Edmonton (Alberta, CA) high school student Adrian Vanderwell became alarmed when he saw truckloads of library books being carted to the dumpster behind the school, and demanded answers.
I’ve no idea why they would throw out so many … The cranky librarian lady, she was a little unreasonable. She said basically the only way to get new books is to show that they have a really crappy library, and to do that they have to get rid of a whole lot of books.
After Vanderwell blew the whistle, others investigated and thought that it was, indeed, a weeding project gone awry. More here from the Edmonton Journal.
weeding
Of the books they listed–I probably would’ve gotten rid of most of them too. They’re outdated and most schools do NOT have the room to become an archive as well as a functioning library.
Most of my weeded books end up in a used book sale after my spring book fair. People (staff and parents) will sometimes ask about it. I’m honest–if I’ve got six copies of a book and two aren’t in top shape–I’ll get rid of them. Or if books are outdated or in bad shape. And everyone has understood when I explained to them why I was getting rid of the books.
And if I need to get rid of something and I don’t want people to know…I put it in a bag and then find our day janitor and give it to her. She puts it in her cart or in the garbage room for me–never to be seen again. It pays to make friends with the custodial staff.
I bet the next time that librarian weeds, she won’t be trucking the books out during school hours!
s/
Only in libraries…
do librarians have to justify everything they do to anyone who pitches a fit.
Yes, libraries are, for the most part, public-supported institutions, but then so are many other government agencies, and you would rarely see attorneys or accounts having to worry about explaining their job duties to someone who misunderstood what they were doing.
BTW-patrons are not happy when they are old, crappy books on the shelves, nor are they happy when you get rid of said old, crappy books to free up space for new books. Then they are not happy when overflow books have to be stored on book carts because there are not enough people to shelve them, and there is not enough room to shelve them.
Re:Only in libraries…
Libraries have to be more careful in discarding library items, especially in public libraries or public schools that are taxpayer-funded and in times of financial constraints and funding cuts. How can we justify more funding when we are careless with our resources? We have obligation not to throw out library items without serious and careful thought. This is part of responsible collection management. Collection management does not mean discarding items in ad hoc fashion, nor does it mean keeping everything regardless of the information being out-of-date or their bad condition. It has be a balanced approached where old and out-of-date materials are withdrawn and replaced with new and often better materials and subject gaps filled. Books in bad condition are in bad condition because they do get borrowed a lot, and they get borrowed a lot because they are often “good”. I’ve read somewhere that 20% of items get borrowed 80% of the time. Moreover, as librarians making decisions on what to discard and what to keep, we are deciding what so many people read and what people don’t. Therefore, we hold an important position in society, and we should not take this so lightly.