Hot titles rarely stay on shelves

PROVO — Copies of "The Da Vinci Code" probably spend more time on the Provo library's "morgue table" than on the shelves.

The library has 75 copies of the popular Dan Brown novel, — soon to be a major motion picture starring Tom Hanks — but they fly off the shelves as soon as volunteers set them out, and there are rarely even five copies in the building.

Each time one of the books is returned to the library after a three-week checkout, it winds up on the morgue table, so dubbed because its stainless steel reminds the library staff of autopsy tables on the TV show "CSI," library director Gene Nelson said.

Books returned inside the library first pass down one of two slots to a conveyor belt, which carries them to a massive bin next to the morgue table. On Mondays, the table is piled so high and wide that the stainless steel shows only on the sides.

Staffers and volunteers work feverishly to scan the books back into the computer system and then catalog them for return to the shelves.

The Provo Library at Academy Square has about 280,000 volumes, Nelson said. The library purchased 33,500 new books last year but also weeded out thousands that were old, unread or falling apart.

Librarians buy a lot of copies of high-demand books like "The Da Vinci Code."

"Every time we get three holds on a book," Nelson said, "the computer generates a notice to the staff buyer, who considers whether we should buy another copy."

Readers are hard on the books, support services manager Carla Zollinger said. Some cheaply published volumes fall apart after 10 trips out of the library and back. Hardbacks generally last through 40 to 50 readers. Children's books can handle up to 80 checkouts.

"It's scary the condition we get stuff back in," Zollinger said. "We get interesting bookmarks, like pictures, notes, bills, things we shred. Band-aids. Sometimes it's really disgusting."

Newly purchased books are displayed at the library's entrance, where they remain for six to nine months.

"One thing libraries have learned from bookstores in the last decade is marketing," Nelson said. "We're trying to entice people to read."

There is a limit, however. The library charges 10 cents a day for overdue items. Procrastinators can't get a community service bye on their fines by shelving books because training them would take too long.

"People," Zollinger said, "offer that all the time."

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E-mail: twalch@desnews.com