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Here are some wonderful suggestions from our colleagues, as well as some smiles! Hope this is helpful. Betty Wolfe Library Media Speicalist Avon Middle School Avon, CT blwwolfe@aol.com Never, ever put a whole book into a dumpster... at the least good meaning people will return them, at the worst, it will make headlines in the local paper or tv news. I would take the time to remove the covers and put the insides in the recycling bin and the covers, stamped 'withdrawn' in the dumpster, in a couple of layers of plastic bags. When I did practicum for my school library certification, my cooperating librarian told me about her method. Withdrawn books were opened half way and placed cover up on the floor of her office. After a couple of months, the books were destroyed enough that no one thought twice about seeing them in the garbage. In my first school, I was 'lucky' enough to have a roof leak over the summer, right over the worst of the science and geography books. There wasn't any question about throwing them out and buying new ones <grin>. Dan Robinson HW Wilson Company Bronx, NY drobinson@hwwilson.com I have been lucky enough not to have these return problems most of my library career (10 years or so as Systems Librarian at a college, 2 at a community college, 3 at another, 1 in a private school and 1 in a public school) but at the private school people were moving discards badck into the library and leaving them there. One time I forgot we were throwing away a videocassette set and found one or two back inside, and were scratching our heads as to why we could not find the others! I suggest it does happen. And custodians do not want to remove them, something related to heaviness, and recycling. The NYC director of School Library Services suggested that you can get rid of an encyclopedia set, one volume at a time. You take one down, throw it in a waste can outside of school. The next day you take down another. Of course, remove any school library marks or better yet, stamp them "withdrawn." I take the monthly supplements of Readers' Guide and other HWW indexes, tear part of them and throw them into a waste can. The next day I will find them out of the can. And I put them back there. Luis R. Ramos, Librarian ACORN Community HS Brooklyn NY flyer13@aol.com I first offer the books to the teachers and then to the students. Whatever is left is usually only worthy of the trash can. I stamp the books discards, and if the material is out of date I have a stamp that says "outdated" materials. The teachers still use these books; they know they have to be selective about which sections are still ok. I've never had anyone give me grief about getting rid of them once I explain my criteria. Nina Jackson Franklin Middle School (6-8 grade) Long Beach, CA njackson@lbusd.k12.ca.us I take all the books I have weeded and put them in boxes and tape up the boxes and write trash on them. I take them out to the school dumpster. I don't do this to hide the weeding, I just feel it is not fair to make the custodian trod all these books out to the dumpster. I don't give them out because I feel that the information is dated, the book is damaged, or the subjects (in fiction and picture books are what my students would not relate to) that I should not give them out. Especially dated nonfiction material, I feel it is wrong to put misinformation or old information or wrong information into the hands of our children. My children might be low income students however, I still don't feel that they deserve second, third or fourth best material. If the books were good enough to give to the children, I would not be weeding them from the library. Ruth Homer Librarian South Main Street School Pleasantville, NJ 08232 ear3@comcast.net GREAT Question... Well at one school I had the principal have a dumpster brought to the window of the school library, then opened the window and out they went.(actually dumpster came and went three times)..now this was a major weed, the principal almost came unglued, but the collection was a museum piece for sure...NOW I should have done all this in the dark of the night...teachers suffered all sorts of anxiety over books being tossed out, some got boxes--even grabbed some as the dumpster was leaving and took them back to their classroom....That is not my idea of weeding, IF IT IS NOT SUITABLE FOR THE LIBRARY, THEN IT IS NOT SUITABLE FOR THE CLASSROOM....KIDS DESERVE BETTER....The principal over the past few years has been very successful in securing additional funds annually (at one time 18K) to get the place in good shape. If we had kept those old tombes he would not have gotten a red cent to replace them. I am a vigorous weeder, and have had a lot of these experiences. In a public library, we carted discards out to the dumpster in our parking lot. Some were taken to the branch library in the next township and put in their bookdrop. Did I ever get a phone call about that! Three times I found people IN our dumpster retrieving books. Mind you, this is the same dumpster that had our lunch garbage. After that, we disposed of them in a different place. In schools, I have received a great deal of criticism for throwing out books, whether I put them in the teachers' lounge or the dumpster. I finally wrote up an explanation and put it, with my principal's blessing, in teacher mailboxes. After that, there was no more criticism to my face. I will only pass along discards to a sale, poor school, or third world country (I always wondered why they needed books in English?) if they are reasonably current and in good condition, such as a second copy we didn't need. I personally am reluctant to give away a ratty copy of anything. I choose to do this carefully, since I have so much to do in the time I have. I don't wish to spend my school district's time delivering books. This is also why I don't personally tear off the covers so the paper can be put in recycling. Gail Conley Elem. School Libn. (between jobs) Pennington NJ cyberconley@aol.com District policy and state law/administrative code should address this. We withdraw ours, send to district warehouse where they are offered for sale. Generally, they sell box sealed as is. Here is the state law I reference. http://www.leg.wa.gov/RCW/index.cfm?fuseaction=section§ion=28A.335.180 John Lees, Librarian Mt. Baker Middle School Library <http://www.auburn.wednet.edu/mtbaker/library> 620-37th SE Auburn, WA 98002-8011 253-804-4555 jlees@mx.auburn.wednet.edu <mailto:jlees@mx.auburn.wednet.edu> When I first started at this position the former librarian was a nun who still lived in the convent. I would find books I had thrown out on my desk. I just started taking them home to discard. Now I pull apart the really bad stuff and throw it in the garbage at school. Other stuff I put out for teachers to take. Anything left I give to the local AAUW for their annual used book sale. Some districts require that discarded books be returned to the central office for warehousing. What a waste of space, but I understand that people get upset at what they perceive as waste of taxpayer money. Jill Brown, LMS Nardin Academy Buffalo, NY buflib@yahoo.com Discarding books can be a sensitive issue for many school superintendents. Ours has had irate phone calls from local taxpayers about seeing "valuable books and equipment" at the dump. One time the district hired a waste disposal company to take things "far away" only to find out they were illegally dumping their loads in roadside fields. We were horrified! We are also not allowed to give our discards to the public library book sale, as taxpayers would be paying for them twice (or questioning our weeding judgement). So, first we try to give away as many books to our faculty/staff/students (with a disclaimer about ou-of-date information)......Then we pack up what is left and disguise it a bit before it goes to landfill. What we go through!!! Vicki Reutter, LMS Cazenovia (NY) HS vreutt@aol.com We give to the teachers the books that still have pages in decent shape. Our school is full of big believers in classroom libraries.......so, therefore, we do not hesitate in giving weeded books and discarded books to the teachers. After we stamp the books "discard" inside and on the barcode label, and the teachers don't want them.....we toss them. We have no problems with accidentally getting them back Judy Magee Librarian's Asst. Madison Sta. Library Madison, MS. If your district doesn't have a process or procedure set up, it probably should. Unless it is a private school, you are dealing with taxpayer money and it needs to be accounted for. I would think even in a private school there would be some level of accountability. Some of those processes are there to prevent misuse of funds (say, buying books for personal use) which could cause some serious grief. We: Stamp book in 2-3 places with Discarded stamps (one is more legal sounding with phrase like 'Material has been removed from use at Evergreen School District, the other is a big 'Discarded'. They then get picked up by our courier and sent to storage. Twice a year there is a school-then public sale of all items in storage. In eight years, I've only had one item come back. I think it was a state reading award book from several years back that we had multiple copies, wasn't popular, so it looked in pretty good condition. When parent saw we had it still and the shelves were pretty full, she understood why we removed it. Robert Eiffert,Media Specialist Pacific Middle School Evergreen SD, Vancouver Washington beiffert@attbi.com ************************************************************ I did two of Hartford's Elementary schools in as many years. In the first in Blue Hills all but the newest and youngest teachers had fairly good sized classroom libraries, so when I offered the weeds to them, they brought their kids up to load up and take them home. Before I put them out I made sure to rubber stamp them WITHDRAWN front and back . Most of the stuff I had was so old that the rubber cement had dried out making pocket and card removal easy. If I couldn't get the pocket free I made sure to stamp it as well. The kids happily took home big boxes of my non-fiction. I weeded very little of the Easy section in that school. The fiction got done during summer school when we had fewer kids, but we sold them on some of it to use for their 20 min of reading homework. We also left some in the front lobby for parents to pick through. At the end of the summer the custodians and I boxed the left overs up and put the boxes in the dumpster the evening before pick-up day. I didn't have quite as much time to work on the weeding in the second school in Frog Hollow. We did it during the last month of school simultaneously with Donohue Group being in doing my recon. I did give the kids the opportunity to each take a "forever book." at each visit, since circulation ended early. But there I put most of the books in boxes in the staff room and teachers took quite a few. The rest the parents group took and distributed in the neighborhood. The only books that came back were from a few of my little ones who smiled even bigger smiles when I again explained that they really could keep the books that said WITHDRAWN for their very own. I don't know that this all would work in Avon, though. I think there I would contact the Friends of the Avon Public Library and find out if they would like them for their used book sale. It would be good PR for your school. Dorothy Tissair My custodian places them in black plastic trash bags and takes them immediately to the dumpster. In case anyone questions my weeding, I saved one - "From Food to Fertilizer - the role of excrement in the life cycle" , copyright 1973 ish. _________________________________________________________________________ Suzanne Ng, Librarian South Mountain Elementary School Library 444 West South Orange Avenue South Orange, NJ 07079 1-973-378-7848 (voice & fax) email: sng@somsd.k12.nj.us (school) WWW: http://www.southmountain.somsd.k12.nj.us ********************************************************8 For the last 3 years, I've boxed up the weeds, sealed them in cartons, and then had Rotary collect them. In Australia, Rotary has a central collection point - the boxes are unpacked there, then repacked and transported to war zones, third world countries, and anywhere that either doesn't have ANY books, or has lost their books through some disaster. I always tell the principal when I am ready to phone Rotary for a collection, with an invitation to inspect the culls before they go. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. I'm happy to open up any box they select (or even all of them if asked). One particularly enlightened Acting Principal (the boss was seconded elsewhere for a term - but then came back) said "You're in charge of the library - if you think they should be tossed out, toss them." (I like this guy's attitude, and look forward to the day when he gets the principal's job!!! In fact, I think he should be put in charge of "enlightening" other principals!) Hope this is of interest? Amanda Credaro Amanda Credaro Teacher Librarian Seven Hills High School, NSW, AUSTRALIA phone: (02) 9624 3329 Fax: (02) 9838 8553 email: abcredaro@ozemail.com.au ********************************* Yes, I do. I have a custodian who doesn't like me to throw anything away. Many times I bring things home and put them out with my garbage. Sometimes, depending on the books and demographics of my students I put them out on a FREE table for the kids to take home. Good luck! Cheers, Ruie Ruie Chehak, Library Media Specialist Sallie Jones Elementary School 1221 Cooper Street Punta Gorda FL 33950 rchehak@aol.com or Ruie_Chehak@ccps.k12.fl.us A standard at public libraries in Iowa is that they discard of at least 3 percent of their collection yearly. These are usually new enough that they do them at a friends sale. The books I throw away wouldn't be too desirable by anyone. I usually take my stuff to the dumpster just the day before trash pickup. Try to keep the janitors informed. I remember the time I threw one book in the trash and it came back to the library. Sometimes recycling takes books. OUt here in in Iowa they make livestock bedding out of them. This stuff changes from year to year. A Discard Stamp is useful. Public Libraries book sales is another deposit place for discards. Some schools sell them at auction with the surplus property. Some administrators like to be informed. Some teachers like to look them over. (I avoid this if at all possible.) It never hurt to get a second opinion-- like the year we merged with an neighboring school and turned the middle school into an intermediate. The amount of books I discarded that time filled a Suburban floor to ceiling- front to back. The librarian from the public library came and looked through the discards and found less than one small box she wanted. Those discards went to recycling. Weeding is a lot easier if you do it in small increments. (year round) Bob King Midland Community Schools Wyoming, Iowa 52362 Disposal of discards is tricky. We recently had someone from our community return from a mission trip to Africa and she came and got ours for a charity called "Books for Africa." I was worried about sending "old junk" all that way but they have knowledgeable folks sort through them in Minneapolis then jsut send what's usable. It was the best I've felt about discarding ever. Easy, no guilt. Perhaps there's a "books for Africa" clearing house in your part of the country, too. Marcia Dressel, Librarian Osceola Elementary School Osceola, WI , USA dressel@osceola.k12.wi.us I have a used book sale once a year and sell what I can, $.25 for hard cover and $.10 for paperback and $1.00 for reference. Whole sets of encyclopedias are donated to classrooms, based on need (do you have a set in your room at all? oldest copyright date?) No one has hassled me over getting rid of old books--I explain I need the room on the shelves and the materials are outdated. Once in awhile the custodian will bring back a book found lying outside or in a locker that had been discarded. I even include a line item in my annual report to the Board of Education, detailing the number of books discarded, so no one can complain! The unsold leftovers I used to donate to our town library for their book sale, then to the neighboring town's public library, then to a Children's Home "garage sale". Now, nobody wants them, so to the dumpster they go! I hate to do it, but I've run out of ideas! Hope this helps a little. Darlene Forsythe, Galeton Area School, K-12, Galeton,PA We are fortunate in my county in that we have a district media supervisor and clerks who work in a warehouse. So, I send them my discards from weeding. My predecessor evidently gave many of her discards to classroom teachers and many students and teachers do try to give those back to me so it can be a problem. I didn't get a chance to weed too much last year so everything I did weed was either literally falling apart or so outdated it was pitiful and I certainly didn't want anyone else to try to use the materials. This year I plan to weed much more heavily, but will still probably be cautious about passing the items on unless they really are of value. Usually for people who are unfamiliar with library procedures it is better to speak of updating the collection and retiring unmendable books than talking about getting rid of "tons of books" (which they translate into "throwing books i.e. money away") A humorous side note: In Beverly Cleary's memoir My Own Two Feet she writes about her experiences as a children's librarian weeding and mentions that the library director asked her to pour ink on books and tear pages so that they could show to the town officials that the books really needed to be thrown out! Laura Palmer Media Specialist, Lake Lucina Elementary Jacksonville, FL llpalmer@bellsouth.net I have a funny story. When I started work at the library I am now employed at, I started weeding the ancient collection. The library is on the second floor so I got some students to open the windows and throw the old books into the back of a truck for disposal. This was during the summer when very few people are around. I still get people saying, "I wish I could have looked at the books you threw out the window, I might have wanted some." I totally agree that if your library does not need the outdated material you should not pass it on to someone else. Then they will have to find a way to dispose of it! Bambi L. Burden Librarian Saint Paul Lutheran High School Concordia, MO 64020 blburden@yahoo.com I have to agree with Bambi. Just today, I received two boxes of books from our District Resource Centre coordinator who just cannot bring herself to actually throw things away. Instead, she packs them up and sends them off to the schools with a little note that says "Thought you might be able to use this". So today in those boxes, I received materials to support a course that has not been offered anywhere in our school district for the past 10 years. Where did they end up? In the round filing cabinet, of course. Diane Gallagher-Hayashi Teacher-Librarian Stelly's School Saanich School District (63) Saanichton, British Columbia Canada, V8M 1S8 Diane_Hayashi@sd63.bc.ca daichan@islandnet.com I see you've gotten some replies, but I'll add my 2 cents worth. At another school I threw in the dumpster a set of 20 year old encyclopedias. Mind you, I did this after school hours. The next morning the encyclopedias were back inside the building in the hallway. Why anyone would tangle with lunchroom trash to get them out is beyond me!! : ) Now I have a better system. My brother-in-law rents a dumpster on a monthly basis for his business. When I have "weeds" I load them in the back of my trusty Suburban (when no one is looking) and haul to his dumpster. It's a teeny bit more work, but worth it. I know those books will never come back to school! Diane Averett/Librarian Kerr-Vance Academy Henderson, NC Good question. I have them piled up behind the checkout desk in my elementary school library. Teachers do take some but I have seen them left around the school in various places. My principal doesn't want to throw them out. My mentor from the board of ed. told me to put them in a black trashbag and ask the custodian to put them in the incinerator so that no one would see them. I am at a loss. I look forward to a hit on this one. Christine NYC =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-= All postings to LM_NET are protected under copyright law. To quit LM_NET (or set-reset NOMAIL or DIGEST, etc.) 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. 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