Without a doubt, the question that has come up the most with this collection, from when I first came up with the proposal and even now that people are checking out the books, is why? Why start a small press collection?
For me, the answer is the result of two concerns; quality and money. According to
Bowker, there are about 50,000 new fiction titles published each year. If we brought in one hundred new books a day (ignoring non-fiction for now), we'd barely get two-thirds of those books. You also wouldn't be able to walk through the door without clambering over the overflow from the new book shelf, but that's a different story.
So the library has to be selective. As you're probably aware, budgets are tight. State and local governments have been cutting library budgets for the last several years so every dollar counts. The collection funds go towards children's materials, young adult materials, audiobooks, movies, and non-fiction and fiction books (which also now include e-books). Keeping our focus on the fiction, a good portion of what is budgeted for fiction goes towards authors that we know have a large fan base - Patterson, Picoult, etc. Another portion goes towards books that get a lot of notoriety, either from media attention or being selected for the
One Book, One Community efforts, winning prizes or what have you. Much of the fiction book buying budget goes towards titles that we expect are going to have a lot of interest.
Even still, that's a small portion of the 50,000 books published each year. There are a lot of really good books getting published that just don't get the attention they deserve.
Have you heard of
Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon? It won the 2010 National Book Award for fiction and was originally published by small press McPherson Books. After winning the award, Vintage Contemporaries bought the paperback rights and made it more accessible.
That's not an anomaly. Every year, some of the best works of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry come from small presses. The collection at the library was started with the objective of bringing some of these overlooked titles to those who are looking for something different to read.
Take a look at some of the titles and consider donating to the library so that the collection can expand. YOU can have a say in what goes on the shelves and by contributing to the small press collection, you will be saying that you want to see great books that aren't part of the mainstream.
