Re: Weeding by record

[Leila Silverberg <leilas@EXECPC.COM>]

When I came to work at my present high school, lo, over 20 years ago, I was
scared to death to weed anything, so I didn't.  I waited several years
until I had grasp of what the curriculum demanded and what the patterns of
use were.  I also started inviting teachers in to 'read' the shelves in
their disciplines to help decide what was no longer current or even worthy
of staying on the shelves.  What I discovered about social studies
teachers, God bless them, is that no book is too old-looking, too
out-of-date, too obscure, too erudite to be discarded.  Ditto science
teachers.  They don't want *anything* weeded.  Every title has some value.
So I eventually stopped asking all but one, who was more realistic, to help
make decisions.  Computer technology folk are also very definite about what
should stay and what should go.

Beyond that, I have often puzzled why some really good stuff just sat.
They were still included in the Senior High School Catalog, but they never
circulated.  I then went in- to the catalog mode and saw why:  many of
those titles had either no annotation or had an inadequate one.  The
subject headings, too, were not very reflective of content.  So I started
to update the records a bit and words to the annotation that might be
searched as keywords, and I toned up the subject headings.  Granted, one
has little time to spend updating records, but occasionally, when I am
weeding, I'll stop to take a look at the catalog record, and update it.

I have to tell you that you guys are great - the idea about the '99' stamp
is terrific.
Thanks.

Leila Silverberg
Whitefish Bay High School
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
leilas@execpc.com
Leila Silverberg
Whitefish Bay High School
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
leilas@execpc.com

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