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Fairfax City Public Library
For many moons I have been looking forward to the opening of a new library building in Fairfax. I've been going to the old location for eighteen years, so surely progress is a good thing? I noted:
1. The apex of the ceiling is now four or five times higher.
2. The space for computers is now four or five times greater.
3. The space to sit and read is now four or five times greater.
4. It now takes seven or eight minutes to park and get into the new fortress-like building, as opposed to one minute for the old building.
5. The space for parking is about ten times greater, much of it underground in a complex garage.
6. The space for books does not appear to be greater at all.
7. The shelves for the "New Books" section are slightly more squat, which means that about a quarter of the new books cannot be shelved with the spine and title facing outwards.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on January 27, 2008 at 05:10 PM in Current Affairs | Permalink
Comments
In my opinion, thats a shame. I'd bet all that money would be much better spent as donations to the Wikimedia Foundation and $100 laptops for the poor.
...or would the poor just use their laptops for p0rn?
Posted by: Grant at Jan 27, 2008 6:04:20 PM
Do they have extra worthwhile books to fill any additional space with? They probably have a warehouse full of third-rate fiction, 20-year-old software manuals and 1965 encyclopedias, if they're like the library I worked for. The space for reading and for computers might be much more important.
Posted by: Joel H at Jan 27, 2008 6:05:33 PM
Some years ago, the city where I lived built a beautiful new library. When it opened, many more people came to use it than had visited the old building. But those of us who had used the old library were disappointed to find out that all of the books were the same.
Posted by: Tyrone Slothrop at Jan 27, 2008 6:08:20 PM
In the long term, Kindle or similar devices will change everything (in the classic pattern of overhyped short-term impact and underestimated long-term impact).
Unlike movie theaters, going to the library is fundamentally a solitary experience. There is nothing equivalent to a giant screen or the opening weekend of a hit movie. Most people would rather read in the comfort of their own armchairs at home. Long term, brick-and-mortar library buildings don't survive (except the ones attached to university campuses and so forth, which are study spaces more than book repositories).
Posted by: at Jan 27, 2008 6:09:35 PM
Relevance of the post? Is there a deep economic truth here that I'm missing out on? Or at least, can someone tell me what I should be looking for in those points Tyler made???
Posted by: anon at Jan 27, 2008 6:32:56 PM
5. The space for parking is about ten times greater, much of it underground in a complex garage.
Is it a complex garage or a garage complex?
Or maybe a complex garage complex?
You are in a maze of twisty passages and escape to a twisty maze of passages. (Anyone else miss Zork?)
John Henry
Posted by: John Henry at Jan 27, 2008 8:50:04 PM
Ironic to read your post today. I recently moved within Arlington so my branch library changed. It is the new one (Shirlington) and is much like you described. I miss the old one a lot. Today I drove over to pick up 3 books on hold, and spent almost 20 aggravating minutes looking for parking. Since the checkout is all selfcheck, the librarian was freed up to spend time lecturing patrons who were taking up a machine about an annoying relative. Both libraries are pretty well used, but to me, the new one is a colossal waste of money that could have been partially spent on materials.
Posted by: LB at Jan 27, 2008 8:51:14 PM
I am very interested in the question: what do libraries maximize? Despite the fact that I visit them three or four times a week, I haven't the foggiest idea.
Posted by: Tyler Cowen at Jan 27, 2008 8:56:31 PM
Yes bigger is better, especially when the library is renamed after a wealthy donor. Perhaps the higher ceilings are more sound absorbent for cellphones and the modern, talky clientele.
Libraries seem to be evolving into multi-media entertainment centers--you can check out movies, books on tape, music DVDs, surf the internet, etc. etc. Same can be said for some churches (with gyms, bands, entertainment, etc.). It is about keeping up attendance by holding peoples attention and giving them lots of different things to do. Well and then you have all the community meetings, seminars, voter education, and so on that are done in library conference rooms. Perhaps they are used in some places as temporary shelters at times.
Not necessarily a bad thing unless you are a purist.
Alas new science books (Dewey Decimal 500-600) at my local library branch number about 10 compared to hundreds of new fiction books.
Smaller shelves indicative of things to come? Cost saving measures?
Posted by: Pitt at Jan 27, 2008 9:04:42 PM
"Anyone else miss Zork?"
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
Posted by: Jacqueline at Jan 27, 2008 9:32:34 PM
Going there, to the Fairfax City library branch, on Sunday, 1/27/2008, at noon,
parking under the library in its 200 parking spots beats finding no parking spaces then driving around to the post office to park.
Don't forget 5 times more space to sit,
including isolated rooms like George Mason University's.
I like the grandness of that new Fairfax County (Fairfax City) Library.
I like the VERY high ceiling, the natural light
which is rare in modern buildings.
Yet, I understand Tyler Cowen's interest in books only, in the same way great Asian Indian statistics came out in the mid-1900's in university buildings that were really houses including original kitchens.
Just for Tyler Cowen:
that Fairfax City branch library has now consolidated to one long wall the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of university professor lectures on video and DVD, although mostly undergraduate level, so we can now get our philosophy, history, and most social sciences from top professors without paying university fees.
I still remember reading "Lies My Teach Told Me"
from Fairfax County Public Library 7 years ago, then heard its author James W. Loewen speak at Ethical Society in Vienna about the North's many Sundown Towns for blacks.
The area around where you live is stock full of opportunities.
I agree the new Fairfax City library has no more books and won't have any more.
What's more disconscerting -- they've always removed unpopular books, which I sometimes get from a woman that works in FCPL's big (the size of a library) Chantilly office that buys new books and exits unpopular books.
So, I don't expect to find classics like
DeFinetti's "Theory of Probability"
Cramers's "Mathematical Methods of Statistics"
Lecky's "History of European Morals"
I don't even find
"Ethical Toolbox" by Anthony Weston
although I have found one copy of it at George Mason University.
But for the two years I've gone into GMU's stacks, some professor has always had it checked out for most of the semester.
One day I'll be in GMU's stacks at the same time
Ethical Toolbox lives there.
Two hours later on Sunday,
I went to the FCPL library branch just west of
Falls Church. It's another magnificent library with no more books than the Fairfax City library branch.
The fellow next to me had difficulty connecting to internet with his laptop running MS Vista.
At least public libraries no longer have TV's in their main room as they did in the 1970's.
Perhaps libraries are more like coffee houses,
using eyes rather than mouths.
I'd welcome libraries having a Starbucks like arena for discussions.
What I regret most about all of America's libraries is their short weekend hours.
When teenagers look for a place away from their parents, perhaps a place to cool off,
perhaps a place to think and read,
rather than cavort and cause mayhem,
they find the libraries closed at 5pm or 6pm.
Ridiculous -- those are the evenings libraries could offer the best social service.
Does Tyler Cowen have a better idea for libraries, an idea in the GMU economics tradition?
Abolish all public libraries,
then let capitalism rule.
Does he imagine immense private libraries that charge only $1 per week per book?
The abolition of libraries would probably leave only book stores -- new and second hand.
Wherever one lives, one must ask,
what comparative advantage does this place have.
In the D.C. area, including Northern Virginia,
one of the best comparative advantages appears to be foreign languages. Even Fairfax County's community colleges teach an inordinate number of languages, including Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Korean, Spanish, Japanese, Italian, Vietnamese, Hindi, Russian, Ancient Greek, and Latin.
When I was 45, and my daughter 4, 10 years ago,
I first began taking German with my daughter at Deutsch School just over the Virginia border in Maryland.
The teachers there came from Germany, the festivals and stories differed from ours, diplomats occasionally hobnobbed, and students shared stories from diverse backgrounds, including Finland and Japan.
Since my daughter was 3 (she's now 14),
I began taking her to one of 24 Chinese schools/academies in the D.C. area to learn Cantonese and Mandarin.
These Chinese schools typically occupy a dozen rooms in a high school on Sunday afternoon.
This vast enterprise teaching Chinese at 24 sites,
includes the contributions of even GMU professors like Dr. Lin who teaches mathematics/statistics at GMU. Much more should be said about the huge demand for Chinese and the huge private supply of Chinese language, a language virtually untaught in Fairfax County's schools.
Wherever you are, take advantage of your area's comparative advantage.
I regret growing up in the mountains of Montana,
10 miles from where midwestern and eastern universities studied rocks, yet I never looked at rocks and land formations while I lived there.
Posted by: jamesonburt at Jan 27, 2008 9:33:24 PM
We will be building a new central library in
Calgary, Canada within the next few years.
Thankfully, we are the largest supplier of oil to
the United States, and the budget will be paid for
by royalties. Selection, even now, pretty much matches
Amazon.com. I know it's not very "green" of us,
but I'm confident that the library will be eco-friendly.
Cheers
Posted by: Bernie McCourt at Jan 27, 2008 9:46:01 PM
What's the utility of a library? A few suggestions:
- People like going to the library for the same reason they like going to Starbucks: its a third place.
- Browsing books is fun. If it wasn't bookstores would be out of business.
Posted by: dobedo at Jan 27, 2008 10:56:49 PM
I like dobedo's ideas. Since I can order coffee within my current campus library, peruse the stacks, and enjoy comfortable reading rooms, there are times I never leave (well, times not due to necessity). I'm going to miss that institution more than most parts of the university.
Posted by: Petrarch at Jan 28, 2008 2:58:15 AM
On the merits of new books, take a look at George Stigler's nice paper which came out after the Fisher, et.al., paper on model changes in the auto industry.
Posted by: critic at Jan 28, 2008 6:53:21 AM
If you were forced to read the library lit enough, as I unforetunately do (the one downside to being a librarian), you'd know that Fairfax County is giving their users exactly what the stereotypical library survey participant wants: space to read and hangout, computers to use and an impressive building that will hopefully draw people in. The only thing they're missing is a coffee shop.
The idea of library as place, as opposed to library as repository of books is really taking off these days. The library as gather place matters because everything is going digital - and a lot faster than most people realize. Once everything is digital, you will in theory have no reason to come to the physical library (unless of course you need a librarian's help), so libraries now are trying to diversify their spaces to make people want to come for more than just the books. In academic institutions, like the one I work at, the issue isn't as pressing because students are always looking for someplace quiet on campus to work. That being said, our library is currently finalizing expansion plans. Not surprisingly, at least to the librarians, this new space will have a coffee shop and space for our patrons to lounge, but won't have much space for new books - our patrons are happy with our collection but they aren't happy with our physical space.
Posted by: Ian at Jan 28, 2008 7:07:16 AM
I'm really not sure where libraries are going. Making themselves into places where one goes for computer and internet access seems like a very short-term strategy -- with computers becoming ever cheaper and internet access more ubiquitous. Imagine if early 20th century libraries had expanded to provide telephone banks or 1950 era libraries had built new buildings to accommodate TV watching booths.
For my purposes, the library has already been eliminated as a research tool -- that's all available online. And for books, I prefer and electronic copy if available or, if not, it's more than worth the $5-$10 to buy a used copy over the net, since it includes free delivery to my door and I can keep the book indefinitely. Even without putting any value on one's time, it's as cheap to buy a used copy as it is to pay to drive and park.
So libraries are to morph into expensive taxpayer-funded public meeting spaces with coffee-bars? Oh joy.
Posted by: Slocum at Jan 28, 2008 7:30:41 AM
Critic, can you be more precise about the article?
Posted by: GreatZamfir at Jan 28, 2008 7:31:23 AM
Libaries are not solitary experiences. My kids see a trip to the library as a joyful treat that may involve story time and the kid's play area as well as a big collection of new books, often very different from the books they would find by browsing in a bookstore.
Posted by: DK at Jan 28, 2008 7:51:53 AM
I guess the point of libraries lies in the assumption that reading is such a good thing to both the reader and society as a whole ( that gets somehow 'better' citizens), that it should be available as much as possible to anyone on any budget. While it is hard to point out how exactly reading is 'improving', or how much this is worth, I do think there is some value in this argument. Given that libraries are (normally) not extremely expensive to run, we can be unsure about their exact benefit, while still believing they provide more than they cost.
Perhaps TC meant something more along the lines of 'what utility is there in offering library functions to people who can afford to buy all the books they want?'. If your library asks a lending fee, it is easily possible that the marginal cost of an extra lender is less than the fee. In that scenario, the 'benefit to society by offering books to people who can't afford enough of themthem' that pays for the collection and other fixed costs, and after that marginal utility kicks in.
In the same vein, perhaps libraries make a profit on the coffee corner?
Posted by: GreatZamfir at Jan 28, 2008 8:04:58 AM
Bummer... we've been looking forward to the opening of this new library... I disagree (somewhat) with your assessment of parking at the old library... on the weekend, it could take a long time to find a place to park, unless you didn't mind parking in the lot next door, despite the sign warning of being towed...
Seems to be part of the typical "revitalization" effort in Fairfax City... form over function... style over substance... doesn't make it any less of a pain to drive through, unfortunately...
Posted by: Ben at Jan 28, 2008 9:54:30 AM
DK hit one of the primary benefits of a community library: A place where kids can browse/read/borrow dozens of books at a time without forking over a dime. I'm a college professor who hasn't physically visited a library for my own reading interests in 5 years, but I go to the kids' section of my community library with my daughter a couple times each month, and she loves it every time. My parents did the same for me when I was a kid.
Posted by: Sean at Jan 28, 2008 10:42:30 AM
If kids are an important reason for libraries, and I think they are, why is most of a library devoted to other things? Or, given that perhaps a childrens' sections are limited by the amount of children's books, why are there not 5 specialized kids libraries to every normal library?
Posted by: GreatZamfir at Jan 28, 2008 11:23:27 AM
I have not yet visited the new Fairfax City library, but the building itself is certainly a visual improvement on the surface parking lot that existed previously at that spot.
And Tyler, if parking takes too long, try taking the CUE bus from George Mason's campus to the library. You might actually save time, as there is a stop right by the library. Both the green and gold lines go by that location so you shouldn't have to wait more than a few minutes on the return trip (and not at all if you consult the schedule). Also, as GMU staff, you can ride free.
Posted by: Thelonious_Nick at Jan 28, 2008 12:37:45 PM
When the renovated Southeast Branch library opened last year in Capitol Hill, the shelf space was much smaller than pre-renovation. Ever forward?
Posted by: tom at Jan 29, 2008 12:11:58 PM
@ Tyler: "I am very interested in the question: what do libraries maximize? Despite the fact that I visit them three or four times a week, I haven't the foggiest idea."
Fairfax County Public Library maximizes circulation within the constraints of their acquisition budget and floor space. They use software to identify slow-moving titles. Individual librarians are responsible for circulation goals and have authority to acquire and discard titles in their sections.
About a year ago, the Washington Post published a list of "weeded" titles from Fairfax County, provoking criticism (of the library) in the blogosphere. I spoke with Sam Clay, director of the library system, and wrote a defense of the library's practices: "Fairfax County (and SirsiDynix) is innovating to fulfill its mission with limited resources by trading low-velocity titles for higher-velocity ones."
Posted by: Timothy at Jan 30, 2008 3:02:52 PM
GZ, the four (non-college) libraries I know have kid sections that take up 1/4 - 1/3 of the floor space. Since 4-12 year olds (for whom the kid sections seem to be generally intended) presumably make up about 10% of the population, my small sample suggests they are considered important constituents. The kids sections are also the most heavily used, at least in my small sample at the times I go.
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