[aisle] Advice on Weeding an ancient collection.....

[Jill Bennin]

I did a pretty thorough weed of my whole nonfiction collection last year,
but I need to get to my other buildings again.  I tend to do sections at a
time, and make sure it is ongoing.  I also do have a spreadsheet that I use
to log when I weed a section, just so I can keep up with that.
Also, don't beat yourself up - do what you can, and spread it out over
time.  The collection will keep getting better, but if you hit a wall, stop
- I can tell it isn't the right time for me to weed either when I want to
throw away every single book, or when I can't seem to get rid of anything.


On Mon, Nov 22, 2021 at 2:18 PM Kristi Pierce via AISLE <
aisle at list.railslibraries.info> wrote:

>
> I had this same thing, but with an average age much older than the 90s.
> First, thing I did was a Titlewise.  Then, I hit the areas where the
> information would be the worst out of date: Technology, Science, Careers,
> Heath.  Then, the maps and atlas.  I also did biographies.  I really didn't
> want kids thinking that Jimmy Carter was the current president.  After
> that, I just went through and took out what looked horrid, ratty, tatty,
> and old.  I also ditched anything, (except for 400s and 810s) that had not
> been checked out in the last few years.  I was kind to the 400s and 800s,
> as many of the old fables and poetry and classics will last decades.
>
> My circulation went up after that, simply because the kids were not
> distracted by ugly and/or old books.  It was constant progress, because
> like you, I didn't want to completely raid the entire collection at once.
> However, for a few years, my nonfiction went down to two long stacks
> instead of almost 4.  It was worth it.  It made collection development much
> easier, plus the kids wanted nonfiction much more.  Also, and think of it
> this way, you would never want to give a kid a book that isn't good
> information.
>
> Just for a laugh, one of the books I weeded actually stated, "WHEN we get
> to the moon, it will be in a SPACE CAPSULE."  Yes, WHEN.  This book,
> published in the 50s, was still here in the 2000's.  It was a
> fantastic discovery.  LOL
>
> Good luck and just keep weeding!  :)
>
> Kristi Pierce
>
> On Mon, Nov 22, 2021 at 2:00 PM Dawn Scuderi via AISLE <
> aisle at list.railslibraries.info> wrote:
>
>> Hi All,
>>
>> So my nonfiction collection is super old... like Titlewave says the
>> average age of 500 and 600 is 1994.
>>
>> I really need to weed it but it is going to mean removing 90% of the
>> collection.  I won a grant for books (THANKS LBSS!!) and will be getting
>> about 75 new titles, but they are just going to be lost in this mess if I
>> don't remove the old stuff.
>>
>> My question is this:  Do I pick a year like 2000 and remove everything
>> earlier than that (about 1/2) or should I just scrap it all?  The previous
>> librarian had bought 11 science books in the last 10 years....
>>
>> This is not the only Dewey section that has to be weeded.. the whole
>> collection is terrible.  I am just starting with Science and Technology.
>>
>> Any help would be awesome,
>>
>> Dawn
>> MAILMAN_MIMEDEFANG
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>
>
> --
> Kristi L.S. Pierce
> Certified Library Media Spec.
> Certified Educational Technology Spec.
> Marion Junior High School
> 1609 West Main Street
> Marion, IL  62959
> (618) 997-1317 ext. 229
> ksmith at marionunit2.org
> MAILMAN_MIMEDEFANG
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-- 
Jill Bennin
Library Media Specialist - Sherrard CUSD #200
email: benninj at sherrard.us
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