June 28, 2000
By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
If you're expecting to go
to the library to pick up the latest installment of the Harry Potter series
you may be in for a wait.
While libraries are saying
they have ordered more than the usual number of copies of the title, the
availability is likely to be limited.
The number of books, coupled
with libraries' standard three-week checkout time, could lead to waits
of months.
The Chicago Public Library
is awaiting 300 copies of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the
fourth installment of the series, which will be released on July 8. The
books will be distributed to the library's 78 branches.
Each branch will receive
between one and eight copies, says Liz Huntoon, of the children's service
office for the Chicago Public Library.
Kathleen O'Meara, head of
children's services at Conrad Sulzer Regional Library in Chicago's Lincoln
Square neighborhood, says, "We've ordered eight copies [of the new Potter
book], which is a lot for any single title. The thing with the Potter books
is that the demand for them has been consistent from the beginning."
O'Meara says she's also
ordering more copies of the first three books because "there's some deterioration
from so many people checking them out."
In the suburbs, libraries
are facing a similar demand.
At the Mount Prospect Public
Library, the popular children's books are checked out as soon as they hit
the shelves, according to Tina Martin, who is in charge of program development
at the library.
The northwest suburban library
expects the 30 fans already on the waiting list to immediately snap up
the five copies the library has ordered.
Five copies may seem to
be a low order for one of the most anticipated books of the year. But not
for a library.
"Normally, we'd order maybe
one copy of a book, especially for juvenile fiction," says Martin. "We'd
order maybe two or three copies if it was a Newberry Award winner. I suspect
that the five copies we've ordered will be a starting point, and we'll
order more if the waiting list gets so long."
Harry Potter and the
Goblet of Fire is expected to be a best-seller like its predecessors.
The first three volumes of the series--Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's
Stone (1998), Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1999)
and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (1999)-- have dominated
best-seller lists, selling about 28 million copies worldwide.
And each has made its way
onto the Chicago Public Library's Web site (www.chipublib.org) under "Best
of the Best."
As for why it's the best,
the Chicago-based American Library Association cites the imaginative mind
of author J.K. Rowling.
"She really has captured
the world's imagination," says Sarah Long, president of the association.
"The best thing about the Potter books is they've got a lot of kids and
adults reading again. There's something wonderful about children and parents
reading the same book and bonding over the experience together."
However, some adults have
objected to the books because the kid heroes are disrespectful to elders.
"Yes, that's true," Long
says, laughing. "But I feel that a lot of children's books do that, and
that's part of the childhood fantasy: distancing yourself from adult figures."
Read more about Harry Potter
|
|
 |