From the Library Journal Blog

Michael Rogers
Revolt in Sacramento, or Jackass 3
May 29, 2007
Before the long weekend (mine was great, how was yours?) I meant to discuss a story detailing how the Sacramento PL staff are pissed off at the administration because centralized selection is sending its collection straight to hell. It seems 600 staffers and patrons signed a petition demanding action, citing numerous copies of garbage like yardbird Paris Hilton's autobiography and 30 copies of the Jackass 2 DVD clogging their collection, while classics get yanked and tossed if they haven't circulated over a given time slot. I recently wrote a How Do You Manage called Weed Killer about that very thing (score another one for me!).

Alas, I was waylaid by another story and never got to Sacramento. Pure luck, because the Sacramento Bee has this little gem of an update. Seems the crappy collection policy is one of many grievances staff has with the bosses. Along with stocking a lot of pop junk, a former librarian claims the admins annually reject $50,000 worth of free children's and YA books without explanation. There also are security issues, with Steve Crouch, the local AFL-CIO agent, saying that "libraries in certain neighborhoods are becoming magnets for troublemakers, gang members, and pedophiles."

There are two sides to every story, and administrators were not on hand to defend themselves, so this could be just a lot of old beefs bubbling to the serface. But if these accusations are true, you can easily see why they would have an affinity for something called Jackass.
Posted by Michael Rogers on May 29, 2007 | Comments (0)

Lots of nuggets in this one, but the part I want to focus on is the quote from Steve Crouch, the local AFL-CIO agent, "libraries in certain neighborhoods are becoming magnets for troublemakers, gang members, and pedophiles." I have written about this before.

Question: are there cities where this isn't true? Certainly any city I ever went to, the libraries are filled with the homeless. And many of these are mentally ill. And no knock on them - where are they supposed to go? If we don't provide services, mental health counseling, places for them to wash and go to the bathroom, etc., then the library employees become quasi mental health counselors/law enforcement. Not to mention that most libraries have now also become after school day care, so the library employees also have to fill that role.

Another nugget: As for stocking Paris Hilton's autobiography and JackAss, why wouldn't libraries change with the times and try to figure out what their demographic wants? Are the librarians complaining about how the nation's reporters have turned into stenographers, how CNN spends more time on Paris Hilton, Anna Nicole Smith, and other trivial nonsense while practically ignoring the war in Iraq? Case in point, the 'Sacramento' whales have received many, many more hours than the 3,400+ that have given up their lives in Iraq with no end in sight. What the library stocks is a symptom of the dissolution of seriousness and awareness in our society, not a cause of it.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive