- <item>
- <title>Why is your local library collecting the "wrong" computer books?</title>
- <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_is_your_local_library_collecting_the__wrong__computer_books_.html</link>
- <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_is_your_local_library_collecting_the__wrong__computer_books_.html</guid>
- <pubDate>Wed, 3 Oct 2012 10:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
- <description><p>I just read the blog post from Tim Retout
-<a href="http://retout.co.uk/blog/2012/10/02/the-library-challenge">about
-the computer science book collection available in his local
-library</a>, and just wanted to share my comment on his theory about
-computer books becoming obsolete so soon. That is part of the reason
-why the selection is so sad in almost any local library (it is in mine
-too), but I believe the major contributing factor is that the people
-buying books to the library have no way to know a good and future
-computer classic from trash. And they need to know which one will
-become a classic in the future, as they would normally buy one of the
-recently published books.</p>
-
-<p>During my university years, I worked for a while at the university
-library, and even there the person in charge of buying computer
-related books (and in fact any natural science related book), did not
-know enough about computers to make a good educated guess. Once, just
-before Christmas, they had some leftover money on the book budget and
-I was asked if I could pick out a lot of computer books in the
-university book store, for the library to buy for their collection. I
-had a great time picking all the books I dreamt of buying and reading,
-and the books I knew were classics (like most of the
-<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Richard_Stevens">Stevens
-collection</a>). I picked several of the generic O'Reilly books (ie
-documenting protocols, formats and systems, not specific versions of
-products) and stayed away from the 'teach yourself X in N days' class.
-I had a great time, and probably picked out more than a hundred books
-for the library that evening.</p>
-
-<p>The sad fact is that there is no way a overworked librarian is
-going to know that for example
-<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Practice_of_Programming">The
-Practice of Programming</a> is a must-have in any computer library,
-and they will most of the time end up picking the wrong books to buy.
-Perhaps you can help your local library make better choices by giving
-the suggestions for books to get? I know they would love to hear from
-you, even if their budget might block them from getting your favourite
-book right away.</p>
-</description>
- </item>
-