Dear colleagues,
Thanks for you r responses. Several asked for a HIT.
Please share your responses in a hit. I feel the same way about it
being unrealistic, and in many cases down right wrong. I just opened a
brand new library with all brand new books. I took a LOT of time to put
together the order for 6000 new books - wanting to choose wisely. We
opened in September 2002. I got my first ODC collection list from Baker
& Taylor in 2000 to start preparing. It was a huge list. I chose
fiction books that I knew were going to remain standards. I bascially
chose the core collection of fiction and non-fiction books, choosing to
save money aside to choose newer books later in the process - especially
in the current issues areas and in science. But I went ahead and chose
pretty much all of what would be in our history and literature sections
from the 2000 list. Early in 2002 I asked for an update of items
published after 2000. Anyway - by the standards you mention - a BIG
chunk of our collection is out of date - a year after we opened! I just
don't agree with these cut off dates. I have always felt that looking
at science/computer/technology books older than 5 years and other books
older than 10 years is much more on target. And even then - for
historical topics, 15 years old is not all that bad. And what about the
classics? Should be discard all our books by Charles Dickens? What
about S.E. Hinton. Etc., etc.
BenchMarc offered through Sagebrush does a similar analysis. I have
run
both of them on my M/HS collection. In looking at the data, the
collection
age report from BenchMARC indicated that the Benchmark is from
Library
Power. They used an "oldest suggested copyright" date that varies from
12
to 20 years old. In the technology areas as well as some health and
science areas, it would seem that over 3 years old would make the
information outdated. Other areas could be considerably older (history,
biography, ancient civ. etc). Library Power indicates that most books
over
20 years old should be discarded. My professional and personal opinion
would run somewhere between the 5 and 20 year dates, depending on
the
specific subject.
I see their recommendationa almost as IDEAL goals or guidelines but
certainly not hard fast rules for as you say most of my collection would
be gone. I know that IS really a consideration as average age for my
whole collection is 1986 even though I am working hard to improve it.
My budget is extremely small also.
Since when do butgets and budget cuts determine the criteria for
weeding a collection??
We are paid to do a professional job, so do the job and be realistic about
it. Ask yourself: do they change textbooks when there are budget
cuts...or are they using the same textbooks for 20 years??
Remember, they are in the book selling business.Denise Moore
Media Specialist
Ellenville High School
Ellenville, NY 12428
845-647-0123 x284
www.ecs.k12.ny.us
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