Weeding

No, not the garden. The library. Weeding is when you get rid of books in your collection. It could be because of age, condition, out-of-date information (especially medical and legal) or just plain not checked out. There was an article in the Washington Post yesterday about Fairfax county public library (not my library) weeding books from their collection, including some classics, like Dr. Faustus, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and To Kill a Mockingbird. If you are interested, you can read the article here but free registration is required. People are up in arms about this. The problem is that the article is slanted. It makes it sound like the library is getting rid of ALL copies of these books. That is definitely NOT true. The director of the library system explains. There are actually quite a few copies of some of these titles. For example, they own To Kill a Mockingbird in lots of different editions, including paperback, hardback, sound recording, and videorecording. In regular print, they own 149 total copies, 57 of which are currently checked in. Thats just ONE edition! That does not include sound recording or Large Print.

The fact is that most libraries do not have the storage space to keep all of the titles that they have ever bought. If certain titles don't check out over a length of time, we have to evaluate and determine whether or not its worth keeping on the shelf. Usually if its a classic, we try to keep it on the shelf, but sometimes we just don't have the space to save 20+ copies of one title. We also check to make sure that it is available in at least one other branch in the system. We have also sent titles to our off-site storage facility. In my branch, weeding titles is especially important, because we are SO cramped for space. And in cases when you are dealing with health information, legal information, tax laws and so on, its actually important to get rid of the really old books so that people do not get wrong information.

Truthfully, I hate weeding books, and I would guess that most of my co-workers feel the same way. But its one of those things that must be done. By the way, we DON'T trash them unless they are in REALLY bad shape. If we must get rid of books, we sell them in our used book sale. The money then goes back to the library.

I felt compelled to write about this when reading all of the comments posted to the article. Especially when I read the directors response about how the article was misleading.

Rant over! I know some people will disagree with me, and believe me, I understand. It pains me to get rid of books myself!