Help! I need encouragement. We have over 3000 non-fiction books in our library and only about 200 of them have ever been checked out since the beginning of our library. I know they need to go but I am afraid of the huge gap it will leave on the shelves AND I just hate getting rid of these tools. The concordances, Bible study helps etc. they just aren't used! I think most people go online now for that information. I know I do, but I'm having a hard time letting go and being ok with all the empty shelves! Any advice??
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Last fall, we did a 'brutal' weeding in our library. As a result, the library looks brighter, more attractive, displays are noticed now and people comment on how nice it is.
We have discarded the weeded media through various means. One means we esp. like is taking books that are not that old and in good shape to a book re-sale shop where we get store credit to use to buy used books/DVD's that we don't already have. We are fortunate to have 2 in our area.
In re-reading this conversation, I realized I forgot to tell you something else we do: we box up the books/movies/cd's that we don't want, and we have a sale the first week of June. This coincides with the home school used curriculum sale which is held at our church, but we'd do it even if weren't for that, and in fact, we make it available to our church family the day before the curriculum sale opens. We put everything out on tables and it's basically by donation. The money we get from that, we use in the library, and the leftovers we take to the Gospel Mission.
My fellow librarian and I are currently weeding our adult non-fiction area. We are being pretty brutal, especially with older stuff. As far as reference materials, we try to keep at least one copy, say one Bible Dictionary and one or two commentaries. It's true they don't get used much, but we believe we should have one for that odd time when someone needs to use one. But we don't need five! so we have no trouble getting rid of the excess.
We also don't add much non-fiction that isn't fairly current. It's hard enough to get good traffic in the non-fiction area; having a lot of dated books in there doesn't help.
I have just completed weeding our nonfiction and discovered a lot of older items on diet and exercise and finance that concerned me. I asked members with expertise in these areas (physicians, nutritionist, accountant) to review the materials to see whether they were still current. Some were ok to keep, some were not.
I did a major weeding a couple of years ago. I weeded more by date, relevancy and such factors than use. I also tried to keep in mind a balanced collection of subjects, which means I kept some items not often used but needed to have a well-rounded collection- just in case.
OK, Nicole. Picture yourself cleaning out your closets at home - say "spring cleaning". You make sound decisions as you go along. You keep the pertinent books and take a box and put the ones that need to go "today" in the box. Take the box away from the church premises. That way you won't be tempted to put them back! I have given many books to Goodwill or an inner city church that cries for books. Or to an after-school program that needs children's & YA books. It's perfectly OK to take them to Goodwill as there are people there that scour through books for various reasons. Just remember "it's as if you are cleaning your closets at home! Regarding videos, I also give them to the inner city church that we support.
Yes, the shelves may be empty for the moment, but like another reader said "it's a good way to display what you have remaining. Trust me, your shelves will fill up before you realize it. Your focus needs to be on a clean, current and lively book collection. We have several retired ministers in our church....I don't even take their theological books as they are probably from the 60's or 70's if not earlier. Be firm. I say "I don't take any books older than 2000 because I don't have room. Stay firm! You won't regret it.
Here is a quick breakdown in Striking a Balance In the Library - I hope this helps:
Adult collection
Fiction - 5%
Biography 5%
Philosophy, Psychology, Ethics 10%
doctrine, Teachings, Prayer, Worship - 25%
Other religions, denominations 5%
Social Science - marriage, Family, Social Change, Ecology, Economics 10%
Science, Nature technology 5%
Music, Art, Literature 10%
History, Geography 5%
Reference works 20%
Children / YA
fiction 45%
Biography 10%
Philosophy & Psychology 5%
Doctrine, Teachings, Prayer 15%
Other religious, denominations 2%
Holidays 2% (I do more than 2%
Science, Nature, technology 5%
Language 2%
Music, Art, Literature 6%
history, Geography 4%
Reference works 5%
Blessings, Bev
Thank you all so much! This is a huge help. I started pulling all of our VHS today and will start on the non-fiction next week. I like looking at it as if it were my closet... good analogy. For now, I have a table just outside of the library with all of the unwanted items and hopefully people will take them home and then we will donate what is left! And not taking anything dated before 2000! What a good standard for me. That will help a lot!
We too have a wonderful collection of reference type materials that don't get much use anymore. These concordances, word study books, Bible dictionaries and encyclopedias are classic works. I just can't get rid of them. A few people still use them so I'm hanging on.
We do weed out general collection non-fiction titles that are not used. We send them to mission schools, prisons libraries and other church libraries that want them. A seminary across the street from us has big book sales to raise funds for the library so we give them some of our weeded titles too.
Our biggest dilemma is what to do with our video and cassette tapes. We've been building the cassette collection since the 70's and the video collection since the 80's. Many of these tapes are still in good working order. It would cost too much to replace all of them at once so we are slowly weeding them out and rebuying. In the meantime they are still available. Patrons will come looking for a particular title and be disappointed when they find it is on VHS tape and not DVD so we have acquired several old VCR's which we check out to people who really need the title that is only on VHS. As for cassettes they are seldom checked out except for messages in our sermon archives. We are attempting to get them converted to CD. Of course, the future of DVD's and CD's are in question too. Quite the dilemma for the church library.
Just a thought-we also have many VHS with no funds to replace. But they are not being used and I need the space. As I weed them, and books, out I have found another church that works with the homeless and very poor. The poor usually have TV's but can't afford cable so are thrilled to check out VHS from this church to watch. Even the homeless will take the books to read and are thrilled to have them.
What about sending or taking your weeded non-fiction to a ministry that uses & wants them? I know I read around on here somewhere possible places that you can send your non-fiction books. I wonder what local ministries/organizations are in your area? Are there people at your church who are involved in outreaches that would appreciate the non-fiction books? What about selling on-line and use that money to replace with library media?
I've been sorting & weeding through the Kids' Collection & I've been giving to local places that use the weeded items. Our little shelves are more empty, but children are checking out books like they haven't before. I know that it isn't near what you're going through - but take courage!
Just some thoughts from a newbie around here.
Oh yes - Maybe those empty shelves may allow your library media to be displayed in a more artistic fashion? Interspersed with seasonal displays? All until you soon fill them up again!