I’m still adjusting to the different pace in my new position. After a few years of running on HIGH all the time, it’s taking more than a little getting used to. Also, there’s fact that it’s past the middle of the year, teachers are feeling overwhelmingly busy, and state testing dates are quickly approaching. So they aren’t exactly beating down the library door. The good thing is that I’m really getting a chance to make my changes and do my version of weeding. This library will be moving to a new school within the next year or so, and I don’t want to pack up and move the old junk. The librarian before me inherited a overwhelmingly junked up collection and did quite a lot of weeding (for which I am extremely grateful!).
cc photo by Rishabh Mishra (possible248)
I’m a pretty hardcore weeder, though. I actually attended middle school at CMS myself quite a few years ago, and I was even a student library worker there. There’s an embarrassing amount of material that was there when I was a student there. Heck, there are quite a few encyclopedias from before I was born. So a couple of things have happened in this world since I was born, right? Yeah, that’s what I thought. And, oh yeah, we have World Book Online now, along with quite a few databases that can give the same (but actually current) information. Needless to say, I’m getting rid of A LOT of outdated reference material. I actually feel guilty about this weeding, just because of the sheer bulk of it. I’ve also started going through the fiction section. Books that haven’t been touched since my district broke apart from another district 3.5 years ago. Books with weird looking, outdated technology or sci-fi things on the cover. No 13 year old in 2011 and beyond will consider reading this stuff. I should be able to donate a lot of it to the classrooms. The remainder will have to find its final resting place elsewhere.
So, friends, when did you finally let go of your old, dusty, outdated encyclopedias? Anyone else inherit a library with a similar collection? Are you like me, looking to keep up your collection by making sure it’s fresh (and not dated and moldy)? Weeding can be, overwhelming, stressful, and cathartic all at the same time…but it’s definitely a good thing!