HIT: Weeding biographies

[Monica Kemp <mkemp@isd.net>]

Here are the responses I received on weeding biographies.  Many thanks to
those who were willing to share their wisdom.  I am always so worried that I
will remove something that someone will need "someday"!!.

Our state guidelines say: "Weed biographies when the subject is no longer
of interest or meets a curricular need."  Hope this helps.

I dumped all the "Childhood of Famous Americans" books, and all books on
sports heros that were 10+ years old- except for the biggies like Babe
Ruth. ditto for entertainers.

Pretty basically the same as I use elsewhere:
if it hasn't been chedked out in 10 years, it goes.
I'm more lenient with collective biographies.
Richard Librarian

Van Orden's "The Collection Program in Schools" has a section on weeding
which includes a table with recommendations for weeding by class based on age
and circ. stats.  For Biography she recommends weeding a title that  hasn't
circulated in 3 - 5 years or "keep until demand wanes, unless outstanding in
content or style and still used".  Hope this helps.


I just weeded mine last year after waiting till everything else was
weeded.  I threw out all "fictionalized" biography.  Within the last
10 years this field seems to have improved greatly.  Students using
these for information do not want made up conversation and imaginary
events.  (With just that guideline, my biog collection was cut by 1/3)
Jeni Friedland


CREW says "Unless the person treated is of permanent interest or
importance, such as a U.S. President, discard a biography as soon as
demand lessens.  This rule especially applies to ghost written
biographies of faddish celebrities.  Poor quality biographies of major
figures should be replaced with better ones, if funds permit.
Biographies of outstanding literary value, such as Boswell's Life of
Johnson, are to be kept until worn."  Also weed if the biography hasn't
been used or circulated in three years of if it is MUSTIE (Misleading,
ugly, superseded, trivial, irrelevant, easily obtained elsewhere).


what I at first tried to do was to get rid
of all biographies that were essentially fiction.....with lots of made up
dialogue.  I now find that for the youngest kids a fictional biography may
make sense, so perhaps I shouldn't have been quite so severe.
In general I have gotten rid of all the _Childhood of Famous Americans_
books as being too fictional. As for the Value Tales "biographies", they
are downright deceptive.
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Monica Kemp            *
Media Specialist       *    "People say that life is the
Excelsior Elementary   *     thing,but I prefer reading."
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