Service Response Discussion: Current Topics and Titles
This post is part of a series designed to further discussion of the PLA Results service responses, designed in 1998 to describe “what a library does for, or offers to, the public in an effort to meet a set of well-defined community needs.”
The bulleted comments below were gathered in conference sessions by the PLA Results team, in an effort to update the current service responses, which were originally written almost ten years ago. The PLA Results group is looking to the community for feedback on how to update these service responses to better reflect current public library methods and standards.
“A library that provides Current Topics & Titles helps to fulfill community residents’ appetite for information about popular cultural and social trends and their desire for satisfying recreational experiences.” (definition care of the PLA Results site). The current version of the Current Topics and Titles service response, is available for review on the PLA Results web site (the file is an Adobe .pdf file, and requires Adobe Reader to view).
Share your feedback on the current Current Topics and Titles service response, as well as the starter comments listed below, by leaving a comment on this post page. You can help PLA Results bring public library service responses into the 21st century!
Current Topics and Titles Discussion Group Comments
Should this service response be renamed?
- Some think it should return to the old name “Popular Materials.”
- It could be called Best Sellers and Hot Topics.
- Lowell Martin called it Community Bookstore, but there are political problems with this term and no one in the open meetings supported that term.
- Current Topic and Titles is still not a good name.
- It could be called Popular Titles and Current Topics.
- Let’s call it Current Titles and Hot Topics.
- It could be called In Demand.
- Call it New Releases and Hot Topics.
- This was called New Stuff during the time the service responses were drafted.
Go back to the Service Response Discussion Index.
![Pitty Patt[rn] - March 16, 2010](http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4021/4445757693_961c1edd8d_s.jpg)
![Pitty Patt[rn] - March 16, 2010](http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4026/4446531682_fa6129c766_s.jpg)
There are 8 Comments to "Service Response Discussion: Current Topics and Titles"
If the term is to apply to all ages, “New Stuff” would not be as accurate as “In Demand.” “Popular materials” is a bit stuffy, but I don’t have any better suggestion.
I believe that we need a term that is clear and will appeal to patrons of all ages. Perhaps “Popular and Current Titles” or “New and In Demand?”
I would prefer to see the title, “Popular Materials” alongside the other service responses. It seems obvious that we would build a fiction collection, but calling it “Current Topics and Titles” seems like an obtuse way to describe it.
I like the “Current Titles and Hot Topics” or the less verbose “popular materials.” Actually, “popular materials” is sounds pretty boring. I think it’s important that the title infers both fiction and nonfiction and a variety of formats. We’re not just purchasing the best seller list; we’re getting materials that are of interest in each our unique communities.
Current Topics and Titles was chosen as our second priority in the planning process but we do not call it that. We have opted for “The Latest.”
My kids use the term “hot” in an amusing and sarcastic way to make fun of people or things (including themselves) that are trying to be sexy (and are or are not; I haven’t figured it out). I may be the only one but consequently have a fear that the term “hot” will be ridiculed by certain age groups. “Current” is tough because if it’s anything but electronic in this day and age it doesn’t seem factual to call it “current.” New Releases and Popular Topics?
Global warming is an example of a current topic. It is probably less an example of a popular topic, or in demand, or hot material. If there is a need for critical thinking, skilled information seeking, and community dialog on anything, it is with global warming. I can see posters about global warming, and other current topics inside the public library entrance. How about study groups on alternatives to fossil fuels such as photovoltaics? How about an integrated system of solar panels, battery backup, and grid interface visibly installed at the public library? It’s got to start somewhere.
What about “Best Sellers and New Releases”?