A Book Is a Hopeful Thing

When Ellen Buskirk accepted a job as an interim employee at Minneapolis Public Library back in 1999, her plan was to stay until she found a long-term career.

She quickly realized that library work was just the thing she was searching for.

What hooked her? “It was a complex place to work, with lots of questions to be answered, but it wasn’t about selling anything. It was about providing for the community.”

After trying out roles at numerous locations and departments, Ellen landed in Collection Management Services as a Senior Librarian.

Meet Your Professional Book Shoppers

Your library is home to 3.36 million physical items such as books and DVDs. The collection also includes more than 450,000 downloadable items, including eBooks and audiobooks.

So, how are all these materials chosen? How do they make it into the collection? How are items replaced or updated throughout the years? These are the jobs of the Collection Management team.

Ellen is responsible for selecting adult nonfiction books in both print and downloadable formats and managing the adult reference collections. She researches new releases, combs through reviews, and analyzes user data, all of which inform her purchasing decisions.

Hennepin County Readers are Curious About Everything!

As Ellen works closely with adult nonfiction each day, she can tell you that the most popular categories are cookbooks, self-help materials, crafting, current events, educational resources, and travel books. However, the variety of materials sought out by Hennepin County readers extends far beyond these genres!

“I witness every day that the Hennepin County community is curious about everything. Our patrons are reading and asking for materials on all topics from knitting to test taking, from the latest hit movie to health and legal information.”

Enhanced by the gifts made by library friends, Ellen says the library’s goal is to provide patrons access to the publishing industry. “Our hope is that we don’t have to tell people what to read because we can provide access to all kinds of materials.”

41 Micro Collections

Ellen visits each library location to speak with building staff and experience the collection firsthand. Local librarians share the highlights from the neighborhood their library serves and the unique interests and needs their patrons have.

“The staff suggestions are so important to us because they are surrounded by the collection all the time,” shares Ellen. These local staff members get asked for help finding a certain book and notice trends among reference questions.

While you can place a hold on any book and have it delivered to any library location, many prefer to browse what is already available in the building.

This means that each library, however big or small, must have a robust collection, full of materials on a wide variety of topics and for every age. It’s quite the balancing act!

Your Voice Guides the Way

If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed at a bookstore, you may be wondering how Ellen does it. Faced with endless options, how do librarians determine which books to buy?

In short, they look to you!

“I read book reviews, literary award lists, and best-of lists. I pay attention to social media, and educational and cultural trends. But the real data I use to inform purchasing comes from our library patrons. What are patrons checking out? How is a specific author or subject doing in the catalog? What are patrons asking for more of? I try to let our patrons lead the way.”

On top of this, Hennepin County Library receives on average 1,500 suggestions for purchase every month from readers like you. Each day, the team coordinates, evaluates, and responds to these requests, curating a collection perfect for.…us! 

A Book Is a Hopeful Thing

Once books are selected and purchased by the Collections Team, they are sorted, catalogued, and prepared to be shipped to their library location. As Ellen walks through rows of carts filled with new books—waiting to venture to their new home—there’s a sense of anticipation, of possibility.

Every one of these books will have perhaps hundreds of readers, each in search of different answers, each at a different moment in their lives. “Opening a book is a hopeful thing,” she says.