Monday, January 30, 2012

Weeding Progress Report

I wrote earlier about weeding the fiction collection of my daughter's school library.  So far, I've removed approximately 50-60 books, which is probably only about 1000 strong (excluding certain series like Magic Treehouse, Cam Jansen, A to Z Mysteries, etc.).  On principle alone I've removed any "movie novelizations" or books adapted from television shows (like one horrific take-off on Little House on the Prairie).  I've kept all the books that we have by certain authors, including Betsy Byars, Beverly Cleary, Andrew Clements, Sharon Creech and others, even though I don't see them flying off the shelves  - both because while I'm familiar with the author in general, I'm not familiar enough with each book individually to determine which should be kept and which shouldn't and because I know some students like to read as many books by their favorite author as they can get their hands on, varying quality be damned.  I've kept only one copy of classics, award winners, and other books that look worthwhile but that just aren't getting read, like Julie of the Wolves (even without circulation records, I can assure, kids are not lining up for this one) and Lois Lowry's Anastasia books, although I'm personally a big fan.  And now that I finally have access to some circulation records, I'll be going through the shelves again. 

So, how am I doing?  And when you weed, do you aim to remove a certain percentage of your current collection?

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