The library, the bookshop and the literature centre

The rationale of the public library as provider of works of the imagination is usually given as secondary to that of information. Examining the differing roles of libraries and bookshops, seeks to identify the public library′s unique contribution to the promotion of literature. By providing working examples of how so‐called“difficult” stock can be successfully exploited, encourages book selectors to be more adventurous in their purchases; arguing that librarians need to take a more proactive role in the development of creative reading in order to become the literature centres of the next century.