would have gone for print media. I was astonished at how dismal their newspaper and magazine collection was. A few of the MSM biggies and that was it. The reduced the number of media "borrows" one can do a month through Hoopla a little while back - I assume they must have dropped down to a lower throughput subscription.
Hoopla is usually set up so each "check out" costs a certain amount of money. I think PCPL had to reduce the availability of the more expensive titles recently.
Oftentimes systems won't add donations unless they have a recent copyright date and are in very good condition because they don't have the staff to catalog them and if they are older there may not be as much demand. I believe as far as requesting books here they have to have a recent copyright date.
I seldom bother trying to find books at local libraries anymore - it's too hit and miss. Thriftbooks is where I go first. I closed my Amazon Prime account when they removed Abigail Schier's book from their inventory. Generally, one can find a cheap used copy in decent condition. And one can have them notify you when things they don't have show up. Of course, I have ended up with so many bookshelves my house looks like a library. I often haunt used-book stores where I have stumbled on many good books that I wasn't looking for. Now I'm going to have to order the Bitcoin book - sounds interesting. Thanks.
I just checked - they don't currently have Roger Ver's book. Sigh. I'll find it somewhere.
From the Pima Board Watchers newsletter Action Alert for the upcoming BoS meeting November 21, 2023
Agenda Item #11: Library District Award - Amendment of Award: Master Agreement No. MA-PO-21-210, Amendment No. 3, Overdrive, Inc., to provide for digital content services. This amendment increases the annual award amount by $1,500,000.00 for a cumulative not-to-exceed contract amount of $4,440,000.00. Funding Source: Library District Ops Fund.
Overdrive, Inc, is the largest source of library eBooks. It is widely known that the library ebook industry charges exorbitant amounts per book compared to paper books. According to the attached PDF Memorandum from Deputy Director, Michelle Simon, “A title that costs us roughly $30 in print may cost us upwards of $80 in a digital format.” And this is not a purchase for life – instead, the title eventually needs to be relicensed.
One immediate concern is: For how long will these millions of dollars of eBook titles be available, and when will they need to be relicensed? Also, unlike hard copies, eBooks are vulnerable to being edited by the publisher after the fact. How can we know that original content will not be modified going forward? History could literally be rewritten at will…
According to Simon in her Action Requested: “Pima County Public Library requires a higher spending limit for this existing No Substitute contract so that we may purchase high demand electronic items to satisfy community needs. We need capacity to spend more of our existing materials budget on digital materials to reflect community needs and usage patterns, but not in our spending overall.” The improper grammar (from The Library) of that last sentence renders it ambiguous; what is meant by “not in our spending overall”? Sounds like they’re not asking for more money per se but want permission to move funds from within their $60,000,000 budget. The County Library has a budget of approximately $60,000,000 according to the 2023/24 Pima County Adopted Budget .
Interesting, maybe they are moving more of their print budget into digital materials as the latter's circulation increases and thus they have less money for print requests.
Two other options:
1. Have friends/family also request the book. This might help establish demand.
2. Buy a copy and donate to the library. Ask the director specifically to add it to the collection, perhaps with a follow up email copying in the county official that oversees the library, indicating the worth/value of the book.
As an aside, but very possibly a factor, given the millions of border crosses that Pima County processed, have collection funds been reduced?
I do wonder if collection funds have been reduced (for whatever reason). I know their Hoopla funds ran low.
The library in Port Angeles where I used to live sold off books a couple times a year (three dollars for a grocery bag full). A surprising number of the books I bought this way were recently donated books. I know this for fact because some that I donated ended up there fairly quickly. So No. 2. may be a futile gesture. Hoopla and other media/computer subscriptions probably eat significantly into costs which other wise would have gone for print media. I was astonished at how dismal their newspaper and magazine collection was. A few of the MSM biggies and that was it. The reduced the number of media "borrows" one can do a month through Hoopla a little while back - I assume they must have dropped down to a lower throughput subscription.
Hoopla is usually set up so each "check out" costs a certain amount of money. I think PCPL had to reduce the availability of the more expensive titles recently.
Oftentimes systems won't add donations unless they have a recent copyright date and are in very good condition because they don't have the staff to catalog them and if they are older there may not be as much demand. I believe as far as requesting books here they have to have a recent copyright date.
It's like Substack--not cited by Reliable sources. Who decides what gets reviewed? That's the hidden key.
I seldom bother trying to find books at local libraries anymore - it's too hit and miss. Thriftbooks is where I go first. I closed my Amazon Prime account when they removed Abigail Schier's book from their inventory. Generally, one can find a cheap used copy in decent condition. And one can have them notify you when things they don't have show up. Of course, I have ended up with so many bookshelves my house looks like a library. I often haunt used-book stores where I have stumbled on many good books that I wasn't looking for. Now I'm going to have to order the Bitcoin book - sounds interesting. Thanks.
I just checked - they don't currently have Roger Ver's book. Sigh. I'll find it somewhere.
From the Pima Board Watchers newsletter Action Alert for the upcoming BoS meeting November 21, 2023
Agenda Item #11: Library District Award - Amendment of Award: Master Agreement No. MA-PO-21-210, Amendment No. 3, Overdrive, Inc., to provide for digital content services. This amendment increases the annual award amount by $1,500,000.00 for a cumulative not-to-exceed contract amount of $4,440,000.00. Funding Source: Library District Ops Fund.
Overdrive, Inc, is the largest source of library eBooks. It is widely known that the library ebook industry charges exorbitant amounts per book compared to paper books. According to the attached PDF Memorandum from Deputy Director, Michelle Simon, “A title that costs us roughly $30 in print may cost us upwards of $80 in a digital format.” And this is not a purchase for life – instead, the title eventually needs to be relicensed.
One immediate concern is: For how long will these millions of dollars of eBook titles be available, and when will they need to be relicensed? Also, unlike hard copies, eBooks are vulnerable to being edited by the publisher after the fact. How can we know that original content will not be modified going forward? History could literally be rewritten at will…
According to Simon in her Action Requested: “Pima County Public Library requires a higher spending limit for this existing No Substitute contract so that we may purchase high demand electronic items to satisfy community needs. We need capacity to spend more of our existing materials budget on digital materials to reflect community needs and usage patterns, but not in our spending overall.” The improper grammar (from The Library) of that last sentence renders it ambiguous; what is meant by “not in our spending overall”? Sounds like they’re not asking for more money per se but want permission to move funds from within their $60,000,000 budget. The County Library has a budget of approximately $60,000,000 according to the 2023/24 Pima County Adopted Budget .
Interesting, maybe they are moving more of their print budget into digital materials as the latter's circulation increases and thus they have less money for print requests.