Barbara Brown asked the following:
Need some ideas on how to purge non-fiction books. They have never been purged! Our fiction section is the most popular and non-fiction books are seldomly checked out except for a few authors.
Thanks!
Barbara Brown
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Replies
Many non-fiction books in my libraries were gifts. For churches, you might find information about a member or members. I've kept those, including one authored by a member. Ir is often the case that some member read the book and often recommends it to others. But yes the items you've already seen below are good ideas too.
I had the same problem! Books that had never been checked out and were irrelevant and old! First, some books that have never been checked out need to stay, just in case! "Works of Josephus" was one I wanted to discard. However, it is a classic. Check what the material is, and the date. Sometimes you just need an updated copy. Look through your family section and Christian living. Some of the titles may be obsolete, i.e. adoption. Things change so much. Let me know if I can help.
Here is an acronym from the Texas State Library Crew method that might help:
M = Misleading (and/or factually inaccurate)
U = Ugly (worn and beyond mending or rebinding)
S = Superseded (by a truly new edition or by a much better book on the subject)
T = Trivial (of no discernible literary or scientific merit; usually of ephemeral interest at some time in the past)
I = Irrelevant to the needs and interests of your community
E = Elsewhere - the material or information may be obtained more easily in another sour
There are details for ech dewey nonfiction category in their online manual:
https://www.tsl.texas.gov/ld/pubs/crew/index.html
We have done this a number of times, and we look at the following:
1. Is the cover seriously outdated? No matter how excellent the book is, if the cover makes it look like the 70's or 80's, odds are it will never get taken off the shelf. If we believe it is worth having in the collection, we buy a newer version, if one is available.
2. Is the book on a topic which is very well-represented in the library? if so, we look at what we have in that area, and then decide which ones to keep and which to discard. For example, whole-Bible commentaries are a good resources, but they don't get much traffic at all, so we tend to be reluctant to give up a lot of shelf-space and would weed them down to just a few.
3. Is the book's topic one that was a big deal when it came out, but not so much anymore? A lot of biographies fall into this category. For example, we are looking at weeding out biographies about sports heroes. They don't retain relevance like, say, people who were great spiritual examples do.