In Pursuit of a Convenient, Curriculum-Correlated Collection

Fiction for the 70s

Weeding, Feeding, and Arranging the Collection:

Just a few fiction books

Last Tuesday, I went to an all day workshop with Pam Harland sponsored by the Bureau of Education and Research.  This workshop was about revitalization of both your library program and collection.  A couple days before for the workshop my colleague, Ann Chandler, and I weeded just a few of the fiction books in our collection.  This time we were mostly looking for damaged and outdated books.  As you can see in the example, it has been a long time since fiction had been weeded.  With a 30,000 book library, the weeding process is ongoing and our focus has always been in the non-fiction since these books become dated very quickly.

1880s collection

We have completed three major weeding initiatives in the past few years.

• In 2008, we removed from circulation about 3,000 books that were a part of the original 1880s collection.  These 100-plus year old books were placed in a rare book area.  
• In 2009, we weeded the reference section by 3,000 volumes, and moved half of what was left of the print reference to the circulating collection. At that time we added 45 electronic encyclopedias to our online reference.  
• Then in 2010 we removed all of the books over fifty years old.  We carefully sorted the books to save those first editions and other rare books from this group.  

Now, after this workshop, I am at it again.
Step 1:  Removing the damaged books from fiction
Step 2:  Grouping into sections Middle School Fiction, YA fiction, and Adult bestsellers.

YA fiction

Step 3:  Making sections that match the curriculum [American Writers, British Writers, Ancient Civilizations, and Modern Wars]
Step 4:  Working on special genre sections [Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Romance, etc.]

Adult Bestsellers

Middle School Fiction

This is a daunting project that will take some time.  It will also require some decisions about how and where to group these categories.  Much of the library will remain in Dewey Decimal order, but the hope is that these sub-groups will help our students find what they need.