Library Corner: How you can play a part in what's being offered at the Ritzville Public Library

Imagine getting to hold the future in your hands. As the main purchaser for the library, that’s the way I feel every month as I look through catalogs and reviews of upcoming books that won’t be released for months.

Should we try a new author like husband and wife team Ambrose Parry? Do we branch into a new genre field (Escapist Fiction maybe?). Or do we stick with a tried and true author (ahem, Patterson) or finish up a series (who else is sad that the alphabet now ends at Y? RIP Sue Grafton). Or does the book just jump out at me like “Highfire” by Eoin Colfer. Or maybe it’s something that’s getting a lot of buzz like Delia Owen’s “Where the Crawdads Sing.” When I’m done poring over catalogs and reviews I send my orders out into the ether. I won’t see these books for months, but when I do it’s like visiting an old friend.

Reading reviews online and from other librarians is always helpful when deciding which new books to order, but I also take suggestions from our patrons. If you can’t find what you’re looking for and it’s reasonably priced and fits in with our purchasing criteria, I’ll usually consider adding it to the collection. I wish I could buy everything people recommend, but I do have a budget so if it’s too expensive or just doesn’t fit with the rest of our collection, we can always try to borrow from another library or find it as an ebook or audiobook on our Anytime Library at https://anytime.overdrive.com/.

We also always gladly accept donations! If you bought more books than you meant to at Costco (haven’t we all done that?) or are cleaning out your DVD collection, we’ll take any of your gently used items. Unfortunately, we don’t accept textbooks, condensed books, magazines, or anything that’s stained or smelly, but we’ll generally accept everything else. If we don’t add it to our collection, we give it to our Friends of the Library group to sell in their on-going book sale corner in the Ritzville Library basement or at their upcoming book sale on March 13-14. All of their proceeds directly benefit the library and allow us to buy new materials and put on more programs. If you’d like to learn more about the Friends, their next meeting is Tuesday, January 21 at 5pm in the Ritzville Library basement.

You might be noticing that we have fewer books on our shelves this time of year. Part of that is because publishers typically release fewer books around the holidays. Even after all the years I’ve been purchasing books, this still always shocks me. Publishers must figure everyone is done with their Christmas shopping by Halloween! We’re also donating books that haven’t been read in years to the Friends’ book sale to make room for the new books we’ll be purchasing this year. I’ve already ordered 27 bestsellers that will be arriving in January including some of your favorites like Lisa Gardner, Stuart Woods, and Danielle Steel. In February, we’ll be receiving books by Lisa Jackson, Luanne Rice, S.M. Hulse, James Patterson, and many others preordered for our loyal patrons. Want to see what new and upcoming releases to expect from your favorite authors? Check out my favorite website Fantastic Fiction (www.fantasticfiction.com). And even if your favorite author is putting out 36 books this year (ahem again, Patterson), we’ll still be ordering them for all of our devoted readers.

Catalogs and reviews from other librarians are always helpful, but just knowing what’s popular at our library is one of the most useful things I look at when deciding what to order. After so many years of ordering books, I usually have a good idea of what will be popular but I also run reports every month to see which sections of the library are getting read the most. In 2019, the most checkouts were in the children’s and teen rooms (yay for young readers!), but after that the most popular genres were suspense, mystery, non-fiction, and general fiction. Because those genres are so popular, I always try to make sure we’re keeping those areas well-stocked with the latest releases.

If you ever have a suggestion or want to know what bestsellers I’ve already ordered, you can reach me at the library at 659-1222 or by email at [email protected].