Trouble in Kiddyland: The Hidden Costs of OP. and O.S.

Abstract

Early in March 1984, between two blizzards that struck the Midwest only a few days apart, I was in Indianapolis to address a group of public and school librarians on “The Publishing Industry.” It was a symposium described in the conference program as intended “for anyone who has tried to purchase a book that was suddenly out of print or out of stock.” Judging from the audience size, blizzards notwithstanding, and the interest as expressed through audience comments and questions over the length of the three‐hour meeting, there are a lot of people in Indiana's libraries who have tried to buy books that are “suddenly” O.P. or O.S., just as there are all over the rest of the country. Particularly for those who buy books to build and maintain collections for young readers—both children and young adults—however, obtaining materials for those collections has become an exercise in frustration almost unequalled in acquisition of any other kind of library materials, with the possible exception of hard‐cover “classics.”

Citation

(1984), "Trouble in Kiddyland: The Hidden Costs of OP. and O.S.", Collection Building, Vol. 6 No. 2, pp. 26-28. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb023149