Hello,
I hope you had a good vacation and are fueled up to start the second half of the school year.
This week I want to tell you more about what I learned at the BER seminar I attended in October with Deborah Ford. Deborah is associated with Junior Library Guild and has access to all the newest books. She also is a great proponent of ‘growing’ a great library collection.
By ‘growing’ I mean that your library is changing on a regular basis. You keep the books that are useful in your curriculum and discard or weed the ones that no longer have a place there. Many librarians call this ‘shelf worthy’. Does that particular book deserve a space on your library shelves? Do you need three or more copies of this book? The answer may be yes and the book deserves a spot on the shelf.
The age of the book is not always a reason to discard a book. I was helping one school to organize their library a few summers ago and as I was cataloging, I came across a copy of Kate Greenaway’s ABC book titled “A Apple Pie”. The original rhyme was first mentioned in a religious work in 1671. Variations appeared in the early 19th century and the most popular illustrated edition was Kate Greenaway’s edition in 1886. The rhyme introduces the apple pie and then proceeds to use verbs that tell what happens to the pie. The story begins “A was an apple pit. B bit it, C cut it, D dealt it, E eat it, and so on. The story can be found online if you are interested in it. In any case, I looked for the publication date and only saw the 1886 date. I did not see any reprint dates and I looked all over it. Then I began to get excited and called out that I had found a treasure that I thought was a first edition. I told that school not to discard this since it may be valuable. So you can see that the age of a book might not be a bad thing.
However, this kind of book sighting is fairly rare and the age of a book might be a very good reason to discard a book. Think science books, current events, computer or technology books – all these will have a limited shelf life if they are to be useful.
Discard books that are in bad shape or are ugly or missing pages. Discard books that have very fine print, few or no illustrations, illustrations that are out of date, or too technical for your library.
Discard multiple copies of books that aren’t useful. Keep one copy or possibly two if you have children who like to read the same book, but get rid of the others. Discard or remove to your church library any of Ellen White’s books that aren’t useful for your school curriculum. I advise that small schools have one set of the Conflict of the Ages series, one set of the Testimonies, a copy of Education and any others that you know will be useful at your school. Take the rest to your local church to put in their library or to a book sale or put in a “Free” box at church.
While you are weeding your library, you are also completing a collection analysis. You are learning where your worst areas are or where you are missing books. This is where you will need to put your book money.
I know what you are thinking – I don’t have time to do this! I don’t know where to start. Here are some suggestions for you.
1. Find a parent (or even an older student or two) to come in and go through the shelves. She or he will need to take each book off the shelf and glance through looking at the book. They will consider the condition of the book and look for the things I mentioned above. Any book that they feel is not appropriate, have them put the books in boxes. Have one box for books that they think is not appropriate in regard to age of the book, copyright date, fine print, etc. Another box would be for books that are in bad shape, covers missing or loose, marking inside the book, or missing pages.
2. Now the hard job is done and you can look through only those books that have been pulled off. Go through the books and make a final decision. You may find that a favorite book of the school is in bad shape, so now you need to either get the book repaired or replace the book. It may be that a newer edition is available or a better book can take its place. Write down the subjects or titles, then discard the books. Now you have a plan of what to get.
Deborah Ford is ruthless when weeding. I am more careful since I know that there are some books that are useful to our Adventist libraries even if students aren’t reading them much. It is fun for their parents to come in and happen across a book that they read as a child and become nostalgic.
At the same school I mentioned above, the teacher had a helper who was ruthlessly weeding the shelves. When I visited, the teacher was noticeably distressed over this. I went to the boxes that had been weeded and started looking through them with her at my side. I actually found many books that were useful to the school even if the students hadn’t checked them out such as books on careers. Those are books that are used, but not always checked out. They might be used at school or in the library. We kept them. I pointed out books that I could mend when I came in the summer and we put those in a box, and I pointed out books that needed too much repair, so we tossed them. As we worked together, the teacher relaxed and began to feel better. We kept quite a few of the ‘discarded’ books after all, which was a relief to the teacher.
If you have any questions about what to keep, first think of your curriculum. Is this something that supports my curriculum? Will I use it in my lessons? Is this something that is shelf worthy? If the answer is no to any or all of these questions, it may be time for that book to leave your school. If you still have questions, I would be happy to help you if I can.
Have a great week.
Audrey
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