Carol Lord, manager of technical services at Curtis Memorial Library, discovered how much she loved being in the library when she volunteered to shelve books. She had tried several other careers, but decided the library was for her. She has been at Curtis for 25 years and knows the collections especially well, as part of her job is coordinating and overseeing the annual new books budget.
Each year, funds for new books, which come largely from donations to the annual fund, are divided among the children’s, teen and adult departments. Librarians in each department further divide the task of choosing books based on subject area for adults and age groups for youth.
For adult books, subject areas include history, literature, sciences, finance, health, crafting, architecture, art and more. The budget mainly covers physical books, but an increasing percentage is spent on e-books, audiobooks, streaming craft classes and items for the Library of Things.
In 2024, the library added 9,344 new books and magazines and about 2,425 audio, video and Library of Things items, as well as a large volume of digital materials.
How do librarians choose what to add to Curtis’ physical and virtual shelves each year?
Lord said they try to anticipate which will be the “hot” new books. That effort is helped by Booklist and Publishers Weekly, both of which review new books; suggestions from patrons; and correspondence from publishers. In addition, librarians study what Curtis patrons like and/or need, then purchase books accordingly.
The computerized checkout system enables librarians to keep track of how often books are checked out to determine which nonfiction topics are sought after, which authors are the most popular, and what the demand is for various categories of books, audio and video items, and the Library of Things.
The new books area at Curtis, in the center of the first floor, is always a popular browsing spot. Because the library buys new books every month, what’s new is always changing or expanding. The Curtis website and social media also highlight new titles.
For example, in early November, new books featured on the website included Richard Osman’s “The Impossible Fortune,” the latest in his Thursday Murder Club series. A check of the Curtis catalog online showed 172 holds on the first returned of 58 copies through libraries in Maine’s Minerva system. To meet demand like that, Curtis purchases multiple copies of some books.
To help maintain the flow of new books, consider contributing to the annual fund before the end of the year. Give online or stop by the library.
Please join us from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 4, for coffee, cocoa and cookies at our annual Giving Tuesday challenge, when all donations will be matched up to $7,500! Learn more at curtismemoriallibrary-bloom.kindful.com.
