[pwaivers]

The famous books probably get rented more quickly.

They say in this article that public interest largely drives what the library buys. Even if you consider a book "trashy", it still may be very popular and culturally relevant.

[tokai]

This.

You wont find the real popular books on the shelves. It's not unheard of having books that are never shelved in their lifetime. As they are reserved even before they are purchased and continually reserved by other patrons. Until they are weeded due to wear.

[C1sc0cat]

That was the case for Terry Prattchet at my local UK Library.

[cptnapalm]

Rented more quickly and never returned.

Source: I work in a library.

[isostatic]

Don’t you give out fines for late returns (or theft)

[cptnapalm]

Yes and letters are sent out informing the person. Sometimes they claimed they returned them, which is only true in a very tiny minority of cases. (Every library checks the claim list every month.) Fines stop at the cost of the item, so the worst they'll have to ever suffer is paying for the items. Every so often, there's a fine forgiveness program and everything is just written off.

[JoeAltmaier]

There must be more discrimination than that. Then wouldn't the library be full of porn and romance novels? The two largest volume of new publications per year.

[kaikai]

Libraries are full of romance novels. If you’ve ever stood in line to check out a book you may have noticed how popular they are. I’m glad that people are reading, and don’t see a reason to pass judgement on the people reading them or pretend that libraries should be filled with the literary equivalent of broccoli.

[cheez]

Hey man, broccoli is delicious.

[organsnyder]

By "largest volume", do you mean number of distinct titles published, or number of copies sold? I think it's the former, which wouldn't translate into customer/patron demand.