I had several people request a hit concerning my question about weeding the
970's so I am doing so. I was concerned about weeding materials that were
pre-1950 but which were well written and scholarly. The general consensus
was that they should be removed. This is what my head was telling me but my
heart was reluctant. I am giving most of the discarded books to any teacher
or student that wants them. Perhaps ownership will tempt a few students to
read one or two of them.
Below are the responses that I received.
Paula Bainter
Library Media Specialist
Ellsworth High School
210 West 11th
P.O. Box 46
Ellsworth, Kansas 67439
785-472-4471 FAX 785-472-8109
pbainter@usd327.org
"We are confronted by insurmountable opportunities." - Pogo
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I am doing inventory/weeding at the same time, working backwards through
Dewey. SOOO, I have already finished the 900s. I ditched: Anything older
than myself pre-1960, unless it was a book that was heavily used, and made a
note to get updated material for the section. American History---to keep
needed to be check out recently, post-1980 (unless REALLY good), and in good
repair. Native American--post-1980 period without ANY racial pictures or
remarks, period--2/3 went byebye.
Countries---post-1985 in good repair (3/4 went out). States--post-1975 in
good repair (2/3 went out). Ancient History--checked out, post-1980.
Geography---pulled ALL explorers to 910.92. Again, I have weeded almost 800
books OUT of the 900s, and we are NOT that big of a school. BUT, why have
old junk cluttering up the shelves? The kids have made comments about how
easy it is to find materials now. ALSO, I did new shelf labels: IE: 910.4
Pirates/Shipwrecks 931 Ancient China. They now can find the topic along
with the dewey number.
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I would be quite hesitant to weed any item that dealt with you local area or
state, but that is just my opinion. Others will tell you to pitch it. I
tend to be more conservative with this type of materials. Much of it has not
been redone and may not be able to be replaced with new copyright dates.
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You might want to bring in your American History teachers and let them
browse this area to see what they might want to use. Sometimes all it
takes to have these gems flying off the shelves is for a teacher to be
aware that they are present. If your history teachers don't want to use
them, for whatever reason, then weed according to your plan. Since it is
so late in the year I'd probably hold off on this section until next year.
Show the teachers what you have, get their reaction, and then if they
indicate they will use the books then monitor that section next year to
see if the section is more heavily used.
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This is what I say to my self...I am a school library and are my students
really going to use this? I am not an archive or a college. I am a school
library and I need current materials that the students will actually use.
Just my thought process.
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If it hasn't been checked out in the 6 years I've had my current system & if
the copyright is older than my oldest student or if it's ugly and no one
will touch it or if it's in marginal condition it goes! If it's a primary
source I check with the history teachers first. Full shelves that no one
uses are no helpful -- half empty shelves may get you some sympathy $$$! (or
so said one of my library professors years and years ago!)
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Hi, as a former history teacher I would say pitch them and get in some new
stuff. Kids already think of history as being about a bunch of old dead
people. I don't think that we should perpetuate that by having outdated
books no matter how scholarly they are.
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Have you talked with the American History teachers? I had my Social Science
teachers help me weed the Social Sciences section and they wanted me to
retain a large number of OLD books--as one teacher said--this will give
students a picture of how people felt about the situation when it was
happening! I am in agreement with him on that. Needless to say, we didn't
weed nearly as many as I would have! The other option with any withdrawn
books-- if you have to weed them is to offer them to the teachers for their
classrooms--I mark them withdrawn, take them out of the system, and the
teachers are happy
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I feel your pain! I'm doing a lot of weeding this year, as well and
understand your challenges with history. Often, the history stuff becomes
dated and can be culturally insensitive. Some may be scholarly, but it may
not fit your curricular needs. Also, remember that you're not a research
library. That thought helps me clarify many decisions. I do have to be
lenient with local history. Many of those items are valuable and have not
been reprinted. I really wish my district would have a centralized research
library for the first editions and important historical works, but, that's
another issue!
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I love history so it is a wretch sometimes to weed those wonderful
old, books--but I do. Sometimes I even take those books home to read
one more time...someday. I've replaced the old stuff with newer
materials which have much more readable language and have much more
in the way of graphics and illustrations. The new books are usually
thinner (and check out much more). There are a few "classics" I've
kept for now but I want a library collection that will be used by
students for their personal and student needs. Otherwise, I'd work
in a university or an archives somewhere with more academic demands.
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I think they are quite useful and I use them a lot for DBQ's......Also, many
of them are written by the "big guys" in the field and they should be kept.
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I think the answer to this question lies, at least partially, in the
demographics of your community and in the way that your students and
teachers choose their materials. I weeded at my school and I did keep a lot
of history materials that were older - however, here I am fighting the
appeal of the Internet and to be realistic, my students will not ever choose
an 800 pg. tome that looks old and dirty. In a public library there would be
no question in my mind about keeping some of these materials, but here in my
high school, I want the print resources to be appealing enough that I can
convince students to use them (I'm also fighting that battle with the
teachers). Space can also be an issue. If the shelves are so full that it is
hard to see and access the books, then that is another factor that causes
students to easily turn off and run to Google.
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The kids will never check out anything that looks that old, no matter what
is in it. They won't even look at it. I had a good number of scholarly
books, but the kids never liked them. They would always choose a smaller
book that is geared toward YAs that is easier to access information. I have
chucked most of the books like you describe. At first I threw out SOME of
them, then I focused most of my collection development on history last year.
Once those books came in, I threw away most of the rest of it. I didn't
want to leave the section bare,. since something is better than nothing.
Once I had the whole area covered, out it went!
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We are moving to a new school, so I am also doing some serious weeding. I
pull books that haven't been checked out for over 5 years and put them in a
section in the library (away from the other books) called "Evaluation". Then
I invite first department heads, then teachers, to come and take what they
want for their classrooms. They stack them up, put their name on them, and
I then discard them from our collection, neatly mark through the barcodes,
library stamps, etc., and send them to the teachers. Our Social Studies
department head has been delighted to have these. Some of them she didn't
even know about.
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