Weeding Advice from the Professionals!

In December I sponsored a contest/giveaway for books that I was weeding from my personal collection. As part of the entry form, entrants gave their advice for weeding personal libraries. Their suggestions spurred me on as I packed up seven boxes of books to donate to Goodwill. I asked permission to share their sage advice here with you.

I’ve categorized their advice into Making Decisions, What to do with Weeded Books, and Confessions of a Bibliophile.

Making Decisions

Betsy Long, librarian at Dolby’s Mill Elementary School in Lugoff, South Carolina:  “Is it useful, enjoyable, and intact? If you can answer no to any one of these questions, toss it!”

Carolyn Foote, librarian at Westlake High School in Austin, Texas:   “Books I didn’t love [as I was weeding]  should go. Ones I might refer to again stay.”
Linda Dierks, librarian at East Union Elementary School in Carver, Minnesota:   “I try to keep books I believe I will read again. If that fails for me, I ask myself if I would ever share it with a friend or someday give it to a grandchild.”

Charlotte Bryant’s outlook on weeding is influenced by her life experiences:  “When your children are 27 and 25, it’s time to give away the books on parenting. Neither of my sons is married and I had a shelf full of books on infant to toddler child development books.  So, as we grow as individuals, it may be a good idea to share our books from earlier times inside of keeping them on a shelf in the hall.”

Melissa Nicholson, 5th grade teacher, shares,   “If you haven’t touched it in 10 years, it may be time to let it go!”

Michelle Chase, media specialist, says,  “Damaged and paperbacks go!”

What to Do with Weeded Books

Pat Hensley, an adjunct instructor at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina and retired special education teacher, keeps it short and sweet:  “Donate books to others who can not afford them.”

Karen Hoover, another library media specialist, shares, “Donate to Friends of the Library booksales – and then try not to buy them again.”

Confessions of a Bibliophile

Finally, my good friend Heather Loy, media specialist at Wagener-Salley High School in Wagener, South Carolina, shares, “Keepers are ones I re-read often or have sentimental value.  Discards are ones I purchased but haven’t read in 5 years (yes, had a bunch in this category). Ones that I knew ‘I’d never re-read [go]. A bunch I just got rid of were ones I started the first two/three chapters and it didn’t grab me and demand I finish it – regardless of if it’s a favorite author of mine.  My time is limited, if it takes that long to get into a book it’s not worth it. And last, I had a bunch of YA, picturebooks, and children’s titles that I took into my school library.  While they are no longer “mine” I can still enjoy them as well as share them with my ‘kids.'”

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Downsizing, or Can’t I Just Keep Them All?

To Weed, or Not to Weed:  Is that really the question?

As a library media specialist, I make weeding decisions: books that are in poor condition, outdated, contain inaccurate information (can you say “Pluto”?), or that haven’t been checked out in years – these must go to make room for new books. However, making decisions about books to weed from my personal collection? Not as easy.

This Christmas, my husband and I decided to gift the family with a new living room. We literally sold all the furniture we had (including a three piece wall unit with 10 bookshelves) to make room for a new, and might I say, much more inviting living space. I love the spacious, uncluttered look of the room, but it required me to box up hundreds of books and begin making decisions.

The first round through my weeding, I was able to let go of  five boxes of books – and I took them almost immediately to Goodwill so that I wouldn’t have time to change my mind.

In Search of Weeding Criteria

I love books on organizing and clutter control.  None of those went to Goodwill, and some are currently stuffed into boxes with the hundreds of other books with which I couldn’t bear to part.  The others? (Clearing throat here.)  They have their own shelf on one of the six bookcases downstairs.  Ironically, that shelf cannot now be accessed without moving the seven boxes of books that joined the party from the living room.

So, this weekend I decided to investigate the ebooks our public library offered and found The Clutter Cure. In it  author Judi Culbertson shares “The Top Ten Reasons to Let a Book Go”:

“1. You couldn’t get into it…

2. You enjoyed the book, but you know you’ll never read it again…

3. Your interests have changed…

4. The information is outdated…

5. The book is attractive but too general…

6. You mistakenly think the book is valuable…

7. The book is falling apart physically…

8. You don’t have room to display your books without looking cluttered…

9. The best thing about the book is that it is inscribed to you…

10. You don’t love it.”

~p. 52-53

Although this is great advice, it didn’t turn on any light bulbs.  I had already used quite a bit of these strategies in the first round of  my weeding process.

Still Looking….

That’s why I was pleased to find the N.Y. Times article “Books You Can Live Without” this morning.  Authors Francine Prose, Billy Collins, David Matthews, and  Jane Smiley share their criteria for weeding their personal libraries.   These authors have inspired me to march myself downstairs and get to work.

However, in all fairness, two other authors were interviewed for the article.  Their stories must be heard, but I cannot focus on them, or all is lost.

Author Joshua Ferris’s personal philosophy about books:  “Get rid of a book? No way. Every one is a brick keeping the building standing. Books are my life. I leave and come back, and the books I find there tell me I’m home.”

The other author interviewed for the article, Chang-rae Lee, says, ”  Although periodically I have fits of discarding all sorts of sentimental flotsam like old note cards and photographs and perfectly decent dress socks, I can’t bring myself to get rid of even a book I dislike, perhaps because I read “Fahrenheit 451” at an impressionable age. Still, there are too many books in our house, a good number of them not chosen but sent or given to me, and so here’s some I’d cull…”

Then Lee proceeds to share the criteria he would use if he were to pare down his personal library.  Sigh….

I’ve Put It Off Long Enough

I could go downstairs, shove those boxes of books over, and look to see what advice my organizing and decluttering books offer on weeding personal libraries.  But that would just be delaying the inevitable.

As one of my favorite television hosts says, “I’m going in, people!” (Neicy Nash, Clean House)

Contest

Because every bibliophile wants their books to have good homes, I’m going to sponsor a contest.  The prize?  A book (of your choice from ten that I will list) shipped free to your home.  (Sorry, U.S. residents only.)

Complete this form by midnight EST, December 30, 2009 to be entered into the contest.  The winner will be announced on the blog on December 31, 2009.

And the Winner Is…..

http://flickrcc.bluemountains.net/index.php?terms=searchlights&page=1&edit=yes&com=no

Recognizing Excellence!

The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences bestows the Grammys (short for Gramophone), the American Theatre Wing and the Broadway League recognize achievement with Tony Awards, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognizes excellence with Oscar winners.

Excellence in literature is recognized with myriad awards.  There is the Pulitzer Prize  for newspaper journalism and literature, the Edgar given by the Mystery Writers of America, and the Newbery Medal given by the Association of Library Service to Children just to name a few.

Recognizing Excellence?

Then there are the awards that no one wants to win or awards won for negative reasons.  There’s the FBI’s Tne Most Wanted Fugitives list,  Mr. Blackwell’s Top Ten Worst Dressed Women list  which acknowledged* celebrities’ fashion faux pas, and  the English Department at San Jose University’s Bulwer-Lytton Fiction contest that  encourages bad writing (recognizing “winners”  and dishonorable mentions for the opening sentence to the worst possible novel).

The MUSTIE Award

Librarians and school library media specialists are charged with developing their library’s collection. The obvious way to do this is by purchasing materials which will meet the needs of the library’s users.  But the not so obvious way is to pull and dispose of materials which are no longer meeting the users’ needs.

Librarians have been known to pull and dispose of these materials in the dark of night so as not to raise the ire of bibliophiles everywhere:  “What?!!! Throw out books?  Preposterous!”  I propose a new award to add glamour to the fine art of weeding:  the MUSTIE.

The term “MUSTIE” is defined by CREW: A Weeding Manual for Modern Libraries  in this manner:

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 discernable literary or scientific merit; usually of ephemeral interest at some time in the past)

I=  Irrevelant to the needs and interests of your community

E=  The material or information may be obtained expeditiously Elsewhere through interlibrary loan, reciprocal borrowing, or in electronic format

 The 2009 Boiling Springs High School Library Media Center’s MUSTIE award goes to:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Arnold, Robert ,Harold Hill, and Aylmer Nichols. Modern Data Processing (Second Edition). New York:  John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1972.

 Although this book obviously was cutting edge for 1972, it now easily fits the MUSTIE criteria:  misleading, ugly (although it could be mended), superseded, trivial, irrelevant, and up-to-date information can be found elsewhere.

Now, how to celebrate the book’s winning the MUSTIE Award?  Keep it on display as an example of outdated material (keeping the bibliophiles happy), or send it on to book heaven?  After all, it has earned a jewel in its crown there now! 

 

*Richard Blackwell, fashion critic, died on Oct. 18, 2008