Public libraries whose CD acquisitions frequently please and/or astonish

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Of course, all librarians have impeccable taste, and at least 73% of ILXor's seem to BE librarians. There was some talk about the New York Public Library's taste for crunk here: This is the thread where I tell you that the New York Public Library is CRUNK AS FUCK. , but I want to know if anyone more of you have moments when you want to thank the acquisition staff for their oh-so-wise channeling of public funds into delightful CDs which are not necessarily what you imagine the typical borrower realises they want.

Who should they be catering for anyway? Or should librarians simply inflict their tastes on the masses as they please?

― Nag! Nag! Nag! (Nag! Nag! Nag!), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 09:42 (twenty years ago)

For instance, my local modest suburban library keeps on adding the recent reissues of the early Fall records, one after another. They had these for a while:

Middle class revolt
The light user syndrome
High tension line compilation

But then, every time I go in I see a new one of the following, some of them being those nice 2CD affairs:

50,000 Fall fans can't be wrong compilation
Grotesque (after the gramme)
Totale's turns (It's now or never)
Live in London 1980 : the legendary chaos tape
Hex enduction hour

It's all a bit surprising.

― Nag! Nag! Nag! (Nag! Nag! Nag!), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 09:43 (twenty years ago)

I mentioned, I bought the Pop Group's "Y" CD from Woking Library, £3.

Not often rented, I believe.

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 09:46 (twenty years ago)

Burnley Central library was entirely responsible for introducing me to the Buthole Surfers when I was 11 years old

― actionjackson, Wednesday, 6 April 2005 10:05 (twenty years ago)

The Fugs at The Forbes in Northampton

― dapes, Wednesday, 6 April 2005 10:19 (twenty years ago)

Mildmay library in North London used to have Royal Trux's Split Infinitives before it had a British release. You could spot which member of staff had ordered it too.

― snotty moore, Wednesday, 6 April 2005 10:31 (twenty years ago)

when i worked in a public library i used to while away the hours filling in the suggestions book in the music library, writing entries under false names...

it worked too!

― Louie_Strychnine, Wednesday, 6 April 2005 10:40 (twenty years ago)

i first heard Black Flag at 14 by checking out Damaged from a local library!

― latebloomer: strawman knockdowner (latebloomer), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 10:54 (twenty years ago)

Cool. Alternative more general question: What stuff did your library introduce you to??

For me, aged 10-ish in the mid-80s, I recall, for instance:
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark - Architecture and Morality
The Cure - The Head On the Door
Human League - Dare ...all on cassette! Yay!

― Nag! Nag! Nag! (Nag! Nag! Nag!), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 11:24 (twenty years ago)

When I submit titles for the CD list, I try to compromise between: obvious/must have/very popular type choices, choices that will lend variety to the collection, and things that in my heart of hearts I think people would like and perhaps be amazed by if they were just given a chance (generally backed up by good reviews). I think public library collections should split the difference (not necessarily evenly) between pandering and educating.

― RS £aRue (rockist_scientist), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 11:25 (twenty years ago)

They have CD's at the LIBRARY?!? Holy shit I should go.

― LeCoq (LeCoq), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 11:26 (twenty years ago)

(And by "educate" I'm not so much thinking "show people what really good music is" but more, just showing them what else is out there.)

― RS £aRue (rockist_scientist), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 11:28 (twenty years ago)

try all the calderdale libraries

specifically, halifax, todmorden and hebden bridge

― charltonlido (gareth), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 11:32 (twenty years ago)

The Westminster library on Victoria Street in London has a great collection of CDs

― James Mitchell (James Mitchell), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 11:37 (twenty years ago)

My good friend Stripey worked at Newport Beach Public Library in the early nineties and was instrumental, thanks to a music librarian who wasn't sure what the kids were into these days, in getting a slew of pre-grunge indie and shoegaze and other such things into the collection. For all I know she singlehandedly got the local gaze scene going.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 11:54 (twenty years ago)

The Westgate Library in Oxford was great for CDs in our day, though I've no idea whether it still is.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 12:00 (twenty years ago)

great stuff my library had:

Nuggets
loadsa Lee Perry
Eric Matthews
Silver Jews
and lotsa stuff by the Fall

― Louie Strychnine, Wednesday, 6 April 2005 12:06 (twenty years ago)

I mentioned, I bought the Pop Group's "Y" CD from Woking Library, £3.

I think I bought my copy from Ipswich library!

― Chewshabdoo, Wednesday, 6 April 2005 12:34 (twenty years ago)

Hey, I just got that Lil' Wayne album "The Carter" from the Waukgegan, IL library. It's really good!

― dr. phil (josh langhoff), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 12:37 (twenty years ago)

I first heard the Cowboy Junkies and Sonic Youth from my library's collection when I was in high school.

― Lyra Jane (Lyra Jane), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 12:55 (twenty years ago)

One quirk: Dylan's "Knocked Out Loaded" is ALWAYS fucking checked out at my local public library. It pisses me off!

OTM Nag, on "Dare" - my ONLY copy of this album is a secondhand edition I recorded from the West-Dade Regional Library's copy.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 13:38 (twenty years ago)

My local library system (which includes about 20-30 libraries) has a ton of great stuff. A lot of box sets (Miles Davis - Seven Steps, Left of the Dial, Best of Broadside, Nuggets) and a lot of Folkways stuff.

― mcd (mcd), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 14:19 (twenty years ago)

Our university library has a really wack audio section - about 50 thematically grouped collections of folk songs from the British Isles and one pristine copy of Slayers' Reign In Blood. And that's it!

― NickB (NickB), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 14:25 (twenty years ago)

LOL, that's beautiful NickB.

Delighted to hear that more than one library SELLS OFF underappreciated Pop Group titles! Must be vigilant...

― Nag! Nag! Nag! (Nag! Nag! Nag!), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 22:23 (twenty years ago)

i bought di go pop from camberwell library for three quid!

back when it were all vinyl i got a two lp isley bros best of from wood green.

― mullygrubbr (bulbs), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 22:27 (twenty years ago)

my local now has unit structures by cecil taylor. and that gwen stefani disc. keeps me happy.

― mullygrubbr (bulbs), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 22:29 (twenty years ago)

What stuff did your library introduce you to??

As a 17 yr old college freshman I devoured every Stockhausen and Subotnick CD and Cassete that the university music library had. You couldn't take the CDs home so I'd have to sit there in the library with headphones on and really pay close attention.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 22:46 (twenty years ago)

The public library in my hometown was my first source of Beefheart (Shiny Beast, which sounded horribly wrong upon first listen). And they had pretty much all of Rhino's DIY comps, which were a revelation (esp. the UK pop discs). Not to even mention their huuuuge collection of way out of print movies on VHS (a good number of which I've never seen available for sale/rental anywhere else).

― Deric W. Haircare (Deric W. Haircare), Thursday, 7 April 2005 00:19 (twenty years ago)

i am actually the CD buyer for a public library in New York. the following purchases i consider personal victories:

The Slits: "Return of the Giant Slits"
Bathory: "Under the Sign of the Black Mark"
Gang of Four: "Entertainment!"
Gang of Four: "Solid Gold"
V/A: Ghana Soundz 1 & 2
V/A: Afro Baby
Emperor: In the Nightside Eclipse
The Cure: "The Top" (German Import)
The Fall: Live at the Witch Trials 2CD
Orlando Julius: Orlando's Afro Ideas
Bob Dylan: Complete SACD Reissues
Tony Allen & Africa 70: Jealousy/Progress
VA: World Psychedelic Classics Vol. III
Shapeshifters: Shapeshifters Was Here
Copywrite: Cruise Control Mixtape Vol. I
VA: Reggaeton Nation Vol. II
REM: Murmur, Reckoning, Document UK Version w/ Bonus Tracks
King Sunny Ade: Best of the Classic Years
Scritti Politti: Early
DFA Comps 1 & 2
LCD Soundsystem
MIA: Arular
Marz: Wind Ser Hier
Daniel Givens: Dayclear & First Dark
Animal Collective: Sung Tongs
V/A: Africa Raps
Dungen: Ta Det Lungt
Baby Huey: Living Legend
Mickey & The Soul Generation: Iron Leg

let me also add that the circulation on these is astonishingly high. i'm open to dares.

― PeopleFunnyBoy (PeopleFunnyBoy), Thursday, 7 April 2005 02:21 (twenty years ago)

follow-up: i dont know whether to be impressed or frightened that we cannot keep Bathory, Emperor, and Mayhem on the shelves.

― PeopleFunnyBoy (PeopleFunnyBoy), Thursday, 7 April 2005 02:22 (twenty years ago)

I should make a list like that. I don't actual make the final selection for any agency, but I do get to submit international titles (and they generally are accepted) for the CD list other people choose from.

― RS £aRue (rockist_scientist), Thursday, 7 April 2005 02:27 (twenty years ago)

(ILM influenced picks I've listed: El Gran Silencio Super Riddim Internacional (which apparently hasn't gone out much however--given the local demographics, I'm better off listing my beloved salsa/tropical music) and Ragga Ragga Ragga 2004.)

― RS £aRue (rockist_scientist), Thursday, 7 April 2005 02:29 (twenty years ago)

RS: Totally missed your first post. Sounds like we do similar things, except that I get to actually pull the trigger on the order. Would love to see your list!

― PeopleFunnyBoy (PeopleFunnyBoy), Thursday, 7 April 2005 02:33 (twenty years ago)

It's a minor part of my job, but it's one of the parts I enjoy most.

― RS £aRue (rockist_scientist), Thursday, 7 April 2005 02:35 (twenty years ago)

Cheo Feliciano: Salsa Caliente de Nu York!
Various: Red Hot + Riot
Mohammad Reza Shadjarian & Kayhan Kalhor: Night/Silence/Desert
Batata y Su Rumba Palenquera: Radio Bakongo
Don Omar: The Last Don
Tego Calderon: El Enemy de los Guasibiri
Grupo Niche: Imaginacion
Patato & Totico: s/t [reissue]
Rahim AlHaj: Iraqi Music in a Time of War [not received yet]
Maria Rita: s/t [not received yet]
Various: The Rough Guide to the Music of Ethiopia [not received yet]
Jimmy Bosch: El Avion de la Salsa [not received yet]
Various: Si Soy Llanero
Luny Tunes: La Trayectoria

(I could mention other stuff, but these are things I think there's a good chance wouldn't have ended up in the collection without me. As I said, I do international titles, but with an emphasis on what Billboard would call Tropical Music.)

― RS £aRue (rockist_scientist), Thursday, 7 April 2005 13:32 (twenty years ago)

I found Tony Williams Lifetime Emergency at my local public library, along with Maggot Brain, Ethiopiques 1, tons of Doug Sahm stuff, and Ultramagnetic MC's Critical Beatdown.
I work in the Acquisitions dept of a University Library but the recorded sound dept here sucks. Guess it's got something to do with how tiny and underfunded the music department is. I want to purchase for a community library!

― Trip Maker (Sean Witzman), Thursday, 7 April 2005 13:44 (twenty years ago)

I think Brussels had some kinda Wire-friendly music-buying policy in their major public libraries cos no matter what skronky blipscaped atrocity I scraped onto an MD comp for my chum who was living there in '99-'00, he'd already heard it thanks to his library card.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Thursday, 7 April 2005 13:45 (twenty years ago)

(Working on: I Remember Syria, Congotronics, Capleton's Reign of Fire, among others. Sometimes it's disappointing though: I'll list good compilations of, say, the Fania All Stars or Hector Lavoe, and they'll only be picked up the "Latino branches," meaning that the people least familiar with this music won't be introcued.)

― RS £aRue (rockist_scientist), Thursday, 7 April 2005 13:46 (twenty years ago)

The Vancouver Public Library has full sets of the videos of HULLABALOO and MUSIC SCENE - TV shows from the mid-late 60's containing amazing performances by the likes of the Animals, Sly Stone, James Brown, Kinks, Jerry Lee Lewis etc etc, and hilarious performances by people like Nancy Sinatra, Paul Anka and many, many others. All really cool.

― everything, Thursday, 7 April 2005 20:28 (twenty years ago)

i love public libraries, but the two nearest me have large but generally unimpressive music collections. ok, actually, their classical collections are decent if not astonishing. but the jazz and popular (and country and world etc.) collections seem almost completely random. there are some obvious and necessary sops to demographics (lots of russian music, or jewish holiday music, or barbra streisand) and some inexplicable bounties (how many dan fogelberg cds does a library need?) but otherwise it seems like they just collected the dregs of various library patrons' collections.

this stands in sharp contrast to the dvd and vhs collections, which are unusually rich. to the point where i almost feel bad for the library and rent things because i suspect they haven't been rented in years.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 8 April 2005 13:20 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, I've felt those same pangs of sadness for stuff that's probably been "On the shelf" since 1994.

In terms of classical music, most libraries seem to do well around here (where my skewed definition of 'well' means 'decent amount of 20th century stuff'): Varese, Pendereski, Cage, Feldman, Reich, Messiaen, Webern, Scnittke... Not many of those 'skronky blipscaped atrocities' though; that's pretty impressive.

― Nag! Nag! Nag! (Nag! Nag! Nag!), Friday, 8 April 2005 20:35 (twenty years ago)

one month passes...

(I just want to be clear, since I seem to have given some people the wrong idea, that I hate my fucking job with a passion. This CD stuff is just a minor duty.)

― RS (Catalino) LaRue (RSLaRue), Saturday, 4 June 2005 12:59 (twenty years ago)

Goddamn you all! The CDs at my local library are horrible, save for the local music collection. It's all John Tesh and Third Eye Blind-type crap.

― The plastic yoghurt guns of Ian Riese-Moraine! (Eastern Mantra), Saturday, 4 June 2005 15:08 (twenty years ago)

They do sell 78s, though, but nothing in the box has really intrigued me.

― The plastic yoghurt guns of Ian Riese-Moraine! (Eastern Mantra), Saturday, 4 June 2005 15:09 (twenty years ago)

I've heard the Edinburgh Public Library has an extensive selection of contemporary Japanese/psych noise. Apparently, one of the librarians is a fan.

― Soukesian, Saturday, 4 June 2005 16:36 (twenty years ago)

"I've heard the Edinburgh Public Library has an extensive selection of contemporary Japanese/psych noise. Apparently, one of the librarians is a fan."

Astonishing but true (judging by their catalogue). The library in Pittsfield, Mass library should have had a copy of the Swans' The Burning World, but it went missing.

― Ds (ikue mori), Saturday, 4 June 2005 21:11 (twenty years ago)

one month passes...

How uncanonical. How can you people get away with this crap.

― Bob b (bobnope), Friday, 29 July 2005 10:41 (twenty years ago)

Exmouth Library had a fine collection of indie cassettes, if that helps - all of the State Of Independents ones, Husker Du, Sonic Youth, The Fall, all sorts

― jim (jim5et), Friday, 29 July 2005 12:26 (twenty years ago)

My friend told me the one in Amsterdam is amazing. They have, for example, every single Zorn record (so he assumes, I can hardly imagine they have everyone but hey you never know...), Miles Davis,... The collection is enormous.

― nathalie's body's designed for two (stevie nixed), Friday, 29 July 2005 12:50 (twenty years ago)

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