Our library has a long wall of shelves packed with Christian novels. We are in the Revitalization stage and are letting go of many holdings in order to have more uncluttered shelves with quality materials. Many of these Christian fiction books are sets of series of well-known authors, such as Karen Kingsbury, Francine Rivers, Dekker, Thoene, etc. However, a large number of these books are older acquisitions, with brown pages. They are not being checked out. Some librarians would say that if these books were promoted, that they would more readily be checked out--.but our patrons tend to come in looking for the newer publications.
Our dilemma is that we need to reduce the number of books in this section. I'm looking for guidelines to help us make decisions on what to purge. Do we simply discard all books which are a certain age--such as, all the books which are 15 years old, or 20 years old--even if they are written by well-known authors? The books just LOOK old and aren't as appealing as a fresh new book. I'm sure we could re-order newer copies, but is it worth spending the money if they aren't being checked out? And, if there was only one patron in a years' time who came in looking for the earliest publications of a certain author, should we "feel bad" that we let those go?
Another question--Is there a way to find out which books are the most popular from a particular author? If there is a book which an author wrote 25 years ago, but it was one of the best from that author, how would we determine that it was a classic in relation to all the other books that author wrote?
Thanks for any direction or input you can give us!
Babs Harris
Replies
I've made updated book covers for some of our older books to make them more appealing to patrons. That gives the book a new feel. I'll do laminated paper covers for hardbacks. For some paperbacks, I've glued my new "cover" onto the existing cover. If the edges are brown, try going over them with fine grit sandpaper.
I look at Amazon ratings and reviews. Sometimes they are biased so I skim the 1* reviews and, if there aren't many reviews, I skim the rave reviews. We use LibraryThing and that gives info on how many libraries have the book - both total libraries and those similar to yours. We use that info, too. We track circulation and compare books that way, too.Getting some facts makes deciding what to weed easier. And, just because a book is old doesn't make it bad, so we keep classic fiction.
Excellent observations, Ann. And thanks for the tip on LibraryThing. How large is your library? And how often is it open?
We have about 3000 books - that's all ages. It's open whenever the church buidling is open. About 5% is fiction. We try to have a bit of everything for everyone.
I know of several church libraries that were shut down by pastors because they thought there was no point in having a library if people only read fiction that they could easily get at the public library. The pastors also wanted more focus on religion/faith and wondered if people read actual print books much anymore.
Paul has good advice below. We make ratios for Amazon and LibraryThing data (star rating/# reviews and # in libraries similar to ours/total # libraries that have it) and save that on LibraryThing under "Private Comments" so we don't have to look it up more than once. For new books we're thinking about adding, we look that info up as part of vetting a book but have only done that for less than 10 yrs. Every five to ten years we use the circulation data and make ratios for that to see which subjects are most and least popular. We look at # times a subject was checked out versus the # in collection under that subject (we have 50 subject headings). That way we know to weed the unpopular subjects harder and which subjects to weed lightly.
Weeding was just too painful for us without facts. It's still hard but at least we have some guidelines based on facts.
Agreed about the weeding. When I was a school librarian, teachers acted as though I was holding a book burning when I would start weeding, lol! I'd offer them the weeded books and remind them that I was making room for new books. Shelf space isn't free, or unlimited!
Here are a couple of places to check on 'value' for readers.
📚 Goodreads (still useful!)
Many Christian books are reviewed there.
Check:
Number of ratings (not just stars)
Recent reviews (last 5–7 years matter more than old praise)
If a 15–20-year-old book still gets reviews → it’s likely still relevant.
✝️ ChristianBook.com
Search the title/author.
If it’s:
Still sold → likely still valued
Recently reprinted or revised → strong “keep” signal
Look at customer reviews and “Also Bought” suggestions.
🕊 The Gospel Coalition / Christianity Today / Desiring God
Not review databases, but:
If the author is still quoted, recommended, or writing today → books often age well.
Especially helpful for theology, discipleship, and leadership books.
Wow! Thank you, Paul, for these resources!!
Thank you! Those are some great guidelines!
A few years ago when I became the church librarian, the Fiction section was taking up the majority of the library. I would say at least 90% were over 20 years old and had only been checked out once or never checked out. I removed these books and displayed them in an area of our church and people could have them for free. After about a month, we donated the rest of them to a women's shelter in our area.
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