My parents own a used bookstore, and I’ve worked there part time & full time since 1989. My sister is the Director of a near-by public library, and my aunt is a tech. librarian in CT. What I’m saying is that I’m quite familiar with the book industry, probably more so than the average Joe.
For starters, I can say that the book industry as a whole is in rough shape as people are buying fewer and fewer books every year, and this dates back long before the Kindle (why’d they name a book reader after something you set on fire? Generally, burning books = bad). For me, I think the reasons are that people have way more entertainment options than they did 20 years ago. Back then, only kids played video games, the internet was for geeks, few could afford a cell phone, home entertaiment meant VHS tapes, and “social networking” was something you did at a bar or on a golf course. It was normal that if you had a spare afternoon or evening with nothing else to do, you might pick up a book and read. And if you rode the train to work, having a book to read was common.
Today, people can’t tear themselves away from their cell phones or lap tops or iPads. Many adults play video games of all kinds, and a home theatre can be better than actually going to a real theatre. High speed computers and high speed internet is relatively inexpensive compared to back in the day. Modern digital entertainment is just too easy to access and too hard to put down. Books require something of a commitment of both money and time, and that’s something that people would rather spend on Facebook these days. All that makes times tough for all booksellers, large or small.
The next problem is the non-bookstore carrying books. Back in the day, our bookstore would carry the top 10 New York Times Bestsellers in paperback fiction…at least 3 copies of each, brand new, at all times. We used to do quite well with them.
I suppose you and your family can relate to the Meg Ryan character in the movie “You’ve Got Mail” with Tom Hanks. =(
It’s true, books are slowly becoming dinosaurs and despite some people extolling their virtues, they don’t represent the population at large or the flow of cash. I have a modest library of Rio Grande books and enjoy reading them much more than using the computer. I used to pay $30 - $40 for the nice color volumes… the neweset book, Crest of the Rockies sells for over $70!!! I would love to have that book but ouch! The last book I bought was Rio Grande, a last look back by Ron C Hill from the Colorado RR Museum and cringed when I paid $45 for it and I had a good job!
Anyway, yes, libraries are not a disappearing term. But book sales in general, well, i can see why Capt Picard of the USS Enterprise (next gen) cherished his hard copy books over the computer pad.
In the huge population Los Angeles CA.area there are some but not a lot of model railroading books in the library system. You can go on their website and see all the model railroad books and request that the ones you want and they are sent to your local branch. They notify you when to pick them up. I imagine most cities have this arrangement now.
I am going to have to disagree with the OP on this subject. In my area, there isn’t a Barnes & Noble with 60 miles of me. The one that is the closest doesn’t have anything regarding MR. There are other bookstores and they only carry MR magazine and Trains. I have been looking for the Kalmbach books, but I just buy them online. The reason I own, like others have said is that I use them as reference material. If some thought is nagging at me at anytime of the day, I know where to find the source. I own 20 of the Kalmbach books and am looking at buying more.
As for libraries, the one in my town is smaller than my house. I doesn’t have anything RR related in it. Most of the books are old and the staff isn’t too friendly. I have stepped foot in there for years.
Our library is irreplaceable. They have the microfilms of our city newspaper going back well into the 19th century, and I use them for researching wrecks, new projects for the RRs here, and an occasional obituary on an old Railroader. There are a lot of other local documents there which help me in local RR research. These are things that a bookstore is not going to have available. They do keep Model Railroader on hand, but I subscribe anyway.
When (usually) the title I want isn’t on the shelves, the owner is quick to place it on special order. Whatever sources she deals with are on line, and she can tell me the book’s condition before I put my money down for the special order. In every case the book I received was as described, and the cost to me was much less than the original MSRP.
Anyone in the Las Vegas area who wants a name and address can PM me.
My local library has several the Kalmbach books which was good when I started and I have since bought several for my own personal reference. I have Nook Color (like an Ipad lite, if you will) and I have found it is good for working on the layout for pulling up photos or articles and it also has wifi access so I can do research or even access the MRR forum. I keep a list of my rolling stock on it so when I go to the LHS so I don’t end up getting something I already have. It is a little odd at first when you start reading on it but you quickly get use to it. That being said, I still want my monthly MRR in magazine form.
I recently moved to the Chantilly VA area and visited the Centerville Regional Library. I was surprised an the number of model railroading books they had available, more than I expected.
OTOH, they had a tiny DVD library compared to Syracuse NY where I was living.
The Internet is the biggest library in the world. Many are totally clueless that they can find almost anything on the 'Net with searches. OK, there will be some things that pop up in searches that you may not want to know. Be adventurous.
Yes, I know some have to be led by the hand but if you can use a PC to get into these forums, you can use the Internet to build a tremendous amount of data in links and many downloads to your PC.
I have found many books on line that I was able to purchase at good prices. With the Internet, it is quite easy, OK, for various values of easy, to compare prices and shipping.
Forgot to mention, I now subscribe to a free on line model railroad magazine with monthly issues with PDF downloads and some of the issues include videos.
The public library will always be around. Obviously it will never compare to the wealth of information one can find on the internet, but to me it’s more than just a place to check-out books. Sure, less people use the library than say 15-20 years ago, and someone looking for an old book wouldn’t think to check if their local library has it available. Libraries offer more than just books, some have music, movies, and even learning software. Why buy children’s books when they are going to outgrow them? Just go to the library and checkout some books and return them for free. I like going to the library for the atmosphere. Sometimes trying to read at home is a distraction, there’s always something popping up, something you forgot to do, telephone ringing, etc. When you go to the library, you can just focus on the book, and relax.
I believe he was thinking about kindling. However, now that he mentioned it, is kindling to Kindle as fishing is to fish or golfing to golf? So, if you are reading from a Kindle are you kindling? Jay
:it seems like the term library is disappearing from the english language
Nah, it’s still alive and well.
Library - (noun) A collection of common software routines bundled together and organized in such a manner to be loaded on demand by an application program or other software.
Well, “library” will never disappear from my house. I have some 60 railroad books behind me on my shelves plus over 50 yet to be unpacked from my move last year. I also have at least 25 model railroading books as well as several hundred model railroading magazines. I also have over a 1,000 other books in my library. I love shopping in used book stores, antique shops, thrift stores, etc. for books. I even buy some new ones. I don’t have a kindle, nook, or any other device for reading books. I really prefer the hard copy so to speak.
But that said, I have no problem reading online magazines that are formatted for online reading. I think we’ll see more of that in the future. I suspect that in the near future the functions of kindle, ipod, tablet, laptop, phone, etc. will all merge into one device. The only thing holding it back is an adequate display system for small devices. Personally I find the screens on devices smaller than my laptop to be unsuited for viewing anything more than a telephone number. But, I will always have my books. I just like the physical presence.
My experience with public libraries is that they have limited offerings for model railroading. There’s also the problem that they want their books back.
edavis,
Actually, there are more people using public libraries these days, not less. Circulation numbers are up…way up. Inter-library exchange programs have vastly increased the range of materials available, and many people are taking advantage of it.
My sister has been working at the same public library since she got her Library Science Master’s degree back in 1996 and is now it’s Director. In those 15 years, circulation has increased every single year. There’s definitely this attitude in the digital age that public libraries are dinosaurs on their last legs, but nothing could be further from the truth. Bookstores, OTOH, are not doing well.
The site opens to a lot of virtual exhibits and some links to “catalog” and “American Memory” etc. Click on American Memory. Just this part of the Library of Congress site has at least TENS of millions of pages. Maybe HUNDREDS of millions.
“American Memory” opens up an array of 18 areas (each of which has many sub-areas within it).
Just to comment on the public library. The town where I grew up was smaller than where I live now, yet had an outstanding library for it’s size. Even had a pretty good collection of model railroading books for that era. However, where I live now, the library barely has the rigth to call itself that. Even though thecity is much larger, the library is pretty much worthless, not just in model railroading, but books in general. When I walk in you get the feeling they haven’t updated their collection in many years. They’re also not very willing to do an ILL (they’ll do it, but make you miserable for bothering them).
On the other hand, Uncle Sam gave me the opportunity to live in a lot of places and some of those libraries were outstanding. The one in Colorado Springs was willing to do ILLs for me all time and very helpful in finding other libraries to borrow from. (irony, they once had to do an ILL back to California so I could finish a book I was working on when Uncle transferred me to Colorado.)
My point of all this is, if you live near a good library, cherish it, because many of us have no such animal where we live.