Listen to the library

It started innocently enough in 1995 with a $50,000 grant to circulate CDs of classical music. Slowly, jazz, blues and the indigenous sounds of Louisiana slipped into the stacks. “Then a bunch of us old fogies got together and came up with what became the classic rock list,” says Andi Abraham of the East Baton Rouge Parish Main Library on Goodwood Boulevard. Welcome, Rolling Stones. Hello, Beatles.

Today the Main Library circulates about 6,000 CDs ranging from Broadway shows to the latest hip hop artists. Well, almost. To deter pirating, the library doesn’t stock any music that is less than a year old. Another 13,000 discs are within the system and can be ordered online and delivered to any of the 13 parish branches the next day. “That just saves people time, and it saves them gas,” says Mary Stein, assistant library director.

To keep up with demand and manage new CD and DVD inventories, an AV librarian position was created in 2005. One third of all items circulating in the library are audio/visual. AV Librarian Mechelle Whitney occasionally consults the gurus at the Compact Disc Store for advice when ordering, and though it may not be as cool, she says, the library is one of the least expensive legal ways to discover new music. Card-carrying members can check out up to 10 CDs at a time.

And what if people are copying the tracks to their hard drives before returning them?

“We’re not the downloading station,” Stein says. “Sure, some choose to break copyright laws, but that’s between them and their conscience.” ebr.lib.la.us