« Honesty | HomePage | More promotion »

28/03/2005

Revisiting Monowi

I've been really interested in the reactions to the Monowi Library story Pop.: 1 Plus 5,000 Volumes by Stephanie Simon in the LA Times. Lots of people have linked to the article and some have even commented on it. Most of the comments have been about the emotional reactions people have to the story, 'warm fuzzy' or sad. A few have linked it to the story about Salinas libraries being threatened with closure about the same time. A lot of the library community have noted the story but not commented on it.

In some ways I suppose library staff don't feel the story really fits in with 'real' libraries. It isn't funded. No one gets paid. There's no circulation system or collection development policy. Monowi Library is not fighting for existence as many libraries are. It isn't threatened with closure. It isn't being used by politicians to score point on their way to election. People aren't having massive fundraisers or donating thousands of dollars from their golf winnings in order to get enough press to guilt trip the funding body....

Someone saw a need and filled it. Luckily Elsie had another source of income so she could open the library without funding. Without funding no one gets paid to work there so you can't keep control of the collection so therefore you don't need a circulation system which certainly keeps costs down even more. Without anyone keeping an eye on the people borrowing no one would know if the books aren't coming back, but then we can't really control that effectively in public libraries anyway. If anyone is taking the books and selling them elsewhere no one will know. Certainly cuts down on the stress levels. I suppose some books are donated which would keep the numbers up enough that visitors will find something to read.

I just wish I had a source of income that would allow me to run a library / free book exchange like that. At this point I need to work full time and so I can't do the same things as Elsie. I like what she does. Feels very anarchic. In the original taking-personal-responsibility type of way. I envy Elsie and I'll send a few books to her library to keep that dream alive.

10:41 Permalink | Email this