Category: Practical Librarian
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Weeding more than the books
The other day I was looking at a bunch of books that teach dancing. Dance instruction books were hardly jumping off the shelves. There could be a quite a few reasons for this. I know that disco dancing isn’t as popular as it once was. Obviously, we need an upgrade…
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Discards
Let’s talk about what to do with weeded library materials. If you’ve ever heard Mary and I speak at a conference or in a webinar, you’ve heard us harp on the idea that where discards end up is as important as what actually gets discarded. We have to discard responsibly…
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The Life Changing Magic of Library Maintenance
As a co-owner of this little corner of the Internet, I feel obliged to weigh in on Marie Kondo’s comments that had book lovers twitchy and defensive. Kondo’s philosophy is about a “less is more” lifestyle and advises the book people to let go of titles that don’t spark joy.…
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Serials
One of my library science student interns asked me to spend 20 minutes with her, going over with her how the serials collection is managed at our library. That is one of my collection responsibilities, so I was happy to comply. (Truth: after I jumped for joy that anyone wanted…
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…But it was an award winner!
Some of the more difficult weeds in libraries are award winners. The Newbery, Caldecott, National Book Award, Hugo, Bram Stoker, Nebula, etc. etc. etc. awards are wonderful choices for most public libraries – and even some school, university, and special libraries. However, they should be held to *almost* the same…
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Slow Your Roll
The best advice I can give to anyone who does weeding of a library collection is to take your time. Go as slowly as is practical and put some thought into the process. Not only will you make better, more thoughtful choices, but you will garner less attention from the…
Awful Library Books 