Justifying weeding of 970s

[Georgia Richards <garlic@MIND.NET>]

Dear Friends,

          I am at a new  (to me) school this year and have run into a
problem that is new to me but I hope not to some of you.  I need help in
justifying weeding the 970s. I need words or maybe even paragraphs I can
use at a staff meeting on Monday January 7th.  The words I have used with
my staff don't seem to have helped and this is turning into a major biggie.

      This is a K5 school, the collection is relatively old, especially the
nonfiction.  Prior librarians either didn't have the time or they
concentrated their energy on the picture books.  I tried to talk to the
teachers in September about their needs and wants and got little or no
feedback.  Last month I started weeding with what I consider the Dewey
section most in need of weeding and renewal, the 970s. Suddenly, last week,
I was confronted by a couple of teachers who have used that material for
many years and find it most satisfactory. I offered to let them keep the
books instead of sending them to the dumpster but they have stated that
they don't have space to keep the material in their classrooms and are
demanding that I return it to the general library collection. We are
talking about a section with an average publication date of 1964. By
discarding the worst half of the section I have raised the average age to
1969 which is still not good, but I have ordered new material and the
original plan was to discard most of the rest after the new books came.Most
of the titles they are defending most vehemently are really outdated and
though I am not of Native American heritage I am offended by the
content.  I used Sunlink's Weed-Of-The Month list and one from Oyate just
to be sure that I was not getting too personal about this. I haven't even
attempted to upgrade the 398s, 811s or  fiction on this subject since they
are more personal thought and not touted at the truth.

I talked to the principal yesterday and at this time he appears to be
supportive of upgrading the collection but things may change over the next
two weeks.

If you have any words of wisdom I would appreciate advice.  Should I
capitulate and put it all back? I would find that real offensive and
insulting to our students with native American heritage who have to use
this stuff.

TIA


Georgia Richards
Briscoe Elementary School
Ashland, OR
georgia.richards@ashland.k12.or.us
garlic@mind.net

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