Where are the holes in your library? Do you know what kind of books you have and what kind of books you need to update or weed? This week I will give you some very general guidelines for weeding your library. If you want to go into more depth, you can do a search on the internet for weeding the library.
I found that The Crew Method (for weeding my library) is fairly easy for me to use and is intended for small to medium sized public libraries. In our even smaller school libraries, we need to take these weeding guidelines with a pinch of salt, but they are still useful and a good place to start. I actually printed out the 93 pages and put them in a binder for quick and easy reference. I will admit that I need to weed my library as much or more than you do, so this is me preaching to myself as much as giving you some guidelines! You can find this at https://www.tsl.state.tx.us/ld/pubs/crew/index.html.
Here are some very general guidelines to keep in mind as you weed your library.
1. Remove books that have wrong information in them. No information is better than wrong information.
2. If a book is being used in your library, keep it. If it is something that is valuable to your school, keep it. (Even if students don’t use it.) For example, a local author donated a book to your school, or it is precious to someone.
3. You don’t have to throw away a book that you wish to keep. The weeding guidelines just help you get started. The decision is ultimately yours. Just because a book is old does not mean it isn’t good.
4. It is much easier to weed someone else’s library rather than your own. If you are finding that you just can’t throw books away, get an outside opinion.
5. It is OK to throw books away.
6. If a book is dirty, torn, marked up, etc., throw it away. If you need that particular title, buy a newer copy.
Reference books such as encyclopedias may soon be outdated since the latest information can be quickly obtained from an online encyclopedia. Take a look at the encyclopedia in your library. How old is it? If it is more than five years old, take a longer look at how you use it. (Or do your students use it at all?) Now you have a decision as to keep it on the shelves or not. If no one uses it and you just dust it off every year or so, it might be nice to have a little extra room on the shelf. If the encyclopedia you have is from 1970, just throw it out. I give you permission.
Do you have anything in the 100s? This can be a difficult section for an elementary library. Look for books on computers and books on feelings like I mentioned in last week’s post. Try to have SOMETHING in that section.
Your religion section should be easy. BUT check to see what kind of books you have there. Do you have 40 old devotional books sitting there unused? Maybe it is time to weed them drastically. Go to the Adventist Book Center and see what is there. If you can, take a couple of students to help you choose. This will be fun for them and they will be more likely to read them which will promote them to others.
The Social Science section should be pretty easy, too. Careers, military, immigration, economics, education, law, customs, etiquette, folklore, and holidays all belong here.
Check the Language section (400s) of your library. Do you have ANY books on language or in other languages? Kids love to look at this kind of book. One suggestion I have is to get books from the series “The First Thousand Words in . . .” Let the students choose which ones you start with. These have drawings for each word and are fun to look at.
In Pure Science (500), you probably have lots of nature books. Check that you have science experiments for the kids to try. What about math books? Space, astronomy, earth sciences, botany, and animals all belong here. This is often quite a large section.
It is also easy to find books for the Applied Sciences (600) section. Medicine, health, cars, transportation, agriculture, pets, home economics, and cookbooks will all go here. This is usually a very popular section, especially the pets section. Students love reading about dogs and cats and horses, but don’t leave out other pets. I add to this as students ask for particular books. “Do you have any books on how to take care of rabbits?”
Arts and recreation is again another easy section to fill. Think art, music, collecting things, drawing, photography, games, and sports. Also, think riddles and joke books. You can see that this is easy to fill. We put I Spy books here and watch them leave and come back on a regular basis.
Literature (800) is the easiest to fill unless you have a separate section for Fiction or Stories. I have all our stories cataloged as 813 and therefore this is our largest section. If you have a separate section for Fiction, then you would put poetry books and any books by non-American authors in the 800s and the stories in the separate Fiction section.
Last comes the 900s, History and Geography. Check that facts are accurate, watch for changes in country names, borders, etc. If you put your Biographies here, check that you have the biographies you need for the curriculum. Do you have all the presidents? What about world leaders? Do you have books on the different states and countries? Those are the kind of books you will look for to fill any gaps in your library.
Previously I have been asked if there are any guidelines as to how many books should be in each section and I found the following information. I put the percentage recommended and in parentheses I put the number of titles for a library of approximately 4000 books. (I did not do this for the high school side.)
Dewey Classification Subject Grades K - 6 Grades 7 - 12
000 - 099 General Works and Reference 2 – 5 % (80 – 200) 6 – 8%
100 – 199 Philosophy, Psychology .5% (20) 1 – 2%
200 – 299 Religion & Mythology 1 – 2% (40 – 80) 1 – 2%
300 – 399 Social Sciences, Folklore, Holidays5 – 10% (200 – 400) 10 – 15%
400 – 499 Language .5% (20) 2 – 5%
500 – 599 Pure Science 10% (400) 5 – 10%
600 – 699 Applied Science 10% (400) 5 – 10%
700 – 799 Fine Arts, Recreation 5% (200) 5 – 10%
800 – 899 Literature (not including fiction)5% (200) 5 – 10%
900 – 999 History, Geography, Biography 20% (800) 20%
F Fiction, Stories 20% (800) 20 – 25%
E Easy books, Picture books 20 – 25% (800 – 1000)
This chart is taken from Administering the School Library Media Center by Betty J. Morris, 2004; page 339.
Please keep in mind that these are just guidelines. We do want our libraries to be well balanced as much as possible so that makes this helpful, but we are very likely to have more than 40 – 80 books in our religion section. Take a quick inventory of the Dewey numbers you have and how many in each section. (Students love to do this kind of thing!) How many books in the 100’s, 200’s, etc? That will give you the approximate number of books you have and will also give you a general idea of the balance of your collection. You will see at a glance where the gaps in your library are.
I hope this quick overview of the sections and the kinds of books in each of them hasn’t been too boring. This is the kind of post you might print out and refer to on occasion or check it out on my blog.
Have a great week,
Audrey
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