The E-Sylum:  Volume 5, Number 43, October 27, 2002, Article 10

SO MANY BOOKS, SO LITTLE SPACE

  Dick Johnson and Joel Orosz recommended a story
  published October 26th in The New York Times.
  Joel writes: "Here is a virtual halloween horror story for
  bibliophiles."   Some excerpts follow, with a link to the
  original article (free registration required):

  "At some point, even ardent bibliophiles begin to view
  their beloved books as a burden. Maybe it is when the
  cover finally falls off that college edition of Ezra Pound,
  or the paperbacks begin to warp as they are forced into
  shelves that once seemed spacious. But few in this
  particular fix can bring themselves to take effective
  remedial action.

  It might be comforting to know that professionals have
  similar problems. In the lexicon of library science,
  managing such unwieldy growth is known as weeding. It's
  the closest most New Yorkers will ever get to gardening.

  The city library system offers two opposing models to
  emulate: the research libraries, like the flagship on Fifth
  Avenue, which rarely discard anything, or the many branch
  libraries, where collections are tailored to patrons' tastes.
  Both approaches have committed advocates."

  "If just one person requests a particular book every 50
  years, we want to have it on hand," says Paul LeClerc, the
  president of the New York Public Library. He is speaking
  of the research facilities, particularly the system's
  magnificent humanities library. Its five million books are
  housed in 88 miles of shelves, extending underneath the
  whole of Bryant Park, between 40th and 42nd Streets.
  Lounging visitors thus relax directly above what the
  library calls the nation's memory."

  http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/26/arts/26BOOK.html

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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