Periodical perusal is by the book.

Byline: Bob Welch / The Register-Guard

For years, the cultural anthropologist in me has marveled at the magazine selection at the Eugene Public Library.

What, I've asked myself, can we tell about who we are as a community by what we choose to read from the 500 magazines offered?

Why can you peruse a copy of, say, The Last Straw, the "international journal of strawbale and natural building," but not, say, American Demographics, considered by many to be the bible of quantifiable trends?

And how do the Dewey Decimals chefs of magazine fare decide what to put on the menu for us in the first place?

After researching this, I've learned that though Eugene has its pockets of quirkiness, we're far more mainstream than we might think.

That surprised even Sara Tripodi, a library assistant who ran a data search on what magazines are getting checked out and what aren't.

"There's nothing really `Eugenean' about the Top 20 list," she says. "The titles are right off the grocery store newsstand."

True, the library offers such eclectic magazines as Midwifery Today, Clay Times (ceramic trends and technology), Empty Vessel (a Taoist journal) and Bitch (the `feminist response to pop culture.'). True, those magazines aren't offered at, say, the Portland or Corvallis libraries.

But judging by our in-demand magazines, you'd think this were Marin County: The Top 10 consists of: Home (whose last eight issues circulated 128 times), House Beautiful, Fine Gardening, Consumer Reports, Sunset, In Style, Martha Stewart Living, Guitar Player, Cooking Light and Real Simple (streamlining your life, from the publishers of People).

Lest you think the list is going to suddenly segue into, say, Sprouts Illustrated (just kidding) and Anarchy Today (likewise), check out the next 10: Quilter's Newsletter, Glamour, House & Garden, Marie Claire (women's fashion, beauty, etc.), Vanity Fair, Vegetarian Times (finally!), Discover, Shape, Country Living and Fine Cooking.

"I was surprised to see no news magazines on the Top 20 list," says Tripodi. "No Time or Newsweek. This may reflect the trend of people getting more of their news from the Internet."

Among the 20 least popular magazines are Coin World, Christian Century, Ebony, Congressional Digest, Field & Stream, Golf, Governing, JAMA, Jet, Sports Afield and Monthly Labor Review.

The two absolute least popular magazines are Best's Review (insurance issues and analysis) and Nation's Cities Weekly, neither of which has been checked out by a single person in recent years.

Low circulation numbers, or no circulation numbers, can mean a magazine will fall off the menu, but not necessarily.

"We want the collection to reflect the community but also go beyond, to offer different points of views," says public services manager Rob Everett.

If a magazine has an online version, its hard copy might not be offered - to keep down an annual $25,000 magazine expense; such is the case with my beloved American Demographics.

So how does the staff decide what mags stay and go? A half a dozen staffers offer suggestions. They sift through newsletters and magazine journals looking for possible additions to the menu. They gather on half a dozen Saturdays each year to "cull the collection." They look at checkout statistics.

Meanwhile, "shelvers," the folks who return magazines that have been read on site, get a feel for what's getting read in-house and what's not.

Among the signs of the times: Track & Field News, once a dog-eared favorite in the so-called Track Capital of the World, is far back in the pack; it was even dropped for a few years. And The Last Straw, whose readership is waning, could be facing exactly that.

Apparently straw houses just don't cut it anymore in Eugene, the Land of House Beautiful.

Bob Welch can be reached at 338-2354 or [e-mail].