Sour Grapes…
My employer has some big news from Library Journal!
Naturally we’re all pleased (not that any of us have time to celebrate, too much work!) However, I find it amusing that someone felt it necessary to post a “Yeah, but…” comment on the YouTube video not even a full day after it first appeared. You know what I mean, the kind where someone says “Great job, but…”. “Cakewad” commented:
Congrats, Columbus Library!
Now that you’ve mastered the social/community aspects of what a library can be, let’s see if you can gather a range of holdings competitive with New York, Washington, or even Cleveland. Good luck on your next challenge! Keep up the good work.
Three things:
- Thanks you for your kind comments the library, its always nice to hear that people appreciate what were trying to do.
- Yes, there are always new challenges to pursue and we appreciate your wish of Good Luck!
- Seriously, couldn’t you just let us enjoy it, for I don’t know, a week before you hinted that we were somehow inferior?
“Holdings competitive with New York, Washington, or even Cleveland.” What exactly does that mean? It sounds like someone thinks that we aren’t really in the same league as these other libraries because we don’t have enough books.
Reality check! Why would be want too? CML could easily match the collection of the systems you mention if it wanted too. However, that’s not what we’re really about!
CML is a service oriented system that keeps its own collection “lean and mean”, so that it reflects the needs and interests of the community. They fill the inevitiable gaps through the pursuit of parnerships and judicious review of what materials we have to acquire through Intralibrary Loan. This way we meet the needs of our customers and avoid having large numbers of books gathering dust and filling valuable shelf space.
One of truly wonderful things about Franklin County, Ohio is that no library in the county has to be good at everything! This seems to be working for all involved since Franklin County libraries have the top score in 3 of the 9 expenditure catagories (30mil+, 5-9.9mil, and 1-4.9 mil). one of CML’s closest partners, Worthington Public Libaries, is also a 5 star library in its catagory (5-9.9 mil). Thats a total of 4 5-star libaries in one county. With these and other great libraries in the county like the Ohio State University Libraries (we could agree that their collection is somewhat big, I hope), why do we need a collection like NYPL, Washington, or (even?) Cleveland? (Incidently, CPL folks, it sounds like this could be a dig at you as well, I’d look into it.) After all, if we don’t have it we can get it and isn’t that idea at the core of what the profession is all about?
The idea that a library needs to own everything its patrons could conceiveably need is as outdated as it is stupid. The mark of a great library is not the size of its collection but its ability to serve and get what its users want. CML has found a way to provide excellent service and access to materials for its users without weighing down its own budget.
New York, Washington, and “even” Cleveland can sleep soundly tonight with this knowledge. CML has no desire to compete with you in the “bloated collection” catagory, you can keep that all to yourselves.
Congrats CML!!! Keep it up!!
