Unfortunately, yes they are! I noticed in FL about 10 years ago tons of books suddenly started flying off the shelves. They would sell them.

The new books that were brought in were so rediculous it wasn't even funny. Lost a lot of good research tools in some of those older books.

Yes, New Age is the theme of the century and it's getting worse. It's taken over just about every library I have visited. There are only two that I have had cards to that haven't gone belly up. Both of them are small town libraries where there is a lot of church attendance within the community and very few young people.

I walked into this one library and I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw an entire revolving rack full of Christian Romance Novels. The librarian is also kind enough to let me go through the back room before books are set out to sell.

I support that library rather than the new age centered one in my own town.

Steph

Most librarians welcome specific book suggestions from patrons. Find out who orders the garden books and talk to them about specific titles. Come armed with book reviews from credible publications if possible. It can't hurt; it might help.

If that dosnt work, write to the head of the library.

A librarian
Springcherry

Better yet, try to get a seat on the library board.

I've met a few surly librarians, but most are very thoughtful, considerate people. They have limited budgets just like the rest of us, and in general libraries usually want to "fill the gaps in the collection."

It's sometimes hard, Steph, for a librarian to judge the true value of an old book - there are thousands of reference-type books even in a small library, and it's easy to assume the information has been republished even if it hasn't.

I'm a bookworm, and I've had four librarians as friends over the years, so I hear their side of the story! One's fringy, one's a crucifer at her church, and the others in-between.

Glenn, I bought some lovely, organic heritage tomato plants this year at a day-care benefit sale from a woman in Birkenstocks and a hand-dyed dress. Remember the famous line "All the world's mad but me and thee, and I'm not too sure about thee." :-)

Our garden club has donated a gardening book for the past 40 years to our local library. This year it was "Native Trees in American Landscapes" by Guy Sternberg with Jim Wilson. The libraries don't really think of gardening as "reading material", so we have to remind them every once in a while with a gift. And, a knock on the head!

Our library doesn't have a board. It is run by our city council who after building a massive edifice fired the qualified librarians and replaced them with part timers who in my opinion would be much better employed as hairdressers or cinema ushers.
After an interval of many months I went back to our library the other day to find the same books from the 70's still there with no new additions. Interestingly while other topics had gaps where books had been borrowed the gardening section was filled tight. No new books obviously means no interest.

Glenn, I am so sorry. What a terrible situation.

Some libraries have "inter-library loan" which means that you can borrow a book from another (better!) library. If you have the energy you could start a letter campaign, recommending good books and showing that the interest is there - because it is!

Also I don't know how your internet connection is but the amount of information out there is amazing these days.

Best of luck!

You might ask your local libraries how often basic gardening books actually get checked out.

Books take up space and resources and the longer a book sits on a shelf unused the more likely it is to hit the discard pile.

I've seen some really good books get taken out of a collection that way, but if no one was using it then it wasn't doing the library or its patrons much good.

.....Alan.

and what about the poor presidential librarian. ... so sad... so sad.

PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY DESTROYED BY FIRE

Crawford, Texas -- A tragic fire on Sunday destroyed the personal library of President George W. Bush. Both of his books have been lost.

A presidential spokesman said the president was devastated, as he had not finished coloring the second one

Every now and then if I make a score on something like selling many trees in the nursery on a good day.The magazine AMERICAN NURSERYMAN seedsa catalog full of books on all related subjects so I pick a couple out that Ilike. Itry not to get too technical on the books I buy for my town libray but I do want something witha serious subject ,like the book LANDSCAPE DESIGN,OR Dirr,s hardy trees and shrubs or THE PRUNIG OF TREES ,SHRUBS and CONIFERS They appreciate it and even put a donated by someones name you may want in the book. That is not the reason I donate them for because it is let dowm when yougo to a library and locate the hort.section all you may findis a Martha Stewart book on plantig pansies and drinking tea.Ihave nothing against her but you want a book with meat in it meaning good laymen information about horticulture or the gardening book for your grandmother SO what I am getting at is maybe the librarian will start a trend on purchasing more knowledgable books on the above subject so off to the next town to plant the trend seed in their book world N.N.

This is from an article in a local newpaper today:

"The Woodstock Public Library will receive a $4,000 "weed and feed" grant. According to a press release, the grant encourages libraries to improve nonfiction collections by weeding out old books and updating with new ones.

The library is partnering with the Harvard and Nippersink libraries, which also received $4,000 grants, Woodstock library Assistant Director Jane Koehler said. Through a network, patrons of the libraries will have access to the other libraries' books.

"Each of three libraries take a different area of adult nonfiction and build up a collection," Koehler said."

The grant money came from the Secretary of State's office in Illinois.

I thought it was interesting that they were partnering with other libraries to avoid overlap. Seems to be a good use of resources, since interlibrary loan works very efficiently in our area.

This may be an approach worth discussing with your local library if the gardening collection appears to be lacking.

V.

I've always been very pleased with our city libraries, but after reading this, I'm even more impressed. I didn't realize how good we have it.
I'm a heavy user of our libray - from books to magazines to CDs, videos and now even DVDs. Books can even be searched and reserved online from any city library and directed to be picked up at the branch nearest me. I even get an email notification when they are in.
Even with all this available, I sometimes found that I could only find technical stuff in the University library, but since I wasn't a student or alumnus I couldn't borrow any books. And then just today I found out about a free Province-wide card that lets me borrow from any member library in the entire province (which happens to include several post-secondary institutions). I have to get books in person, but I can return them to any member library.
We really are lucky here, and after reading some of your posts here, I won't take it for granted either. Nice to see some of my tax dollars doing this good work.