Dear public library people

Some of you will have heard the Today programme on Radio 4 , with its discussion about trends in what the public read.

10 years ago, the  most borrowed non-fiction title was Stephen Hawking's A brief history of time.  Now it's You are what you eat, and diet books are all the rage.

The Bookseller's Katharine Rushton put up a spirited defence of the library's role in offering a broader range of stock.  She also discussed the lessons libraries have learned in recent years from bookshops, in the way they display their stock and, in particular, the books in the best seller lists.  But multiple copies of bestsellers mean fewer other titles. 

Is this what libraries are for?

The arguments are almost as old as time, but I'm looking for a short well-argued piece for Library and Information Update, to mark 10 years of PLR data.

If you are interested in writing for Update, please reply off list to: [log in to unmask]

Thank you.

Elspeth Hyams
Editor, Library and Information Update
7 Ridgmount Street
London
WC1A 7AE

Tel: 020 7255 0583
Fax: 020 7255 0581
email: [log in to unmask]
web: www.cilip.org.uk/update/index.html
Update is the journal of the Chartered Institute
of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP)