Thank you for all the quick and helpful responses. I had several to ask me to post
a hit so here are the responses that I received.
Thanks again for all your help,
Carol Nanney
McKenzie Elementary School
Stress the need for space. Offer the NGs to any and
all. If people tell you how valuable they are, give
them a deadline date and tell them to find someone who
wants them. Then toss what's left.
I find that other than the pictures they are much to hard for my kiddies to read.
I gave them to the art teacher to use for art projects. He loved them and the kids
turned out wonderful projects.
This is such a typical situation. We get at least one phone call per year from
someone who wants to donate National Geographic magazines. I can't quite figure
out why so many people think we might want them.
Seems to me that NGS is in the past---Most of it is too difficult elem. and middle
school kids to read and we don't even subscribe anymore. With TV, the web, online
resources etc etc NGS also doesn't have the appeal that it had years ago. We don't
even subscribe anymore--but we do get National Geographic Kids.
Regarding keeping magazines---we keep them only two years and our subscriptions are
very few since most is online. What we do subscribe to are the browsing magazines
that kids read for fun. We keep the current issues available for two day
checkout and after about 6 months they go in colorful crates for browsing. Kids
seem to enjoy digging through the crates ; these back issues of popular magazines
are VERY WELL used and we are really getting our money's worth out of the
subscription.
Our 4th grades do animal reports from a list of animals and I went through and
pulled all with articles/pictures of those animals and gave to 4th grade. Threw out
the rest.
We stopped archiving these and gave our back issues away, first to classroom
teachers, then to our students, about four years ago. (This is our usual process
with any weeded materials.) I found the style of the language was difficult for our
junior high students to use on reports, and really the articles have been
supplanted by the Internet. We needed the space (about 6 6' shelves) and the
magazines were not used. We have never had a query that made me wish I had not
discarded them.
The surprising thing about these magazines is how faithfully people have collected
and kept them--usually in their garage. It's kind of a running joke for me that
about once a year we get a call asking if we would like someone's collection, since
they are now moving... Groan!
I did keep the maps in our filing cabinet, but they are not used either. Our
updated atlases are. So the maps are next to go.
I discarded all periodicals down to 10 years of back issues except, American
Heritage, National Geographic and Reader's Digest to see how they were used. This
is my 3rd year and I have not had anyone interested in them even though I try to
promote that we have them (and we actually have National Geo indexes for that
title). I am thinking of taking all titles back to 5 years this year. Frankly, the
electronic databases are much more user friendly for the students to use.
Do you have a teacher who does a lot of research, such as a gifted
class. I also have a teacher who is really into geography, she would
love them. Another said that looking through National Geographics are a
great way to study for the Geography Bee. I would probably put them out
for the students and teachers if no one wanted them all. You may also
try the Middle and High Schools in your area.
I think you can have these bound into books if you want to keep them but I'm not
sure who to contact for that. I was previously a Media Specialist in a high school
that had this done. I am at a 3-5 elem school now and I weeded everything older
than 5 years in the periodicals because we do not have the physical space for them.
Put the word out to your teachers that your library, being a school
library and not an archival one, has no space that justifies keeping
40 years of magazines that are never used. Let them know that they
will be disposed of by X date and if they want them, come and get
them.
I too have way too many National Geographics but what I
do is every year, I get rid of the oldest ones by telling the teachers
that I have magazines that are give aways. They pick them up for making
collages and just about anything. I keep only Time, Newsweek, and US News
for over 5 years. Any other magazine I give away. I have a shelf where I
keep duplites so that teachers always have some magazines to use for
cutting.
Toss, toss, toss!
-Let the students cut them up and use them for reports
-Put them out for students or teachers to take and NOT return
-Put a few on display
Each April or May, after collecting any National Geographics that are donated, I
teach my fifth graders how to use the index online. And I put out all the donated
NGs and any I no longer keep (I keep 10 years worth), and tell them they can take
home ONE magazine to KEEP. They have fun going through the magazines searching for
a topic that interests them... a few even use the index!
The animal and the disaster issues are the most popular... of course they like
the pictures, but it the articles interest them, they will read them. Even though
the level is a bit high for most of them, why not give them a challenge? It's
surprising how many kids will try something "above" their level, if they are
motivated by interest.
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