Nicholson Baker

I'm not sure I'm going to be a very good librarian. I am reviewing Nicholson Baker's Doublefold, in which he revealed that libraries are, in some cases, throwing away their collections of newspapers. This is shocking to him, and I gather to many when they read first his articles and the his book. I'm not a born "keeper." My husband and I are constantly struggling about saving things. I dislike clutter, and without order, most of stuff is clutter. I guess that's the difference between my garage and a library: order. But truthfully, even with order, I think I'd have a hard time keeping books on theshelves that just aren't being used. In my daughter's school library, I know they are constantly struggling for space. Especially at the end of the year, when everyone returns all the volumes all at once! How do you keep adding new titles, which the patrons demand, without taking something off the shelves? And once you remove less-used titles, where do you put them? There certainly isn't much useful storage in our school district!

Granted I'm not talking about Last Known Copies or anything, but then again, how do you really know? Baker is a passionate extremist, but he does have a point worth considering.