BFTP: Minnesota's aging school collections
Saturday, February 22, 2014 at 07:41AM A weekend Blue Skunk "feature" will be a revision of an old post. I'm calling this BFTP: Blast from the Past. Original post February 2, 2009.
On re-reading this, I am thinking about how and if we will weed our e-book collections. While it's true that titles won't need to be tossed to make more shelf space for new titles, old info is old info regardless of source. And neglected library collections will not be as obvious when online. Hmmmmmm...
Hard hitting investigative reporting:
Books on disco dancing from the 1970s. On computer graphics from the 1980s.
Where did we find them? Your local school library. How did these collections get so old? KSTP/TV (Video of broadcast no longer available).
That five minute clip is probably pretty accurate. Our last school library survey (2004) indicated an average copyright date of 1985 for books in Minnesota school libraries. 20 years old on average! We are almost to the point that African schools will be sending their discarded materials to us.
The automatic assumption is that the reason for aged collections is a lack of funding. It's actually more complicated than that.
- Every school school has the funds to maintain a first rate library collection. Now the school may not choose to expend its funds to do so, but it has the funds. Budgets always reflect priorities. (Budgeting for Lean Mean Times) Poor budgets do not reflect a lack of money, but a lack of advocacy for the budget line item framed in benefit to students. Sorry, that's the way it is.
- Old collections demonstrate a lack of professionalism as much as a lack of funding. It costs nothing except a few minutes a week to weed out old materials. Every Friday afternoon just before going home, pick one section of bookcase and look at each book. If it is less than ten years old or has been checked out within the last three years, keep it. If not, toss it. Dump duplicate copies unless popular. Toss anything that is worn-out.
- Logic would have it that schools without professional school librarians are more likely to have dated collections. I wish I could make that statement with more confidence than I feel.
- Full shelves of worthless books are much, much worse than half or three-quarter empty shelves. See Weed! and Weeding the Neglected Collection. I can state with confidence that your book budget will increase after a comprehensive collection weeding.
- Put yourself in your students' position for a moment. Which would you prefer using - a shiny new computer or an aged, nasty book?
As a profession, we librarians need to stop viewing the book as a holy object. Discarding Preparing for Jobs of the 80s is not the same as censorship. Like cornflakes, baby aspirin, and even the Kennedy and Bush political families, books have a shelf life that needs to be observed.
Start weeding today.
Reader Comments (3)
I love the contrast you imply between a library and an archive. To me, a library should be a collection of useful things, while an archive is a collection of old, cool things that are important, not important simply because they are old, but important because they are significant in more than just age.
My former coworker had a great example she weeded from her library "Slow Dancing with Donnie and Marie". She weeded it in 2010. Was it old? Yes, very. Was it important? Emphatically NO!
Libraries cannot be dusty old repositories of dusty old (otherwise useless) stuff - that's why we have archives!
Hi Len,
I've often reminded librarians and teachers that school libraries are not historical archives. If a book has historical value, it needs to be donated to a historical society or academic library as appropriate.
One exception might be school specific materials like yearbooks. But unless they can be kept in a secure location, I'd move those to a safe in the office with cum folders, etc.
However, I would like that copy of Slow Dancing with Donnie and Marie! It's just wrong on so many levels.
Doug
My former high school's library must be at least 20 years old. And I bet that when I visit there's still the section on Nancy Drew books that I frequented on a daily-basis back then. Libraries should be preserved and updated at the same time. Marl