The past couple of weeks, I have been focused on collection
development. Collection development is
exactly what it sounds like – both purchasing titles for and purging titles
from our collection – all the while keeping in mind the needs of the community,
the materials that are being checked out on a regular basis, and the types of
requests that we have been receiving.
Of course, the fun part is buying new books. Yesterday morning one of our regular book salesmen
made his annual visit. Lisa and I sat
down at a table and he started putting books in front of us – hundreds of books! While keeping in mind the needs of our
community and what we already have in our collection, we bought books for kids’
nonfiction and fiction, adult nonfiction, and inspirational fiction. We spent over two hours looking at books and
by the time we finished our eyes (and our brains) were glazing over. In a few weeks, we will get a large shipment
of books and spend several days preparing them to go on the shelves. Of course, this is not the only way we buy
books. We spend lots of time on
Amazon.com as well, ordering new releases as they become available!
The flip side of buying books of course, is weeding. The idea of weeding leaves something of a bad
taste in the mouths library lovers. Book
lovers, librarians included, never want to see a book disposed of. Unfortunately, we are limited by the space we
have available for books. We want to be
a living, relevant library. This means of
course that we must continue buying new books, which means that some of the old
ones must go to make way for the new.
Some areas of the library are easy to weed. For instance, nobody cares if we get rid of
the books about Microsoft Office published in the early 2000s. Those books were great in their time, but are
no longer relevant. Likewise, our
medical section is simple to weed. We
want to focus on the most current information available, and getting rid of
books with outdated medical advice and remedies is a no-brainer. Other areas are more difficult. The history section comes to mind. History doesn’t change, so all the older materials
we have are still good, but new books are being written as well. Deciding what to keep and what to purge is a
headache. Fiction is hard to weed as
well. Authors are constantly putting out
new books that our patrons want to read, but everyone hates to see a book they
love leaving the library to make way for new favorites. I can run reports that let me see how long a
book has been on the shelves, how often it has been checked out, and when it
was last checked out, but weeding books effectively is still a difficult task.
Of course there is an upside to weeding. All those books that we no longer have room
for are available for sale. So if your
favorite book has been weeded, this is a perfect opportunity to add it to your
personal collection – and at bargain basement prices too! We have books for sale year round. Some are donations, but some are books that
have been weeded from our collection. We
want to see these books go to a good home.
Just come into the library and ask us to direct you to our book
sale. We just ask for a reasonable
donation. You get to set your own
prices!
Our goal at Franklin County Library is to be a living library; constantly evaluating the needs of our community and changing to meet them. Our patrons are encouraged to let us know what they are interested in and what materials they want us to add. We strive to meet as many needs as we can. Be sure to be on the lookout for new books coming soon!
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