Weeding in the 900s

Hello,

If you weeded out all your “Pluto is the 9th planet” books and find that your 520 section is low, now you know where to put some of your vast library budgets!

Today let’s go to the geography and history section – the 900s. My source says to ‘rotate the purchase of books on countries and states so that no title is older than 5 years.' I sat here thinking that IF I did that, I’d be spending loads of money on books that are only used every other year. The books would be used a very few times before needing to be replaced. That seems wasteful to me.

This is probably not recommended so don’t turn me in to the library police, but I think if you have a book on each state and each country for main information that seldom changes, students can look for updated changes in information on the internet. I think you should check your state and country books to make sure they have nice updated color photos and published within the last 10 – 15 years. Older than that, make sure that the information is good enough and begin replacing them as you can. I say this to you, but I am realizing that I have no idea how old our state and country books are! I’m probably going to be embarrassed.

History books would seem to be relevant forever due to the fact that they are indeed ‘history’ which does not change, right?! My source says to ‘consider demand and accuracy of facts when reviewing histories.’

Watch for books that fit the ‘MUSTIE’ acronym. This stands for Misleading, Ugly, Superseded, Trivial, Irrelevant, (can be found) Elsewhere. ‘Ugly’ also includes missing pages, dirty, and in bad shape. Replace books that are being used regularly but fit this acronym.

Please remember that if a book is important to your school or library, keep it. These are guidelines, not etched in concrete.

I’m now heading to my 900 section to take a look.

Have a great week,
Audrey