Weeding Your Library

Greetings!

I must confess that I hate weeding in the library and really am not very motivated to do this. However, my library REALLY needs to be weeded, so I figured that if I send out the information in an email, I might be more motivated to begin doing this.

I think my main problem is that I see the whole library as one big section to weed. Maybe I need to look at one Dewey section to weed instead. Maybe I need to just set a time limit such as 30 minutes after which I can stop if I want to. I’ll have to come up with some way to accomplish this.

Oh, well. . .

Here are some basic weeding criteria for you to use in your library.

1. Weed out books that are torn, taped, yellowed, missing pages, damaged in some way, or dilapidated. If there are books that are used and loved in this condition, check to see if they can be repaired or replaced. It is actually fairly easy to replace most titles through a used book store or an online book store or Amazon.com.

2. Look at the old books. Determine if it is shelf worthy. Weed out those that aren’t useful to your library. Think about your audience, too. Consider weeding out books that are written for adults. Ask yourself if this book is one that YOU would be interested in reading. Is it something that is appropriate for your curriculum? Can you get a newer better copy that would actually be used?

3. Look at your E. G. White books. Do you need multiples of each copy? Have they been donated to you? I usually recommend that a small school keep one good set of the Testimonies and Conflict of the Ages set and one copy of each other individual book that you feel is useful to the school. Give the rest to your church library.

4. Take a look at your paperback books. How beat up are they? Are they shabby, warped, mutilated, or marked up? Replace any that are being used in your school.

5. Weed out books with very small print or poor quality pictures.

6. Weed out books that are outdated or have obsolete information. Think about technology, science, health, medicine, computers, and space. These things change quickly. Check the copyright date. If the book is more than 5 - 10 years old, you might want to double check the inside information.

7. Weed books with inaccurate or false information.

8. Weed duplicate copies. Do you need duplicates of the title? If you don’t, then keep the best one.

9. Encyclopedias can be weeded, too. How old is yours? If it is five years old or older, it is outdated. You might decide to go with an online encyclopedia if you aren’t already doing so.

Remember that you are making your library useful. If a book fits into one of the above criteria, but is something that is used by students or teachers, then don’t hesitate to keep the book.

Start a shelf of ‘Endangered Books’ and let students help you decide about books that you aren’t sure about. Most students will love being a part of the decision and will also take another look at the library. It brings a sense of ownership to them.

Let me know how you are doing on this.

I guess I need to get started now.

Audrey