Seth Warburton

I work behind the scenes at the Ames Public Library, part of the pipeline that brings books to Ames readers.  The books themselves are generally much more interesting than the processes that get them here.  But last month, Baker & Taylor, the largest supplier of books to libraries in the US, announced it was going out of business – big enough news to make waves outside library circles.  Perhaps it’s a good time to give you an idea of how books are added to the library’s collection and how losing our largest supplier will impact what you’ll find on the library shelves.

Our system is designed to be responsible with your tax money and to ensure we have both popular books and things to satisfy every weird corner of this community’s interests.  The library’s materials are divided into collections and each has its own selector.  Selectors pick new books, decide when to remove older ones and sigh heavily at the ones chewed on by your pets.  To help them pick, selectors consult reviews, evaluate the past performance of authors and subjects at our library, and consider a work’s relevance to our community.  Navigate to www.AmesPL.org/CollectionsPolicy for more detail.  Then I shop around, making sure the library gets a good price, that the items arrive quickly and that the books appear in the library’s catalog. Upon arrival, books are cataloged and processed, affixing all our labels and those waterproof covers.

Where did Baker & Taylor come in?  Almost everywhere.  They had lists of upcoming titles, a processing department to cover books, an electronic connection to our library software to track orders and invoicing and standing order plans to keep us current with favorite series. They also held an agreement with the whole state of Iowa to provide books at a consistent (and significant) discount.

When they announced their closure, we had more than a thousand titles on order. Our existing accounts with other vendors allowed us to obtain these books, though sometimes with a delay.  The biggest logistical challenges are behind us now, but we’re still working to restore normalcy.  If we missed a book in the transition, please just let us know.  Stop by a desk and ask, or request an item in the online catalog to alert us to the titles you want to see.  

Thanks for your patience.  Hopefully, the future will see our book-buying work stay firmly behind the scenes.