guernicamag:

We’re proud like a mama about Matt Bell’s takeover of Publisher’s Weekly. His fiction also *happens* to be in our current issue. 

LJ definitely scooped PW on this baby. (Baby meaning Matt Bell’s novel, baby also meaning the bab(ies) in Matt Bell’s novel.)

Libraries have long debated what makes a good collection. “Give ’em what they want” was the mantra that came from Baltimore County Public Library in the 1970s, a strategy that emphasized accessible, bookstore-like environments, offered a wealth of popular materials and service that was “user-friendly” and “customer-focused” years before anyone started using those terms. On the flip side were libraries that emphasized broad, well-rounded collections to meet the needs of any reader, any time. Lists of core collections were published to help librarians invest in well-reviewed backlist titles, creating miniwarehouses of books just in case. Need a biography of Simon Bolivar? Hey, here’s two. Heading to Montenegro? We’ve got the authoritative travel guide. Oh, you want Mary Higgins Clark’s latest? Get on the waiting list. For years, many libraries tried to do both. But with so many quality resources freely available on the Internet, that’s no longer necessary—or feasible.

— What We Buy Now by Brian Kenney | Publishers Weekly

Maybe it’s a little different if you’re a library on the scale of New York Public. But what would it take for me to buy a six- or an eight-month-old book, digital or not? An Oprah-like moment, a movie release, or a major award.

— 

Brian Kenney, director of the White Plains Public Library (NY), in the best op-ed of 2012 about the big, exploding picture of ebooks and libraries. I should also say it’s his inaugural column for Publishers Weekly. I tumbled about it last week, but it’s so provocative and, moreover, proactive, I had to do it again. (via cloudunbound)

Brian Kenney, former Editorial Director of LJ, is killing it over at PW. Check. it. out.