Escaping Summer’s Haze + Book Recommendations + Weird Al…
Your Recommendations Shape the Library’s Collection
Let’s say that you hear about a book you want to read. You look it up in the library’s catalog to see if we have it. It’s there! But it isn’t there. What’s going on?
Well, here’s the scoop. There’s a certain portion of books we review that we automatically order because we know people will check them out. Then there are the books that sound great, have good reviews but are less well known. Hmmm, should we buy them or are they going to languish on our shelves? That’s where you come in. We’re now putting some of these books in the catalog before they’re purchased and then if you (the customer) express interest the purchase is made and you’re first on the holds list. Turn-around time is quick and the result is a library collection that is partially developed by the interests of our customers.
There are a lot of factors that determine what makes it onto our shelves. We can’t buy every book published each year, there just isn’t space and many of them would be dust-collectors. We add approximately 45,000 new books each year and we want them to be useful and in demand by Spokane’s residents. If you do see a book in our catalog that “isn’t there” then click the link (see image for example) to help shape our collection.
What if we don’t own it and it’s not in the catalog? This is where you can make a purchase suggestion. We get about 600 purchase requests each month so it’s not possible to buy all of them. For instance, recently someone requested a book that was actually published in the 1890s. That would be pretty tricky to track down, and we have to ask if it would really check out enough to justify the cost. But each day our acquisitions department goes through the requests and looks for trends, so if our catalog doesn’t have the book you’re interested in then definitely request it.
The upshot is that we value your recommendations – bring them on. After all, the library is for citizens and your input helps makes it successful.
“Eat It”
For adults, a completed summer reading log gets them into a drawing for one of three Android Tablets that are being provided by the 
Samantha McCombs has been promoted to the Branch Manager for East Side, Hillyard and Indian Trail. She was hired in January as the Managing Librarian for those branches and is now Branch Manager following the retirement of long-time employee, Dennis Bergstrom’s. If you haven’t met Sam yet then do stop by and say hello though it’s sometimes hard to know at which branch you’ll find her. If you don’t find her at one of the branches she may be at a community event talking to people about the library. She’s been introducing some fun projects at the libraries she manages and is open to ideas for collaboration. Talk to her if you have an event or project where you think the library could have a presence. Welcome Sam, we’re glad you’re here!