Mason Suggests Improvements
for Columbus (Ga.) Library System
A consultant hired by the Chattahoochee Valley Regional Library System in Columbus, Georgia, said the central library must address basic problems with its budget, acquisitions, and user policies as it makes plans for its new $50.4-million facility. The library planning committee had hired Marilyn Gell Mason, who was recently nominated to serve on the U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, to analyze the status of the library and recommend improvements, the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer reported October 14.
Mason found that the library spent a “shockingly low” 8% of its budget on acquisitions, weeding has not been systematically done for some time, and that materials selection is inefficient. The procedure for signing up for Internet she saw as particularly cumbersome: “Some have said that it is easier to get a handgun than it is to register to use a computer at the library,” Mason wrote.
Library project committee member Carole Rutland, director of the Coca-Cola Space Science Center, told the Ledger-Enquirer, “She made some very good recommendations to make the most effective use of our money.” The report was distributed to committee and school board members October 16.
Posted October 23, 2000.
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