Daily BrewToronto Public Library seeks to boost its catalogue — by buying your bestsellers
The Toronto Public Library would like to buy your books, in a novel pilot project that could help improve service and perhaps make the system run more efficiently.
The program, which appears to be the first of its kind in Canada, is just one of several initiatives being taken by Canadian libraries to adapt their role in modern society, where they are perhaps as popular as ever but with tighter belts.
Metro News reports that the Toronto Public Library launched the program in December, in a bid to reduce the wait times for popular fiction books such as the weeks-long delay it experienced for Us Conductors by Sean Michaels after it won the Giller Prize.
The guidelines for book purchases are posted online. They must be in good condition and be included on a monthly-updated list of newly released adult fiction titles.
January’s list includes just over 100 titles, including All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews, Gray Mountain by John Grisham and The Vacationers by Emma Straub.
Accepted books will be purchased for $5 each. They also accept donations.
Chief librarian Vickery Bowles told the newspaper they only intend to supplement their collection with outside purchases, and won’t be reducing the number of books it actually orders from the publisher.
Since the program launched in December, just 20 books have been purchased from the public. The future of the program relies on how popular it becomes.
The move, however, isn’t entirely well-received. Noah Richler, the acclaimed author who most recently wrote What We Talk About When We Talk About War, recently penned an opinion piece panning the Toronto library’s decision.
The column, published in the Toronto Star, reads:
Instead of ordering copies of books that furnish a royalty, and supporting the trade, as all honourable purchases do, the TPL is buying off the back of a public truck it has ushered into the courtyard, depriving writers and the companies that invest in them of their just reward. It can do so because it has decided that the lowest possible price to be paid is the right one.
It is an intriguing argument, one that is at the heart of challenges faced by the literary community.
But Canadian libraries do need to continue adapting.
A report conducted by The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives in 2012 notes that Toronto’s public libraries are popular but underfunded.
The system, which is the busiest in North America and second busiest in the world, saw its provincial funding drop from 6.3 per cent in 1992 to 3.1 per cent in 2011.
Funding cuts during that time resulted in significant staffing cuts and $51.6 million worth of materials being removed from shelves.
The following year, the Martin Prosperity Institute noted that Toronto’s library system delivers a strong “return on investment.” For every dollar invested in the service, the think tank calculated that residents receive $5.63 in services offered and other benefits.
As vital as ever, but in different ways. Most recent programs surround on-site technological advancements or access to digital collections.
This program is at least an indication that libraries are still about lending books. And doing it in as efficient a way as possible.
