Maud Newton has a link to a bit about how little room there is in the new Seattle Library for books. There is a lot of debate amongst librarians as to the role of printed materials in the library; the sad fact is, a lot of patrons would rather have a computer terminal immediately available than some old book. There is the belief among patrons that anything they need (and here we are talking specifically about non-fiction and reference materials) is available online. Unfortunately, this belief is also held by a number of politicians who don't understand why the library is constantly trying to increase its funding. And it's easier for a library to just maintain a row of computer stations than it is to update their reference collection with any regularity. When you talk about academic libraries, the situation gets even weirder, because the cost to subscribe to some print or electronic journals, particularly science and medical journals, has become so extremely expensive (in some cases, a year subscription can cost $5000) that more and more money is siphoned from the purchasing of monographs -- that is, books. Not only does this bite into acquisition, it also prevents efforts to preserve the existing collection, because preservation efforts tale money.

A lot of folks talk about a paperless society, only our society is more paperful than ever. I know that if I have something online to read for a class, I am more likely to print it out and read it later than I am to read it online. I know that I'm not the only one for whom this is true. The idea of reading an e-book is still not something I can deal with.

A library opened in Southfield, Michigan last year, a remarkable, state-of-the-art library. It has a whole bunch of computer terminals, a fireplace, comfortable sitting areas, a floating (!) conference room on the 3rd floor. The voters had approved the money to have the facility built. Unfortunately, when they were apportioning the money, they neglected to take into account the cost of maintenance. So now the library administrators are stuck trying to scrounge up the money to have the state-of-the-art library maintained.

In other library flapdoodle, the Toledo Blade reports on a collection on ancient Egypt being discovered while in "a storage area in the tiny Schultz-Holmes Memorial Library":

There were four pristine volumes of
a first-edition 1887 collection by
Samuel Augustus Binion, Ancient
Egypt or Mizraim - a historically
significant collection of dozens of
images depicting the findings of a
French expedition to Egyptian monuments
such as the pyramids, the Sphinx,
and Cleopatra's Needle.

"I guess they were forgotten for a while
after they were given to the library,"
Mrs. Berryman [the library director] said.

The folio was estimated to be worth $6000. They were considering selling it to pay for new books, but they decided to keep it and display it. (via Barth Anderson)