The public library

I think that most librarians are aware of the history of the public library in America. Right? Maybe? I guess I don't really know for sure. But, the idea that public libraries are "for" the people, more than "by" the people, is definitely a pillar of the public library. Sure, you can recommend acquisitions to the librarians, but in the end, the library chooses your options for you. I know that most of the time this is really a non-issue, because librarians are pretty staunchly non-censor-ey, but of course sometimes this has probably been an issue. Like when librarians don't want to put Danielle Steele in their library, or maybe don't want to add Goldhagen's Hitler's Willing Executioners.

Anyway, it's generally accepted that librarians will act as the guardians of culture in a library, for better or worse. Public libraries were founded on this very idea. The educated would act as the bringers of light to all the "poor, huddled masses" of immigrants in the U.S., and sooner or later everyone would be educated and happy. Obviously librarians nowadays do try to divorce themselves from such a very elitist attitude about their role in the library, but it's still something that we deal with every day in some ways.

I'm working on a project now that turns that age-old tradition on its head, and is striving to bring patron-driven acquisition to its libraries. The idea is that the patrons will decide which electronic materials they would like, the items are printed on demand, checked out, and then taken home on loan. When they come back to the library, they are added to the permanent collection. These libraries aren't going to be in the U.S., incidentally. This project is also probably going to be leading me to forfeit my anonymous status on this blog so that I can talk about it freely. More on that another time, I guess.