A lot of people think that, actually. What you’re thinking of are Archives, and there are Archival Libraries. They’re usually associated with a particular association or company or organization or university, and THEY make it a mandate to collect and keep preserved specific types or subjects.
Public libraries have always been at the mercy of current tastes. As someone who likes the idea of archiving better than the idea of slavishly following popular fads (and who really dislikes weeding books (that’s the getting rid of them term) for no better reason than because they aren’t popular) I really have a hard time myself with this.
However, studies have shown that people pick out more titles in a library if the whole collection looks newer and “fresher,” and public library budgets rise and fall based on our circulation statistics. If I knew a way to force people to check out old genre books, I’d be all over it in a heartbeat, and many librarians would be right there with me. We don’t WANT to throw away books, believe us.
However, as for access, what you can do is go to the circulation desk, and say this script: “hi, you don’t have x title by x author in your collection, and I would like to read it. I am requesting that you get it for me via InterLibrary Loan.”
The interlibrary loan part is the specific magic phrase you need. Every library I know offers it, and most offer it for free. We will get you that book from wherever we can, usually at no cost to you. Please just return it on time - libraries get charged late fees also (and can also get barred from the system for non-returns or late returns), and that sucks for everyone.
The thing is, if you go back and look at the whole field of SF during that time, there was an awful lot of crap published, too. We read and remember the good stuff, mostly. We forget that Sturgeon’s Law applies to all time periods. I assure you, SF in the 40s and 50s had fads. Yeah, today we have a lot of supernatural romance, and most of it is godawful. But some of the stories are pretty good. I remember reading an old, old story about an author who is trying to get a story published. Basically, the story was complaining about the plethora of “pact with the devil” stories that were currently in vogue.
I don’t know if I’m confusing your post, but I do want to make sure you understand that interlibrary loan isn’t the same as getting items from elsewhere in your same system - like from another branch location of your library.
For example, we have a county-wide library system with 8 total locations, and we’re linked to a consortium of about 12 other counties in our state, and ALL of those locations are considered our “catalog.” Items can be borrowed willy-nilly throughout the system.
ILL is for items that your library doesn’t have At All. For example, one book I got myself recently was a 1940s copy of a 1918 collection of William Hope Hodgson’s horror-sf. The copy that came in was from Alberta Canada. I live in South Carolina. That friggin book was NOWHERE in any county we were linked to. No worries, I just got it through ILL. It sometimes takes a little longer, but mine arrived in about 2 weeks.
We have both intra-library loans (from other branches of the same library) and inter-library loans (from other libraries in the same state), both available to order online. At least that’s how I would define them, but I’m not a librarian, just a lowly bookworm.
I actually remember haunting the little science-fiction corner of our library, eons ago, there were the usual suspects and a handful of dusty hardcovers of some obscurities like ‘Rocket to Saturn’ or some such. These were really boring and no one ever checked them out, even me - they were the equivalent of a boring Saturday afternoon matinee movie, all talk, little action.
Anyway - look on alibris.com, for new and used copies of just about anything. I’ve seldom been disappointed.
Oh, I remember that story, vaguely. Wasn’t it by Asimov, or in an anthology edited by him?
Speaking of godawful supernatural romance, I was just cleaning out my parents’ basement, and found a box of books from my childhood that were stashed down there. Some classic sf, and a pile of vampire romance pseudo gothics from the '50’s or '60’s. The cover art is so bad it’s funny. I’m hoping that treating them with a UV light wand will make me dare to handle them more, and read them. Instant time machine!
For anyone who has a Kindle, hie thee over to Amazon for the Halcyon Classic series of Golden Age Science fiction, both novels and short stories. They are only $1.99 - $2.99 each.:eek:
“Will You Wait?” by Alfred Bester? (Starts with this “They keep writing those antiquated stories about bargains with the Devil. You know — sulfur, spells and pentagrams; tricks, snares and delusions. They don’t know what they’re talking about.”)
I like 1950’s SciFi because it was that period of post WWII optimism-that nothing was beyond possible-if we decided to do it.
Contrast it with today-our economy is collapsing, and we are “lead” by a collection of imcompetents-who continually remind us that the earth is doomed, anyway.
