The dumbing of America seems to be inevitable, but I don't see any reason why we can't have space somewhere for the better things that humanity has produced. From Captain Ed:
[T]he Washington Post reported on the efforts of the Fairfax County public libraries to create shelf room for best sellers by culling out the classics that have received little attention. Research on the library computer system reported on titles that had not been loaned to readers in over two years, but among those titles are classics of literature and letters.
I agree with him on this -- his summation is that libraries are meant to be repositories of our literary legacy, which is not, I hope, Stephen King or Danielle Steele.
That's one reason I keep accumulating my own library.
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One of my volunteer efforts is working at my local inner-city library branch, "weeding" shelves. The librarian and I had a chat about retaining the classics and, I'm glad to say, came to an agreement that even though they hadn't been checked out much and were basically written by dead white guys, they should keep their shelf space. Downtown wants them pulled. I shake my head in disbelief.
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