2016 Charleston Library Conference

Providing pleasure reading is one of the great success stories for public libraries, but public librarians seem to be hesitant to brag about this wonderful accomplishment. Instead, they more often talk about helping people find jobs, introducing new technology, and fostering economic development. While these functions deserve praise, I would bet that many more patrons check out best-sellers, current non-fiction, and genre fiction. Without the public library, an avid reader of one book per week could easily spend over $1,000 annually.

In Against the Grain, I proposed several reasons for this reticence. Is it a remnant of the American Puritanical tradition? Does the focus on literacy suggest that this skill is useful only for job performance and practical tasks? Do librarians fear that their funding agencies will cut the libraries' budgets if they discover how much is spent on genre fiction instead of economic development? Does the library director worry about the expenditures for the integrated library system, staffing the reference desk, and purchasing databases when many patrons go right to the fiction shelves where they know they'll find what they're looking for without using these expensive services? Will librarians wonder why they got their expensive degrees only to watch patrons leave the library with stacks of best sellers without asking a complex reference question?

I hope that this session will be more an informal discussion where we can all share our thoughts. I especially invite those who disagree with me to attend. I love a good debate.