Re: OT: libraries (was Re: dialectal diversity in English)

Quoting Stone Gordonssen <stonegordonssen@...>:

> >If the list'll tolerate some more personal OT ramblings, I'm of the
> opinion
> >that a certain bit of eurocentrism is perfectly justified in history
> books
> >written by Europeans for Europeans. But eurocentrism, or
> >rather "occidentocentrism", is taken too far when my local library
> has
> >three
> >history books on France for each one on China, Korea or Japan, not to
> >mention
> >dozens on the Native American tribes of what is now the US, and _none_
> on
> >pre-
> >Columbian Mesoamerica. Am I the only guy who finds the Aztecs more
> >interesting
> >that the Sioux, or even interesting at all? The absolute worst still
> >remains
>
> The contents of libraries are determined by the interests, finances,
> politics and philosophies of the populace which the libraries serve.
The ambitions of the library staff certainly plays a role too. Being publicly
financed, they don't have too worry unduly what books people actually want to
read.

> At
> best, they reflect the diversity of that populace; at worst, only the
> core
> "approved" elements of that populace. E.g. Seattle Publc Library has
> much on
> the culture of Asia; Phoenix Public Library, much on the culture of US
> southwest.
>
> Add to this those individuals and groups who legislate, sue and
> physically
> pilfer libraries to ensure that the libraries contain only those texts
> of
> which they approve.
Sure, but I can't imagine what interest group would object to more books on
non-Western history.

> What can anyone do? Volunteer to be on the board for the library, make
> requests for the purchase of specific books for the library, donate
> books to
> the library.
I don't think I could volunteer to be on the board - one has to rise thru the
ranks or receive a political appointment. Requests for buying new books tend to
be ignored.

> Still no one library can meet all the needs of anyone working on
> speciialized reasearch. Interlibrary loans can help with this *if* the
> library supports them (first time I requested an interlibrary loan in
> Phoenix, the staff reacted as if I'd suddenly sprouted goat-horns from
> my
> forehead).
For public Swedish libraries, supporting interlibrary loans isn't optional. But
they're not too enthusiastic about it sometimes.

                                                          Andreas

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