I internally scream and clutch the pearls I don’t even own when Marcy tells me, “We’re going to start a weeding project soon.”
My world shatters. I knew this day was coming!
I knew one day, this dream job would test me in ways I might not be able to pass!
How?! How could I remove books from this beautiful space? How could I take these little tree-babies with souls and send them off to who-knows-where? What if they don’t go to good homes?! What if they, (and here, I gulp in terror and agony) get thrown away?!
Marcy didn’t seem to notice the crazed panic in my eyes, and I did my best to play it cool. “I’m a super cool teen librarian now,” I thought. “I gotta be tough.”
That was months ago; now the weeding is over. I’ve taken multiple deep breaths, and I even put away my still-don’t-actually-own-them clutching pearls. Things are better. Since I’ve reached such a healthy place, I thought maybe I’d let you all in on the secret-not-a-secret of weeding.
The Whats, the Whys, and the WHYYYYYYsss?!
The Whats
Weeding is the purposeful removal of certain books (or graphic novels, or audiobooks, or whatever, we’re just gonna use books from now on), from the collection, based on certain information, such as how often it gets checked out, how badly it smells or falls apart when you open it, or exactly how outdated that information is about the 1992 Chicago Bulls team.
Okay, but what happens to the weeded books?
A very small percentage have lived lives so full of excited readers, that it’s time to say goodbye altogether and put them in the trash. Most of them, though, end up at the Friends of the Library Book Sale in the fall, where they find new homes and new readers to love them.
The Whys
Libraries should be full of information that is vibrant, up-to-date, and interesting to the people who use it. There are lots of reasons a book might be weeded, but all of them interfere in one way or another with these goals. A library so full of old books that it doesn’t have room for new books is a library that has become stagnant.
The WHYYYYYYs
A book is a beautiful thing. Some books make a home in our lives and live with us forever. Some books come into our lives, say a lovely hello, and eventually a sad goodbye. And both are okay.
At the end of the Teen Room’s weeding process, I looked over the books that we weeded, and didn’t see any that I thought, “No! So-and-so reader would have loved this one!” (Those ones we kept!). “That one is so popular, we gotta keep it!” (Spoiler alert: we did.). Or even, “That one deserves one more chance!” (If a book needed one more chance, we gave it one.).
At the end of weeding, I looked around the Teen Room and thought, “Wow. There is so much more room for the next batch of adventures.”
If you’re interested in the full weeding policy, you can check it out here:
https://www.campbellcountywy.gov/DocumentCenter/View/16314/Collection-Development-Policy-FINAL
Start on page (11)
