Who uses encyclopedias?

Wednesday, my day to write the blog and nothing is inspiring me. I've started two books but can't comment on them yet because I'm still wondering where they're going and how much I like them. They've got potential, but not for the blog, yet. On my way up the steps to the non-fiction area, I thought maybe I should write about what's going on in that area. How are things in the Reference and non-fiction area these days, you ask? Who is using those encyclopedias with the beautiful covers?

Maybe they put those stunning covers on the encyclopedias because now they just sit there for looks and not much for use. The most attention the encyclopedias have gotten in ages was during a children's reading program that required children to look up an entry in one of the books. Most of them didn't know what the encyclopedia was; they all use the Internet to look up information. A sad thing seems to be happening to all those expensive books in the reference section, no one is using them. The Internet has replaced them. Now the library will have to look at purchasing on-line collections that patrons can log into at home.

Our director, Sue, went to a workshop talking about change in the library and she came back inspired to move us ahead, too. We're currently working on slimming the reference collection to two sides of one shelving unit and that shelf will probably move over to the north side of the non-fiction area. Then we'll dramatically cull the circulating collection of any book I've been keeping because I couldn't bear to get rid of it and books that become outdated fast like books on stocks or mutual funds, computer books, science, health, etc.

We would have more of it done now, but our storage closets are full to the brim of books already. There are no places for more books. You can be sure we'll have a great book sale this year starting in August. You'll also notice a very different arrangement upstairs once we have room to remove more books from the shelves upstairs. Sue has even more plans for the magazines and the upstairs area, but change is hard for us and I'm not going to believe it until we're actually in the process.

Susan