Collection development patterns of fiction titles in public libraries: Theplace of independent and small presses

Recent scholarship has identified increased corporate control of the news a nd book publishing industries as a worrisome trend insofar as it has meant a decrease in the sites where diverse public expression is allowed to occur . Public libraries are major buyers of fiction titles, yet mainstream comme rcial publishers owned by large conglomerates now publish a large portion o f all available fiction despite the proliferation of small, independent pre sses. This article looks at the fiction purchases of public libraries in th e United States which are members of OCLC by type of publisher in the perio d 1993-1997, and then compares these purchases with those of Barnes & Noble bookstores. While Barnes & Noble seems to have significantly increased its purchases from small, independent presses during this four-year period, pu blic libraries have not done so. Yet, in general, public library fiction pu rchases do reflect both the availability of independent titles and their ra te of appearance in popular collection development review tools.