The Royal Oak Public Library will not embarrass you by withdrawing all the classics to make way for romance and mystery. Although we all must have romance and mystery in our lives we must also keep a place for the best that literature, music and drama can provide. Your public library is the same and makes every effort to provide this balance between the new and the old as well as between varying formats and topics.

You may have been reading or hearing about the notoriety earned by a Fairfax Virginia library that withdrew non-circulating copies of the classics from its branches to make way for the more popular materials that its customers demand. The Washington Post originated the kerfluffle on January 2, 2007 with Hello, Grisham -- So Long, Hemingway?  On January 3, 2007 Wall Street Journal piled on with "Should Libraries' Target Audience Be Cheapskates With Mass-Market Tastes?" 

Libraries across the land struggle with competing demands of space and budget and popularity; your local library is no exception. There will also be the struggle that one person's classic may be another's detritus.

Like every library, Royal Oak Public Library weeds its collection to keep it fresh and up to date. Librarians here also maintain the objective that it is important to have "classics" new and old represented because sometimes, if you can't find it at the public library, you may not be able to find it anywhere else. We at Royal Oak Public Library value the great traditions that have brought literature, music and drama to where it is today.

We hope you will come and explore the shelves to discover the new and the old. If you don't find something you thought you would like to see, please ask for it. Because, after all, this is your public library and this is the way you can put your mark on it. If you ask for what you are looking for, library staff will put it on hold if it is owned and consider it for purchase if it is not owned. Please ask. [January 9, 2007]

2008 Update:  The Library Board has authorized the use of the long-standing Jacob Levy Fund for systematic update of the Classics at Royal Oak Public Library.  This fund will be used to replace aged and dog-eared or long missing tomes with fresh new copies of classic works.  The fund will be used to refresh Classics collections in the Youth and Teen Services Department as well as the Adult Services Department.   I have estimated the evaluation and purchase activities for this process, folded into routine operations, will take approximately two years.

Should the Library be city-owned?

This mini-essay provides pertinent context to the current (March/April 2008) fuss re control over adult computers in the Royal Oak Library.

I am happy to report that, Mr. Versagi’s findings notwithstanding, attendance and utilization of public libraries locally, in the state, and nation-wide are increasing and have been doing so continuously for many years. Public libraries are successfully meeting the needs of their tax-paying publics to the extent that, while many government agencies are suffering for lack of public support, taxpayers do support their public libraries and are generously rewarded in excellent public service as a result.

• Nation-wide circulation of public library materials increased from 2000 to 2004 by 11% and visits to public libraries increased by 9% in the same period. [1]

• In Michigan, between year 2000 and year 2005, total circulation in public libraries increased by 29%. Children's circulation increased by the same amount in the same period. Visits increased by 9% and collections increased by 19%. [2]

• In the Royal Oak Public Library between 2005 and 2006, the average number of transactions per month increased by 13%. [3]

I could find no reports accumulating that show reduced attendance at public libraries. Mr. Versagi said “Nationwide, reports are accumulating which show reduced attendance at public libraries, especially among children.” [The Farmers Market and The Library -- Should they be city-owned?] 

Mr. Versagi is referring to an article in the Washington Post that was bemoaning the fact that “classics” are gathering dust on the shelves of the nation’s libraries and, in some cases consequently, are being removed from said shelves to make room for materials that library borrowers are demanding.  Space is limited, space is expensive and we must all set priorities.  Nowhere in this article does it state or imply that attendance or utilization is declining in the nation’s public libraries.

At Royal Oak Public Library we picked up on this and right way addressed it with the article Classics in the Library[4] which was published on the library web site on January 9, 2007.  I made a commitment there that ROPL would honor the classics alongside contemporary materials in the Library collection.