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BPL's print collection a mess, report says
By adamg on Mon, 06/22/2015 - 8:27am
The Globe gets an advance look at a report that tears into the Boston Public Library for the disarray of its valuable print collection.
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Comments
More museum than library!
Many BPL staff are out of touch emphasizing what can't be done, what isn't available in response to Reference Desk enquiries instead of figuring out other options to suggest. Negativity is the general order of things, instead of a customers services program with good training regularly, good supervision, good management
https://www.reddit.com/r/boston/comments/3ap44z/boston_public_library_wo...
Ugh
Typical business doublespeak. There's nothing wrong with negativity. Often, it shows a realistic grasp on the situation, as it does here. In this case, what you pay for is what you get, and there's only so much you can do with the resources you're given.
And I'm pretty sure they did figure out "other options to suggest." They just all involve more money.
Exactly.
The bottom line in this article is the collection needs more money. You want to preserve these items and have them accessible to the public? They need to be better funded. You can't do all this stuff for free.
Compare http://savenypl.org
For Boston Public Library there's Friends, there's Associates... any other groups?
Compare
http://savenypl.org
Free? Ha!
The city has a $2.9 billion budget and that has been increasing at a rate well above inflation for decades. Take a look at the "fixed cost" line of the budget. A dozen years ago it was 16.5% of the budget - now it's 20.5%. Schools and public safety have kept up very well with increases in the budget - even as the student population has shrunk dramatically. The problem is that simple math means everything else is lucky to just be flat.
If you want things like parks and libraries, can you say "identify new revenue streams"?
http://www.cityofboston.gov/images_documents/Summary%20Budget_tcm3-50812...
Yes, but
You have to remember we're not talking about the library as a whole here, just a few departments. I can't seem to find a detailed budget breaking down how big a piece of that pie special collections is getting, but I've the impression that their piece has been getting smaller.
This is a complex discussion about what the BPL should be these days, and how much should be invested into protecting these items.
Are the priorities correct?
I disagree with some of the BPL's priorities. The Johnson building was functional. It worked well enough. It also put many if not most of the circulating books into one area. It was not pretty. It probably ranks as one of Johnson's worst designed buildings. But it worked. Yet it received a multi-million dollar facelift, including converting most of the circulating area into a gigantic baby-sitting arena.
Meanwhile older areas, including the arts reference room, the special rooms off the arts reference room and the print collection are allowed to literally disintegrate (the arts reference room has quite a bit of peeling paint), collections remaine untouched for years (layers of dust attest to the lack of use) and the print collection apparently is a near disaster of chaos (although the library staff does manage to find at least some of what is needed for their special exhibitions).
Is the BPL to be a library? Is it mission to support teaching and learning? Or is to be a community center? Baby sitting centers, restaurants, some unnamed retail operation in the Johnson building, the BPL is turning into some institutional creature that does not make sense. Hopefully the new director and the newer trustees will shift the focus from being a massive community center and back toward being what the BPL is: a libary.
Minor questions
What is a library in the digital age? What is the purpose of a centralized repository of knowledge in the era of the web and the cloud?
The BPL is trying to answer these questions by doing. You may not like the result, but the answer isn't "just be a library", because no one knows what that means anymore.
BPL report
I searched the Boston Globe for the person, agency, mayor or some unit that ordered a
report of the BPL holdings. Omitted from the Globe article was this information. Amy
Ryan as The BPL Director ordered the report as was her job.
Boston Public Library Commissioned Report Is First Phase...
Boston Public Library Commissioned Report Is First Phase of Improved Print Collection Inventory Control
Second phase item-by-item inventory of Print Department underway
For Immediate Release
June 23, 2015
Released By: Library. For More Information Contact:
BPL Communications Office, email
news at bpl.org
Today, the Boston Public Library announced the results of the Print Department Report, a BPL commissioned year-long external review of the BPL Print Collection
http://www.cityofboston.gov/news/default.aspx?id=20188