Why We Weed, Part 1

Hi-Fi Stereo Handbook: First printed, 1956, fifth edition, 1978, removed from our collection, 2012.

This copy of the Hi-Fi Stereo Handbook was recently found on our shelves and removed from our collection.

Originally published in 1956, this is the 5th revised edition, added to our collection when it was new, in 1978.  In 1978, the library was just 12 years old. The original Star Wars film had just come out a year earlier (which, by the way, is how I usually gauge the passage of time) and Jimmy Carter was halfway through his term in office.  We were in the 1970’s energy crisis, with gasoline prices hovering between 60 cents and 70 cents a gallon.

Now, after 34 years, the time has come (actually, it is long overdue) for this book to be retired.

Weeding – the ongoing removal of outdated, irrelevant, worn, unused or otherwise unneeded materials from a library’s collection – is part of the regular, “behind the scenes” work that we do here at the library.

Or, rather, we should be doing.

It is a task which, for many years, had not been routinely preformed here, resulting in books – such as the one above – still lingering on our shelves, long after their time had passed.  Shelves had become stuffed with unused materials, leading to overcrowded conditions throughout the stacks.  With a preponderance of outdated and/or heavily worn books, crowded shelves, and shelves set too high for many to reach, circulation of materials suffered.

Quite honestly, weeding is a difficult task, fraught with some degree of emotion, both on the part of library staff as well as library users.  I mean, who wants to get rid of a book?  Why would a library ever get rid of a book?

I’ll talk about that, in another post, coming soon…