[garycb]

I used to love my local library. They had a section for each type of book, horror, romance, western, sci-fi, fantasy.... Then about 6 years ago they got rid of the sections and put all the fiction in a haphazardly alphabetical system by author name, with many of the books in no particular order. If the author's name begins with the letter A, put it anywhere in the shelf with A. It's so irritating that I no longer go there, when back in the day I used to donate about $5-$15 a week.
:mad:

[Cannon Fodder]

I work in a public library and I would say most of the reasons for this scenario have been mentioned. It's all to do with time, money and the way libraries are organised.

Firstly, as others have mentioned older stock that doesn't get borrowed is usually taken off the shelf which means room for newer stock to be put in it's place. There is only a limited amount of shelf space available and libraries are obliged to put on the shelves what borrowers are actually likely to be borrowing which is generally more likely to be newer books. Fantasy books are only one genre amongst a diverse range of fiction and non fiction reading interests that any public library has to cater for. With other genres which are so heavily series based it is less of a concern for readers- it doesn't matter if you read an author like John Grisham's books in any particular order and you don't need to read them all and fantasy books are likely to be treated in the same way. Based on borrowing statistics alone it is hard to justify keeping on the shelf all the volumes in a fantasy series stretching back a decade or two when the books are hardly borrowed and something that will be borrowed more often could be put in its place. As others have mentioned you can generally get all the volumes in a series assuming it is relatively recent and popular if you're going to a library that is part of a larger network, which is kind of the idea of big statewide (Or nation wide) library systems- you might not get want you want on the shelves of your local library, which can only carry so much stock but you should be able to get it in from somewhere else.

Also, at the risk of sounding like I'm making excuses, deciding what books to collect for the shelves of the library can be a tricky task, making a limited number of selections from a vast range of choices with an array of different public interests to cater for. Lots of librarians would know their collections pretty well and have a pretty good idea of what to get but unless they're fantasy readers themselves it is a time consuming task if you see an interesting looking fantasy book in a catalogue having to check if it's part of a series, what volumes have come before, what volumes the library has and so on. Ultimately it's more work developing a collection for a genre, which whilst quite popular, is one among many.

[Hobbit]

Cannon: thanks for the update: not an excuse, just an insight into how difficult that job is - too many demands, not enough resources.

Must admit I've had my gripes about recent changes in libraries - HERE (http://www.sffworld.com/forums/blog.php?b=66) and HERE (http://www.sffworld.com/forums/blog.php?b=103)- but there is no doubt that I would not have read and enjoyed as much as I have had it not been for my libraries when younger.

There are some interesting developments in the UK: at the moment we are in a situation where the prisons have to have libraries but in schools they don't: consequently, many are contracting with fewer books and fewer librarians.

I was so annoyed by this that I've signed a petition about it (HERE (http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/literacy/)) - sadly, not something others outside the UK can do. And I'm not someone who I would call a particularly political animal (nor am I wanting to ram this PoV down people's throats, so sorry if this comes across as a rant.)


[LATER EDIT: John Scalzi says (http://whatever.scalzi.com/2009/06/23/ohio-libraries-and-fiscal-amputation/) it's Ohio, too. Not just the UK then.]
Mark