Part of Maloney’s job is to evaluate books on the sleeper list and decide whether they go to the bargain basement sale or get a second chance.
“It’s a really hard thing to get rid of a book,” Maloney said. “A big, big consideration for us is just space. Our juvenile fiction shelves are packed right now. There comes a time when you have to say ‘goodbye.”‘…. For the 800 hardcover juvenile fiction books on Maloney’s list, the odds aren’t good. Maloney estimates about 80 percent will wind up downstairs for bargain hunters. —Librarians struggle to let go of lonely books (AP/Mankatopa Free Press)
Ahh! I always thought libraries were like museums. Quick, run to the library you remember from your childhood… somebody, look in Patrick Henry library in Vienna, Va., or the Fairfax County Public Library… are those dog-eared copies of Lester Del Rey’s classic science fiction still there? What about Encyclopedia Brown, or the Henry Reed Detective Agency? Or the wonderful books about astronomy, that paint Jupiter with no rings and about 12 moons? Is there still a copy of Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams, which I checked out on one of my first forays from the Juvenile section to the Adult stacks, and is the page still folded down in the section that describes “Typical Dreams”?
According to the article, “Sometimes, all it takes to save a book from being discarded is a single person’s desire to read it.”
Thanks for telling me about Fitzgo, Rosemary.
Oldtimey, I wonder if Ray Bradbury knew that quote — books become men (and women) again in Fahrenheit 451.
Thanks for the link to the article. It’s sad to see popular or once-popular books now neglected (the best-seller lists of the 1920s are particularly interesting). It’s also sad to see the obscure books neglected. Someone has to take care of them.
I recently learned a sort of sobering quotation: “All books were once men.” This, to me, is mind-boggling.
Fitzgo is a true story about a stray dog in NY city. The writer gradually gains the dog’s trust and it comes to stay with him. I remember it as a touching/engaging story and there are some bittersweet parts if I recall correctly. I probably first found this book at the Oakton Elementary school library.
I remember the others, but what is FITZGO? (Google Google.) OK, I found a little on it, but I’m afraid I still don’t remember it.
(For those who don’t know, Rosemary is my sister.)
Yes, save them all! Here are some of my childhood favorites: The Black Stallion series, FITZGO The Wild Dog of Central Park, Where the Red Fern Grows and the Paddington series.