The Man Who Was Taller than God ISBN: 0802775543 $7.95
The Ditched Blonde ISBN: 0802775551 $7.95
I've already selected and ordered the new Adams hardcover for
our
library system - but only three copies. Based on circulation
patterns,
I should only have ordered one copy. But selection is an art
form, even
if it is influenced by numbers. Adams, like many other fine
writers is
in danger of being weeded in many of our collections because
he just
isn't being read. And if you think this is bad, imagine my
depression
when I was sent several Crumley books that were the last
copies in the
system. Needless to say, the books stayed, but I can see why
they were
considered for deselection - they had *very* low
turnover/circulation
rates. The books were in good shape, so that wasn't a factor.
I was also
depressed to find out that one of our libraries that has a
high mystery
readership weeded (based on no circulation in two years)
books by
Willeford, Adams, Jon A. Jackson, Walter Sattherthwait, Ian
Rankin, John
Harvey, William Marshall, Reginald Hill, Lia Matera, and
others. These
books weren't last copies, but it amazes me that they weren't
being
read.
(I know that some of the authors I mentioned aren't
hardboiled, but
still...) One of my goals is to keep "readback" collections
in our
library system, so that if you want to read all John Lutz's
books, you
have a decent chance of finding them all in our system. We
are assiging
authors to different branches to retain for the system. But
if you want
to read all of Crumley's books in our system, you'd better
hope nothing
happens to the one copy we have left of either The Last Good
Kiss and
The Wrong Case.
Any thoughts?
Ann, cranky and going back to selecting Nov books
Overbooked:
http://freenet.vcu.edu/education/literature/bklink.html
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