Dear Editor:

Having used the Downey City Library for years and having donated countless numbers of books, I was taken aback a couple of weeks ago at the shrinkage of the fiction books in what used to be the New Books display. 

It wasn’t just the shrinkage of the fiction books: it was their replacement by masses of videos now available to the public. Lots of movies and a ton of videos that would appeal to kids. 

What kind of sense does this make? This is the library’s idea of encouraging people of all ages to read -- as if watching TV wasn’t enough? Now the library is also a major supplies of videos? 
I talked to one of the librarians and asked about the displacement of the new fiction books (“new” being a relative term). Most of the new books can now be found in the stacks. Swell: so now those of us who like to read fiction are free to prowl the stacks and try to identify the new books? 

I’m just wondering who engineered this new policy? I can imagine the justification: it will be some variation of “people clamored for more videos and we wanted to respond.” There may be a clamor for more videos, but I don’t appreciate the library responding at the expense of those of us who read fiction -- especially since nonfiction was left intact. 

I suggest that the library restore the new fiction books to their rightful place in the New Books display. 

As for the videos? Whatever the library decides to do with them or about them, it can’t come at the expense of people who go to the library to read. 

Muriel Schuerman
Downey