[LM_NET] HIT: Multiple copies (Part 2 of 3)

[David Lininger <tigerlibrarian@GMAIL.COM>]

I would lean toward weeding if they aren't being used but consider that 
they may become popular again if subsequent movies are produced. Some of 
my copies were so ragged that it wasn't a hard decision to weed.


Keep the best, weed the rest. That is what I will do for Series of 
Unfortunate Events, Dear
America. and others that are past wonders. My HP books self weeded when 
I didn't replace every multiple copy as it wore out or was lost. I often 
offer them to teachers for their room collections.


I suspect that you the Harry Potter books will enjoy another round of 
popularity when the next movie(s) are released. You might want to hang 
on to more than just one copy of each for a while longer.


If you have a space for classroom sets, consider creating "mini sets" 
and placing these multiples there. So far, at every library I've worked 
at, each time a new Harry Potter movie comes out, I get a rush on the 
books. I've started doing mini-sets and my teachers who do reading 
groups divided into multiple reading levels are able to pick and choose 
a few at a time.  If a student wants a book and there are no copies on 
the main shelves, I just grab one from the classroom set shelf.

My thought on multiples once no new movies are coming out (in cases 
where there are movies) is to do just as you were saying--weed the ones 
that are in the worst shape. If you are not locked into how you dispose 
of weeds, offer ones that are in decent shape to classroom teachers.

Offer them to classroom libraries. If there are no takers, the students 
will scoop them up.

Weed-keep only the best copy or two. The remainder can go to classrooms 
or wherever else you donate books. That is the price of doing business.

I have a stamp that says, "Removed from Circulation". Which gives a 
different connotation than "Discard" and I stamp weeded books with that. 
I carefully remove the barcodes and spine labels and offer them to 
teachers for their classroom libraries. They are usually thrilled 
because they want numbers not substance.


Harry is still popular with my students, but I confess to having removed 
a couple of copies from the shelves. I'm storing them in my workroom to 
use when a copy goes missing or becomes too worn to be used any more.

One of my colleagues used to pull once popular titles and store them for 
a year before discarding completely. If the item was requested, then it 
went back into circulation; otherwise, it went to discards.


Do you have a back room where you can put an additional copy for a year 
or two, just in case? That transition may help. We put our American 
Girls books in our back room for a couple of years because they NEVER 
circulated and now they are going like hotcakes.


I offer excess books to our local public library as well as neighboring 
schools.


What we do is leave three copies on the shelf that patrons can access. 
Then we keep the multiples on a back set of shelves that we have 
available for teachers to use for literature circles. So far this has 
worked out well for all concerned. Also if one of the "front three" gets 
lost, we already have a replacement.

-- 
David Lininger, kb0zke
MS/HS Librarian
Skyline MS/HS
Urbana, MO 65767
(417) 993-4226
t i g e r l i b r a r i a n  at g m a i l  dot c o m

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