Too Many Books? How One Librarian Took Control of Her Library

 Stevens, Tyler

Source:
Montana State Library, (2024, October 4). 3 Keys to Collection Development [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbonz8Lnt0w

Summary: In this 58-minute seminar video hosted by the Montana State Library features Jonna Underwood, the Sheridan County Library Director in Plentywood, Montana. She shares her experience taking over the local public library from the previous director and frames it in the context of three key principles which she used to create a welcoming community space for her community, which are:

1. Quality vs Quantity: the primary issue with the library initially was an overcrowding of books, which led directly to issues such as an unaligned physical and digital catalog, literal decomposition of books, and a space that was not easily navigable for patrons.
2. 
   Know Your Patrons: Some larger collections which were rarely touched by the community (in this case, nonfiction) were deaccessioned from the library collection, spaces were created to invite patrons to engage with the material in the way they wanted to, and informal conversations with patrons identified favorite chunks of the collection (such as mystery/thriller/suspense).
3. Get Creative: Methods which Underwood used to inform her decision-making over this multi-year cleanup included visiting other libraries for curatorial inspiration, using book displays, a semi-regular newspaper column, and programming such as Blind Date With A Book (which she used to get patron feedback on less-used books to identify hidden gems and buried stinkers in the collection).

The seminar concludes with a Question & Answer session. One of the questions Underwood answered was on the subject of how the community responded to her efforts to clean up the clutter. She answered that the community didn't have much of a reaction beyond an acknowledgement that changes were happening. Underwood felt that the extension of trust by the community may have resulted partially from her own upbringing within the Plentywood community; the community might not have extended trust as easily if she had been a stranger to the community.

Evaluation: This seminar took my attention because my hometown is relatively close to Plentywood. I found it interesting that in order to handle the library collection, certain things needed to be removed, up to and including major pieces of furniture like entire bookshelves and collection chunks. For the latter, Underwood and her patrons would rely on library Connections in order to meet infrequent but specific needs. For example, she removed a significant amount of the nonfiction collection, shrinking it significantly and removing many books which were outdated or specific and seldom checked out by the community. Nonfiction as a subject was still kept available to researching community members through interlibrary loan, a library Connection to other libraries in the larger MSL network. In this way, Underwood was able to expand the physical space in the library so her patrons could more comfortably peruse the shelves without sacrificing the overall offerings of the library itself.

To reflect on my earlier post about Iceland, Underwood understands that there is a unique relationship between the human community and the objects within the library which they interact with; one of the neglected objects in this library was physical space. The lack of space made the library more difficult to navigate and directly impacted the accessibility of the items within the library collection. By increasing the space and introducing elements such as corner bean bags, Underwood strengthened the library's agency to impact the Plentywood community. Underwood understands that preservation and storage both have a cost, both financial and spacial. While both are limited, space defines the relationship the patrons have with the books. In other words, you can't have everything physically available, so you need to select what you need and make space for people to interact.