Donated Books and More

Hello,

I know that you probably have a similar problem that I have. The problem is when people want to donate their old books to the library. For some reason, it is difficult to throw away books. In our community, we have older people who are downsizing and they want to donate their books to the school. When I get a call or a visit from someone who wants to donate their books, I carefully answer with the following words. (Feel free to practice these two sentences.)

“I’ll be happy to take a look at them and see if there are any that we can use for our library. If we find that we can’t use all of them, would it be OK if we gave them to a classroom or somewhere else, or would you rather have them back?”

Usually they say that it is fine. After they leave, the books are mine and I can do what I want with them. I do look through them and sometimes I find something that we really can use. Sometimes I find a book that I can pass to a classroom that could use it. Many of the donated books go on our ‘give away’ shelf for students or parents to take. Any leftover books find their way to be recycled.

Another way to get books by donation is to create an Amazon Wish List for the school library. I have one and although I haven’t gotten many donations, I have gotten a few. The main thing I do with my wish list is to add books that have been requested and when I place an order, I have a substantial order.

I also have used one of the local bookstores. I’ll print out my Amazon wish list and give it to the bookstore. They order my books for me and give me a discount similar to Amazon’s. This way I am supporting the local economy and getting the same deal as I would through Amazon.

I hope these ideas are helpful to you.

Have a great week,
Audrey

Weeding in the 000s

Hello, Teachers,

I’ve been sending you to your libraries to weed and weed some more. I have another short place to weed. The 000s include encyclopedias, atlases, almanacs, and dictionaries plus more, but I’ll keep to the four mentioned.

Encyclopedias: My paper indicates that encyclopedias over 5 years old are outdated. I hesitate to toss them if they are less than 10 years old AND used regularly. However, if your print encyclopedias are seldom used, toss them and use the Britannica Online that is free for our SDA schools through the NAD.

Atlases: Make sure that your atlases are up-to-date and attractive to children. Do you have a good world atlas? What about an atlas of the United States or even a road atlas? There are some really fun and pretty picture atlases you might look at, too.

Almanacs: These also fit in the 5-year range, but I admit that we have some that are quite old that the children still like to look through. You are welcome to follow our lead and keep the items that are actually being used regularly. Usually, discarding the older ones and replacing with newer ones is the better plan.

Dictionaries: In a smaller school, it is likely that the classrooms have classroom sets of dictionaries for the students therefore the library may only need one or two. I would suggest he library get a good unabridged dictionary, and one or two college level dictionaries. I really like the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. If you want more, consider adding a thesaurus and a rhyming dictionary.

The main word to consider in this section is “outdated”. If your section is outdated, then you really need to update soon.

I hope you have a great week.

Audrey

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

Weeding in the 520s

Hello, All,

It may be that I am not paying attention, but I got some information this week from the American Library Association about weeding the library. I am really interested in this, because it is hard to know what to weed and what to keep sometimes. One person has simplified the * CREW method for school libraries down to one page. I downloaded it and printed it out. In the Astronomy section she mentioned weeding out all Astronomy books that mention Pluto as a planet. This morning I did just that. I went through the Astronomy books (520s) and pulled each one off the shelf. I checked the published date. If it was earlier than 2004, I put it to be discarded. If it was after 2004, I checked the index and looked at the Pluto pages to see how they were treating Pluto. Some said that Pluto was being considered to not be a planet, but they still included Pluto in the planet list. Tossed. Some said that Pluto was no longer a planet, but a dwarf planet instead. Keep.

If you haven’t done this yet, please do so very soon. If you have already weeded out incorrect Pluto information, why didn’t you tell me to do it too!?

Poor Pluto!

Have a great weekend.

Audrey

• The CREW method is a complete weeding manual for public libraries. I’ve used it to help weed in my library and also when giving advice to you in the past. It is free and you can download it online. https://www.tsl.texas.gov/ld/pubs/crew/index.html

Magazines in the library

Hello,

I got an email last week wondering how we manage our magazines for check out. This is a great question. We put a barcode on the magazine on the bound edge as shown below. You may also notice that we write the issue date on the barcode. This helps us and students quickly locate the issue they need.

We process magazines as magazines in the computer. There is a place on our Alexandria program for magazine subscriptions. If your library is automated, you likely have something similar. I am the one who inputs the information into the computer. There is a place in the subscription page to list tags. I look through magazines quickly and type information that will help us find the magazine quickly. For example, I look through a Ranger Rick magazine. I see an article about pandas, so I type “panda” “pandas” or even the specific kind of panda “Red panda”. I see an article about insects so I type “insect” and the names of the insects that are in bold font or have photos. I might get a Cobblestone magazine about presidents with short stories about 10 presidents. I list “presidents” and the names of the presidents. I don’t do this for ALL magazines. For the car, bike, sports, etc. I don’t put any tags. I only tag the magazines that have information used for curriculum. This way if a student needs an article or information on pandas, the computer will direct them to the magazines that have the information they want.

We keep most magazines for 3 – 5 years. A couple of the titles I receive (Cobblestone and Faces) are kept always like we keep books. Nearly all of the rest we discard as they lose pages or are getting old. You need to decide what magazines are important to your school. If the Radio Control magazine is a vitally important one, then keep it as long as it is useful to you.

We keep the newest issues on a magazine slanted shelf and the older issues in labeled magazine cartons on shelves in the stacks. Students check magazines out and we provide a plastic envelope to put them in to keep them clean and cared for in backpacks. I splurged a few years ago and bought some with our school logo printed on them so parents wouldn’t be as likely to toss the magazine in the trash.

I hope you have a great end of the week and a good weekend. I have family coming in and am going to enjoy visiting for a couple of days.

Audrey

New Books

Hello!

I have a few more new books for you. I will begin with my favorite one.

Baby Monkey, Private Eye. Selznick, Brian, and Serlin, David. Illus. by Brian Selznick. Scholastic, 2018. Gr. Prek – 2. RL 1.0. 191 pp.

If you happened to actually read the last two lines, you might notice on line 2 that this book has 191 pages and a reading level of first grade. That is not a mistake. Brian Selznick is known for his thick, heavily illustrated books. He won the Caledcott medal for The Invention of Hugo Cabret in 2007. The book is just over 2 inches thick. Most of the book is his amazing pencil/charcoal drawings with some text telling the story. I have one copy of that title and it seldom stays on the shelf.

Anyway, on to Baby Monkey. Chapter One’s text is:

“Baby Monkey! Someone has stolen my jewels!”
Baby Monkey can help.
Baby Monkey looks for clues.
Baby Monkey writes notes.
Baby Monkey eats a snack.
Baby Monkey puts on his pants.
Now Baby Monkey is ready.
Baby Monkey solves the case.
Hooray for Baby Monkey!

Sounds a bit boring, doesn’t it!?
However, YOU cannot see the hilarious illustrations. There are nine pages of Baby Monkey trying to put on pants, each one funnier than the next one. Baby Monkey writing notes sitting in a huge office chair with a large pencil in his hand. There are five chapters with five stories of crimes. Each crime is different. Baby Monkey’s office has artwork and statues that fit the different subjects. At the end of the book are items to locate on the pages like a treasure hunt. The snack is different in each of the five stories, but the text for each story is almost identical. It is a thick chapter book that even beginning readers will be able to read. If you look this book up on Amazon, you can read nearly all the first chapter and see most of the illustrations. Once I saw this book, I knew I had to have it. I also thought about my first and second graders and knew that they would all be clamoring for the book, so I bought four copies. For the last two months, I have not had a copy on the shelf yet because each copy goes out as soon as it comes in.
I almost never say this, but I think you need a copy or two in your library. If you follow my recommendation, let me know how your students like Baby Monkey, Private Eye.

Can I Be Your Dog? Cummings, Troy. Illustrated by the author. Random House, 2018. 32 p. Gr. PreK – 3. RL 1.9.

I like books and stories told in letters or diaries. Arfy, a cute black and white mutt, lives in a cardboard carton at the end of an alley. He writes a letter to one of the residents on Butternut Street asking if he could be their dog. Arfy points out his good qualities: potty trained, owns his own squeaky toy, loves to play, and is willing to overlook the fact that they have a cat. He receives a return letter declining his request since the cat is allergic to dogs. Arfy does not give up. He write to each house in turn asking if he can be their dog. Each householder answers Arfy’s letter and turns him down. What will happen to Arfy?

If you teach letter writing and more particularly, persuasive letters, this would be a great book to read as you begin your unit for any grade.

I hope you have a great week and I hope you enjoy both of these books.

Audrey

Weeding the Library

Hello,

Winter is finally gone and people are beginning to work in their yards and gardens. A lot of weeding is just beginning. If you haven’t weeded your library lately, it might be time to do some weeding in your library. A yard doesn’t look nice with many weeds in it crowding the books, and the same with a shelf of books that is crowded with outdated books. Let’s give our bookshelves some room to breathe and weed out books that have served their time and now need to be retired.

I started with my largest section – the stories. You might be using the Dewey number 813 for these or you might have the label ‘FIC’ for them. Here’s what I did to help me make decisions as to what to keep and what to discard.

WEEDING THE 813s

First, I printed a list of all the titles in this section. This is easy to do if your library is automated. On my list, I have the call number, the title, the year published (if available), the number of times the book has been checked out, and the year it was last checked out. At my desk, I used a ruler and only looked at the last use column. I highlighted each book that had not been checked out since 2014. I chose that date by making a judgement call on the amount of time a book just took up space in my library. Then I took my list, a pencil, and a book cart and went to the shelves. I looked for each book whose title I had highlighted. I picked up the book in my hands and I looked for these things:

1. CONDITION OF THE BOOK. Was it grimy, dirty, worn cover, torn pages, or missing pages?
2. INSIDE TEXT. Is it tiny print? Any illustrations or photos? Are the photos black and white and tiny or larger and colorful? Is the text attractive to children?
3. CONTENT. Is this story interesting or boring? Would I read it aloud? Do I know this story at all? Do I WANT to read this book myself? Do I think my students would enjoy the story? In addition, do I think I can ‘sell’ this to students?
4. Last Date Used. What was the last time this book was checked out? Why is it not being used?

As I held each book, I considered all of these things. I stacked the books into stacks for discard, for mending or cleaning, to take a second look at and skim or read, or for out of place. (Some had been shelved incorrectly.) I also made judgement calls on whether or not to keep the book anyway. Some of my judgement calls included the following scenarios:

a. Uncle Arthur’s series books haven’t been checked out a lot, but I still feel it is valuable to our SDA school library. Keep.
b. Do I really need five copies of Paul Harvey’s books (not checked out since 2007)? No. Keep one or two and discard the others.
c. Do I need duplicates of this book? Usually the answer is no. Discard the one in poorer condition.
d. Does an elementary school need a copy of The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady from 1906? It was checked out last in 1995 and only once. No. Discard.
e. Do I need a battered copy of The Incredible Journey last checked out in 2005 and checked out 2 times? This is a hard one. After all, it IS The Incredible Journey! I saw that movie as a child and loved it, but sitting on the shelf for 13 years and not being touched? Also, in poor condition? My answer was NO. If I DO need a copy, I can get a nice new copy and book talk it.
f. What about discarding a Newbery Medal Winner that hasn’t been used since 2007? Keep. I keep all medal winners and honor books. If the book is in poor condition, I get a new copy. These will always be in print.
g. I have over 200 poetry books with few checked out. Do I need duplicates? Probably not. I got rid of any duplicates. There were a few big thick ones clearly meant for adults. Choose one that I feel may be used, and discard the others. Five copies of Stevenson’s Child’s Garden of Verses? Nope. Pick the one or two (or three) that have lovely illustrations.

It takes much longer to tell it than to actually do it. Once I got started, I moved right along and was able to get a shelf of about 50 – 60 books done in about 20 minutes. Remember, I am ONLY looking at the books that haven’t been read for the last 4 or 5 years. The rest stay on the shelf.

As I am in the weeding process, I also try to remember that there will be some books that are worthwhile even if they aren’t used often. If a book has been donated by someone in the community, we usually keep it. If the topic of the book is something that is in the school curriculum, I usually keep it. One book I pulled due to low usage was a copy of Monkey Island by Paula Fox. Last check-out date was 2014, but it had been checked out 15 times which is a lot. I took it home to read and realized it was a book about homelessness, and decided to keep it. I will make a note in the computer on the list of subjects for that book and when someone searches for homeless people, we have a story to fit.

At any time, I do not hesitate to keep a book that is shelf-worthy no matter what the last date used is. I also don’t worry about tossing a book if I feel it is no longer useful to our school or curriculum.
Let me know if you have any questions about weeding the library. You can also look at my blog sdalibrarian.blogspot.com for previous posts on weeding. Check out March 2015 – May 2015 where I give hints on weeding each Dewey section. You can also check out October 2016 and January 2017 for more weeding information.

Don’t get discouraged. This is an ongoing process. Set small goals and do what you can to make your library attractive and inviting to students and parents.

Have a great week.


Audrey