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Hi, Everybody. Here are the rest of the answers. Thanks for all who answered. Next will be the Proquest responses. Lori K. Joffe Librarian Bensalem High School Bensalem, PA lkjof@icdc.com 215-750-2800 Put them together by subject and ask any interested teachers who teach these subjects to have a look at them. You might want to also show them what the library does have on this subject that is more up to date. They can give you suggestions on what to toss or not. This way they won't come to you in the future wanting that filmstrip "they use every year" that you just tossed out. Hopefully you don't have too many pack rat teachers - you could give the sets to these teachers to keep on their own if they can't stand the idea of throwing things out (This might especially happen if they were the teacher to request the $200 kit 10 years ago). Make sure you dont' look to see how much this stuff cost in the first place either I really, really would like to have this info too, as I inherited "tons" of the stuff! Please let me know if you get any responses, or post a HIT. I was in this situation last year, and I ended up doing a global toss. But, I did evaluate what I had before making the decision. 1. What are the topics of your kits? Are they time sensitive? For instance, science ones are quickly out of date. Technology ones become dated, as do careers and community service ones. (I found the average age of the ones I was looking at was 1975. Most were time sensitive.) 2. Do you still possess the technology to run these kits? What shape are they in? i.e., Do you still have the film strip/tape projectors? Do they still work? Listen to a few of the cassettes. Do they still run okay? If there are records involved, do you still have working record players? 3. Do teachers ever use them? In my case, the kits had so much dust on them that I went home with major dust allergy induced headaches for several days. If there are some the teachers are particularly attached to, consider giving the kits to them to keep in their rooms. They may not be so interested in keeping them if they have to house them!! 4. Do you have the space to keep them? Are you being crowded out by new CD-ROM and computer-related technology? Can you still turn around in your office? Do you have to do the backstroke to move about? After I had determined my answers to these questions, I got a bunch of heavy-duty garbage bags and HAD TOO MUCH FUN!!! I just did a major toss-a-thon. We automated 5 years ago and I cataloged all that old stuff because the teachers did not want it thrown away. I went through my records and if the item had not circulated and we had a video that was closely related to the topic--then I tossed the kit. There were some that teachers still use, I kept those. And there were a couple that we didn't have anything else available on the topic so i'm keeping those a little longer. Next I am going to do the records. I have more than 200 and I think only 10 circulated last year. On a staff development day with nothing required for high school teachers, I brought chips and cookies and asked teachers to set aside any A-V they *would* like me to keep. I had checked with the principal in advance, and I gave each teacher a printed invitation. I had a good turnout, and at least somebody from each department came in. Just about everything not "reserved" was pulled from the shelves. I kept the throwaway pile for several days and had notes in the daily bulletin offering a chance to reconsider/rescue any of the material. I also invited the intermediate and middle schools to claim anything they wanted. What was not claimed, I deleted from the computer and took to the dumpster. This was done in prep. for conversion to a different automation system. We had had very brief records for 90% of our collection, and I discarded so as not to waste time on upgrading records of obsolete/unused material. i too wanted to toss them but i offered them to the teachers who i remembered used them and they took them. the others i put on a cart in the teachers lounge and most of them disappeared. the others i put in a big baggie and took to the dumpster. I weeded an extensive and outdated "multimedia" collection over this past summer. First, check out what equipment you have (or can be found in your building) to run this old stuff. I immediately pitched filmstrips with record albums because I do not have a record player. The filmstrip/cassette kits - I checked the content against my video collection. If I had the content available on video cassette, I pitched the old kit. Those that remained in my collection (precious few) are targeted for replacement with videos ASAP. Of the items I decided to delete from my collection, I skimmed the best stuff that still had curricular relevance, and offered it to teachers at the beginning of school - displayed on a table during the faculty meeting. Free for the taking. Not much moved, but they know I'm getting rid of stuff, and like to have a look-see. For single filmstrips, open it up, look at the art, see if it is appealing or dated. Some absolutely crumbled in my hands. Let me know what you hear on this subject. I personally like the "global toss". We have hundreds of these in our AV room and they haven't been used in over 5 years. We also have 9 filmstrip projectors and nine record players. My co-librarian starts shaking and stuttering when I start talking about tossing all this "junk" out the door. I think I may check Sunlink's Weed of the Month to see if anything has come across that about this subject also. I'd still like to hear from you. No one was using them in either of my 2 buildings. Many had been bought in the 70's. I set them out at the end of the year on tables by topic and emailed teachers in both buildings that they were up for grabs. If they still used any, they could have them to store in their classroom. I removed the titles from the computer and had the custodians pitch all the rest. I'm doing the same thing. Get the staff involved. I just packed up items that haven't been used in many years ( therefore, discarded from library) and gave them to some of the department chairs to either keep or toss, I would have liked more help from them but time was important since we just moved into a new space and space needs are now defined differently as we move toward 2000. Sometimes keeping things can be helpful. We have reintroduced Music Appreciation at HS but there were no $$$ for materials. That teacher was glad for kits and records which had been collecting dust in recent years. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-= All postings to LM_NET are protected under copyright law. To quit LM_NET (or set-reset NOMAIL or DIGEST), send email to: listserv@listserv.syr.edu In the message write EITHER: 1) SIGNOFF LM_NET 2) SET LM_NET NOMAIL or 3) SET LM_NET DIGEST 4) SET LM_NET MAIL * Please allow for confirmation from Listserv For LM_NET Help & Archives see: http://ericir.syr.edu/lm_net/ =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=