Where you say you cannot "claim all the credit for this change in behaviour", I think you have identified the crux of the matter: libraries are influenced by what they are asked for.
What seems obvious to me, is that since Scots speakers and readers are almost certainly bilingual, they can read the plethora of books written in the English language and do not need to request books written in Scots. In fact, given that many Scots speakers are not readers of Scots, they might even prefer to read in English.
Therefore the reasons for requests are different, i.e. to support Scots writers and publishers, to promote and protect the language, not because they want to read a particular title, or need to obtain information on a particular subject.
I don't know if it is the same in Scotland, but in England there are two aspects to library acquisition: the purchase of books from the publisher, and interlibrary loan. My understanding is that the British Library hold every single book ever printed (unless this is apocryphal), and therefore every library can order whatever book you want. In my local library down there, I have to complete a form. How quickly it is obtained will depend on whether it is stocked by another Devon County Council library, or has to come further - and of course how many copies there are overall, and whether they happen to be on loan.
I imagine that if enough people request a title that the library will 'get' that they need to purchase a copy for themselves. Or we can assume that if enough people like yourself ask them to stock Scots language books, they will do so.
But how many proponents of Scots language books do so?
Whilst, its true that libraries are influenced by what they are asked for, about 80% of the acquisitions budget is spent on what is called "supplier selection", the book suppliers choose which books to ship, without any regard to the local situation, usually based on lobbying by publishers.
When Glasgow libraries get 4,000 new titles, its not because the people of Glasgow have individually asked for different 4,000 titles, its because the library suppliers based in England, have been offered good prices by English language publishers based in England, and want to get rid of stock.
British Library stock and National Library of Scotland stock is not available for inter-library loan. They are legal deposit libraries, if you want to read their books, you have to go to the British Library or the National Library of Scotland.
I go to my local library quite often, and browse the shelves without any specific idea of which book I want to read. I'm reasonably sure most public library users do the same. So the idea that Scots readers must come to the library armed with a list of specific books that they want puts them at a disadvantage to English readers.
There is not one library in Scotland with a shelf a books written in Scots for Scots readers to idly browse, and find new writers and books that they might not otherwise be aware of.
Even if writers of Scots books, personally marched into library branches and requested that their books are stocked, its a bit of an unfair burden for them compared to English writers . But we can see that this does happen, individual local libraries close to individual Scots writers stock their books, but other libraries further away don't.
Would it not be more meaningful - and persuasive - to focus on areas where Scots language publishing is strong, e.g. novels, poetry, children's books? It's not reasonable to expect them to buy Scots books on computer programming or whatever if they don't exist.
I was told once that Norwegian libraries buy books in their languages (Bokmal, Landmal) as a matter of policy. Surely the SNP would support something similar, and maybe the other parties in the Scottish parliament.
The idea of politicians telling librarians exactly which books to stock is not something I could support.
It is bad enough that Keir Starmer is already trying to force people to speak English, its not acceptable to let his ilk dictate library stocking policy.
Librarians already have a duty to stock books for their local community, they are just not very good at it.
Where you say you cannot "claim all the credit for this change in behaviour", I think you have identified the crux of the matter: libraries are influenced by what they are asked for.
What seems obvious to me, is that since Scots speakers and readers are almost certainly bilingual, they can read the plethora of books written in the English language and do not need to request books written in Scots. In fact, given that many Scots speakers are not readers of Scots, they might even prefer to read in English.
Therefore the reasons for requests are different, i.e. to support Scots writers and publishers, to promote and protect the language, not because they want to read a particular title, or need to obtain information on a particular subject.
I don't know if it is the same in Scotland, but in England there are two aspects to library acquisition: the purchase of books from the publisher, and interlibrary loan. My understanding is that the British Library hold every single book ever printed (unless this is apocryphal), and therefore every library can order whatever book you want. In my local library down there, I have to complete a form. How quickly it is obtained will depend on whether it is stocked by another Devon County Council library, or has to come further - and of course how many copies there are overall, and whether they happen to be on loan.
I imagine that if enough people request a title that the library will 'get' that they need to purchase a copy for themselves. Or we can assume that if enough people like yourself ask them to stock Scots language books, they will do so.
But how many proponents of Scots language books do so?
Cathy
Whilst, its true that libraries are influenced by what they are asked for, about 80% of the acquisitions budget is spent on what is called "supplier selection", the book suppliers choose which books to ship, without any regard to the local situation, usually based on lobbying by publishers.
When Glasgow libraries get 4,000 new titles, its not because the people of Glasgow have individually asked for different 4,000 titles, its because the library suppliers based in England, have been offered good prices by English language publishers based in England, and want to get rid of stock.
British Library stock and National Library of Scotland stock is not available for inter-library loan. They are legal deposit libraries, if you want to read their books, you have to go to the British Library or the National Library of Scotland.
I go to my local library quite often, and browse the shelves without any specific idea of which book I want to read. I'm reasonably sure most public library users do the same. So the idea that Scots readers must come to the library armed with a list of specific books that they want puts them at a disadvantage to English readers.
There is not one library in Scotland with a shelf a books written in Scots for Scots readers to idly browse, and find new writers and books that they might not otherwise be aware of.
Even if writers of Scots books, personally marched into library branches and requested that their books are stocked, its a bit of an unfair burden for them compared to English writers . But we can see that this does happen, individual local libraries close to individual Scots writers stock their books, but other libraries further away don't.
Guid wark!
Would it not be more meaningful - and persuasive - to focus on areas where Scots language publishing is strong, e.g. novels, poetry, children's books? It's not reasonable to expect them to buy Scots books on computer programming or whatever if they don't exist.
I was told once that Norwegian libraries buy books in their languages (Bokmal, Landmal) as a matter of policy. Surely the SNP would support something similar, and maybe the other parties in the Scottish parliament.
The idea of politicians telling librarians exactly which books to stock is not something I could support.
It is bad enough that Keir Starmer is already trying to force people to speak English, its not acceptable to let his ilk dictate library stocking policy.
Librarians already have a duty to stock books for their local community, they are just not very good at it.