While it may not seem like an important issue to many citizens, the Genealogical Society of East Alabama and its quest to change the organiztional system used in the genealogical section of the Cooper Library is important to each and every one of us.
While we all don’t take advantage of Cooper’s excellent genealogical resources, we have the availability to do so and have ample resources and materials from which to glean our families’ histories in this and many other areas.
Er... that is if we can find them.
Having perused the aisles of the genealogical section ourselves, we can agree with the GSEA’s assertions the section is difficult to navigate for anyone not entirely familiar with the Dewey system.
Counties are arranged alphabetically by region. Once you get your head around that, you can attempt to understand how Winston County could be located several shelves above Dale County.
To us, it seems the GSEA’s request to rearrange the section to a system more accessible to its users is not an unreasonable one.
Shouldn’t a library’s first and foremost concern be to serve the needs of the citizens and patrons who pay for and use its resources every day?
While we understand changing the system would make Cooper Library “unique” within the realm of library organization, there is a library staff member on hand to help guide newcomers through the section.
If the people who use this section and love this section are telling you something is wrong and needs to be fixed, perhaps you would do well to heed their advice.
If the library is not there for the use of Lee County and its citizens, who is it there for?
Will the whims of visiting librarians be valued over the names and families that helped build that library and this town to be the great place it is?
Apparantly so.
From the tone of Monday’s library board meeting, it seems only an act of the Almighty will intervene and get the library board to change its mind.
“Unique” is not a happy word when it leaves the mouth of the library board chair; it is said with disdain.
Like Edna Ward said, Opelika is unique, madame chairman and fellow board members.
We will dare not dispute such a fact.
A unique system might make us out of place in the world of libraries, we agree.
But, Opelika is an out-of-place sort of place.
That’s one of the things we’ve always enjoyed about this place.
The library should serve the people who use it the most.
That’s the point we keep coming back to when we discuss this issue.
Re-arrange the darn books the way the GSEA asks, please.
Heck, we’ll even send Cliff over to help catalogue.
We don’t like to leave him without anything to do.
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