Photos
Blog
NewslettersAm I reading too much into this?
I've been thinking about books a lot lately. See, I'm the type of girl who would rather see the dark green of a Barnes and Noble bag than the light blue of a Tiffany's box any day.
With a beautiful place like Waterfront Park and Mondays off, I'm finding myself reading more than I have in the past few years. Sadly, though, I'm often at a loss for books.
To fully explain my situation, I need to begin at the beginning:
I grew up reading excessive amounts. Whenever we went shopping, I always wanted to visit the bookstore along with the toy store. And while I had an impressive personal library, I also borrowed a lot of books. In the itsy-bitsy teeny-weeny town of Mansfield, Pennsylvania, I made regular trips to the library to get new books. Now, Mansfield, as I mentioned, is small and rural and poor. But if memory serves me correctly, we had a decent library. On my regular trips, I remember checking out several books each time. Every summer the library had a reading program where if you read a certain number of hours per week you got a coupon for some free pizza. I'd usually surpass that total on Sunday.
At 14, my family moved to Rutland, Massachusetts, which is small, suburban and, by my standards anyway, affluent. Rutland's library was pretty awesome. In fact, they and other local branches had so many awesome books that they had regular book sales. Two or three years ago I went to one and got 60 books for $3. And we're talking good books here.
Sadly, I made the move to Georgia before I could make it through my then huge stack of books. Last August, I packed up everything that would fit in my car and drove to Carrollton, a small, somewhat rural and kind of poor community. Most of my books didn't make the move and were given to friends. The first time I visited Carrollton's library I was surprised to find that most people were not there to browse the thinly-shelved stacks. The vast majority of people there seemed to be waiting for a computer.
Since computers and internet connections are both pricey and pretty essential to functioning in modern society, I'm all for libraries having a bank of public PCs. But, given the long wait for a machine, why weren't these people also taking advantage of the library's main service and picking up a book to read during their wait? Thanks to the principles of supply and demand, Carrollton's library didn't have a lot of books. It was obvious that their main use was computers so it was difficult to find many good books. Sure, I could request a book through the Pines System, but when it took over a month for Love in the Time of Cholera to show up, I gave up. Seriously, was there only one copy in the entire state?
At the end of April I found myself in beautiful Beaufort. On one of my first Mondays off I decided to hit up the library for a new book and then sit by the water to read. I headed to the library with a short list of books in mind but soon realized I was out of luck. The closest I came to finding something on my list was a reader's companion to The Things They Carried. (The book itself was not there and, I could be mistaken about this, not even in the card catalog.)
"Maybe I'm too demanding," I thought to myself. But then I got talking with my roommate and she's encountered the same dilemma. In fact, a newsroom poll showed that the three members of the Gazette's staff who were both in the office at the time the poll was taken and have been to the library, left dissatisfied.
I'm not trying to attack the library because I'm sure the folks who work there are dedicated and do the best they can. I guess I'm looking for a way to make things better. Who can I lobby for more books? Can I donate part of my measly collection? Or are libraries just becoming obsolete?
- Meghann Ackerman's blog
- Login to post comments
- 440 reads
Meghann, many have gone before you and have had the same experiences with the library. It is not a high priority in Beaufort or Beaufort County for that matter since it is a County library.
They have had good staff members in the past, but the fact is that the library is not used very much except for a very few students. As you know, you can borrow some books through inter-library loans, but it sometimes takes so long that you will have time to write your own book while waiting for them.
Not to sound preachy, but education, reading, and cultural activities have a low priority in Beaufort. Development and construction are the focus of the community. If it doesn't make fairly quick money, it's not very important in Beaufort.
Another thing is that that many of the residents have such a poor/limited education that they think that they can find everything and anything on the internet. The worse part is that they also believe everything that they read on the web. Evem people with years of formal education sometimes have received such a poor education that they don't know the value of reading books. Sad.
First you have to teach the products of a Beaufort education how to read. Sadly, the schools do not.
Sorry, buy my wife and I go into the library often and most of the patrons we see are adults. Lots of retired folks use the library for recreational reading. In fact, the Friends of the Library has book sales to raise money.
I do see students using the facilities too, but they are being tutored. Most schools have decent libraries focused on the age groups and maturity reading levels.
I think sources like the NYT best seller list and other resources that determine popular books are used as one resource to order. Publishing companies also have lists that suggest potential purchases.
With the interlibrary loan, there is no reason to not find a book that one wants. They can even get books from USC, Columbia and Clemson libraries which have huge collections.
I have never lacked for finding books I wanted to read.
egret, your post reinforces what I said. When you say that "Lots of retired folks use the library.....and I do see students using the facilities too, but they are being tutored." BTW, I am not surprised that you use the library.
Of course many retirees want to take advantage of a public (free) library in order to save money, but more importantly the love and value of reading was probably instilled in them when they were school age. It hasn't been that way for a long time. In fact, I have been amazed for a long time at how many homes don't have a single book in them with the exception of the kids' school books and maybe a Bible. And I also know many younger (under age 50) teachers who rarely read anything besides their textbooks and/or a newspaper.
As you know from these blogs, there are many people today who never developed any appreciation for the gains of actually reading books. Many wrongly assume that everything is on the web, even though it is indeed rare for anyone to read a complete book on the web. The importance of the language arts has been minimized by a consumer/job oriented society.
Inter-library loans are good, however "human error" often interferes with books ever getting to their destination. Many college and university libraries are also available to the public if they wish to inquire and they generally have the more scholarly publications.....another advantage of a college town.
Sounds like the library-loan program has had some mixed results. I haven't tried it yet in South Carolina, so I'll have to request a book and see how it goes.
On an unrelated note, I kind of feel way older than I actually am complaining about the library. Someone please smack me if I start going off on the long-haired kids, their backwards caps and their loud rock music.
Of course I am semi retired and still run a business, and my wife is still working. But you implied the library was for the students, but all ages use it. And the library is funded through our county taxes, so we all pay for it. It is not free, but I think you meant there were no charges to use the library.
I disagree. Beaufort County schools are awesome if you have a kid who wants to learn. There are different levels of learning and the high performing kids are really taken care of. You just never hear about them because I guess it is not newsworthy. All the high-performing kids I know are getting really sick of hearing about how stupid they are, as products of Beaufort COunty schools, and how incompetent their teachers are (they are not). I don't blame them.