Midday Mingle: Collection Complications

The next Midday Mingle is on the horizon!  

Join us on Monday, April 20 at 1:00 PM as we talk about troubleshooting collection development:

• Taking flak from patrons about books you’ve weeded?
• Having trouble finding new sources since Baker & Taylor closed?
• Desperate for tips on dealing with difficult, yet popular, collections?

Whatever collection problems you’re dealing with, come share them and we’ll brainstorm solutions together!

Youth Services Section Midday Mingle: Collection Complications

Monday, April 20, 2025 at 1:00 PM

Zoom link  

You do not have to be a YSS or WLA member to participate. The Midday Mingle is open to all!

Throw-It Thursday: Book by Book

Ashley Borman, Technical Services Librarian at the Clintonville (WI) Public Library is back with her monthly column and has some great advice on making sure your collections are updated.

    Do you ever take the time to go through your collections book by book to look for problem items? If you can make the time to do a shelf at a time, I highly encourage going through book by book and doing a visual assessment and weed what is necessary. I cannot tell you how many times this has helped me find books with issues that were missed at check in. I’m talking torn pages, spine damage, gross stains, MOLD! I try to periodically go through our collections shelf by shelf (I do my whole library, but you could split it up by departments or enlist the help of other staff members if that is too overwhelming for you), on the hunt for items that need to go. 

    I pull each book off the shelf, flip through the pages to look for tears and stains. Then I flip the book and check for spine issues. If I find damage that is repairable, I bring it back to the workroom and repair it. If it is beyond repair, I throw them in the discard pile. If it has some kind of damage that is minimal and non-repairable, but the item can still circulate, I put a damaged sticker in it to tell what kind of damage staff have noted and when. This is helpful, especially when we send items to other libraries, so they know the damage was already there and their patrons won’t be charged for it.

    There are so many ways to weed. Many people stick to the basics, but I find that going through the entire once in a while and doing an in depth look at items is a great way to find those items that are past their prime that may get overlooked. It is also a great way to learn your collection and find gaps that you may want to fill.

Throw-It Thursday: Weeding is for Everyone!

Ashley Borman, Technical Services Librarian at the Clintonville (WI) Public Library is back with her monthly column and has some great advice on making sure your collections are updated.

Last month, I attended a webinar through the Wild Wisconsin Web Conference (Post-Conference Resources - Wild Wisconsin Winter Web Conference) about Managing Library Collections (because we can always learn something new from others, amiright?) presented by Kymberlee Powe a children/young adult consultatnt at the Connecticut State Library (Kymberlee Powe - LibGuides Home at Connecticut State Library.). She was interesting and engaging. It was a great refresher course for me, as I know I tend to get hyper-focused on one way of doing things sometimes. I also learned some new ideas about managing collections.

One of the best takeaways I found was who weeds and how.  In my library, front desk staff (and sometimes even the pages), typically only give me books that are damaged to see if I can repair them or if they should be discarded. However, in her presentation, Powe points out that all staff members need to understand why weeding is essential in libraries. When they understand the importance, they can look at items and think, this looks really old and outdated, or this looks too damaged, etc. For their library, they have a “weeding slip”:

Managing Library Collections 2026.pptx

I love the idea that staff could see something and think, ‘I wonder if this should really still be circulating?’ I am tempted to come up with my own, similar slip for our staff to use for materials when they come back in and encourage them to look at items just beyond their condition. Of course, they don’t have the authority to just delete items from the system, which is why a slip would be great - it covers most everything and leaves space for other notes. Items should then be given to the person(s) responsible for collection development so they can make the final decision. 

What do you do in your library? Is it time to make some changes to your weeding ways?

Throw-It Thursdays: Relabeling the Holidays

 Ashley Borman, Technical Services Librarian at the Clintonville (WI) Public Library, is back with another collection development - and weeding - column.

Do you have a Holiday section in your library? Are the Holiday books all listed under just “Holiday – Author Name”? How do you find the books you want for each season or holiday? When I started working at my current library, there was already a Holiday Section in the picture books. But it was chaos. Everything had the same generic green holiday sticker on it and was under the authors last name. It made things very difficult to find, especially for lesser known holidays.

A few years after I started, when I was settled in and comfortable with making changes, I talked to our children’s librarian and we started a fix to this issue. We bought specific holiday stickers for Valentine’s Day, Easter, Fourth of July (just a flag), Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. We put these stickers over the Holiday sticker that was already on the item. Instead of putting them all back in alphabetical order, we put all of each of the specific Holidays with their own sticker on separate shelves.

After picture of the reorganized green holiday stickers next to the rest of the holiday books.

There are still a few shelves with the generic holiday sticker, but it made it much easier for us to identify and pull books for displays and teachers, and the kids love it because they can find what they want more quickly too. After almost 10 years, we decided the specific holiday stickers were no longer enough. Our generic green Holiday sticker shelves were getting stuffed, and we still had trouble finding all of the lesser-known holiday books for a specific holiday when we wanted or needed them.

Earlier this month, I pulled all of these books and did a weed based on condition, usage, et cetera. We discarded a lot of old and crusty books. To reorganize these items, we re-labeled them with the name of the holiday and the first initial of the author. So Groundhog Day books are all together under Groundhog, all of the Diwali books are together under Diwali, Hanukkah under Hanukkah, and so on. It is now so much neater and more organized, and specific holidays are a breeze to find!

Closer view of one of the newly re-organized shelves.

Throw-It Thursday - Maintaining a Balanced Collection - Part 2

Image by Hassas Arts from Pixabay 

Ashley Borman, Technical Services Librarian at the Clintonville (WI) Public Library and YSS board member, is back with her monthly column. This is the second of a two-part series on things to keep in mind when building a balanced collection. You can find Part 1 here.

Libraries Are for Everyone

Last month I talked about keeping balance in the library collections. Our personal biases have a way of worming their way into our purchasing habits, even if we don’t always realize it. Remember, if you discard an item that shares a certain viewpoint, make sure you are checking other materials and replacing it if necessary. If you find yourself suddenly adding a large number of books on a charged topic, make sure you are balancing that by buying items about the topic from other viewpoints as well. 

Housing something for everyone can help prevent patrons from becoming angry when they think the library/staff are withholding information/materials because someone has a different viewpoint than the person looking for a specific item. On the converse, this also irritates some patrons who complain that, “This shouldn’t be in the library.” Then, we can simply tell them we are a public library and are responsible for providing access to information, regardless of what it entails. We need to have materials for everyone. Not everyone will like everything, but it is the patron's choice whether or not to check an item out.

With all of the issues going on around the country with people trying to remove materials from library collections, it is good to remember that we are about access to ALL information, and we have a duty to fight for these rights for our patrons. There are some great resources out there, including this list from the CCBC Intellectual Freedom Resources page. The people at CCBC are a wonderful resource and are happy to help provide some information and ideas on how to communicate with people who are trying to get items banned.

Throw-It Thursday - Maintaining a Balanced Collection, Part 1

Image by Hassas Arts from Pixabay 

Ashley Borman, Technical Services Librarian at the Clintonville (WI) Public Library and YSS board member, is back with her monthly column. This is the first of a two-part series on things to keep in mind when building a balanced collection.

In Collection Development classes, we learn about how to maintain collections. We are taught to develop our collections without bias, so that we have something for everyone, because, as we all know, everyone is different and unique and has their own thoughts and feelings.

 

However, just because this is what we are told we should do, does not mean this is what we do in practice. If you look closely, and analyze all the materials you purchase, you might notice that they lean more towards a certain viewpoint, than a combination of all viewpoints on any given topic.

 

It is almost impossible to not let our biases affect our decision making. Even so, we can make a conscious effort to check the materials we are purchasing for biases, and make sure to find similar materials with different viewpoints to complement and round out our collections.

 

My rule of thumb (especially pertaining to politically charged topics) is if I throw one in the discard pile, I find a similar viewpoint to replace it with. If I buy a new book on a political ideology or figure, I try to balance it with a book on the opposite end of the political scale. This isn’t always easy, as sometimes a large number of titles come out about a specific event, and depending on patron demand, the collection might begin to skew one way, but it is always worth the extra little bit of effort, to make sure there are materials covering the opposite viewpoint on the shelves.

Part 2 will be published on April 20.

Collection Management Topics in the Age of COVID-19

During the Monarch Library System's Youth Services Meeting yesterday, the discussion focused on collection development in the age of COVID-19. Subtopics included weeding, overcrowded shelves, shifts in purchasing priorities, and collection development tools.While each library is unique, some common themes, questions, and solutions emerged. Here are the resources shared during our meeting. You'll notice that some of these weren't answered in depth and we welcome hearing from you if you have additional ideas or questions.

Background Reading

• Article--“Collection Development During COVID” by Abby Johnson

Weeding 

• Do it if you have time! If you don’t have time, don’t beat yourself up.  

• CONSIDER: Tips for finding time. Making it more efficient.  

• Collection turnover and pruning less used collections
• Evaluating number of circs given time in the collection
  

• Where to go with weeded books

• Sell on Amazon

• Sell with Better World Books

• Outside the Box. https://outsidetheboxfamily.com/ 

• Books on Bikes (Sheboygan)

• Local Correctional Facility 

• How do you accommodate for skewed usage statistics because of decreased circulation, especially if your library has been closed? 

 

Overcrowded shelves. How do you increase circulation and/or find more space? 

• Market your Collection! 

• Video: Now, More Than Ever, Your Library MUST Market the Collection! Here's Why, by Angela Hursh

• https://superlibrarymarketing.com/?s=collection  

• CONSIDER: Tips for increasing circulation  

• Videos showcasing new books to your library 

• Book bundles 

• Book displays—choose areas that are overcrowded. Use book carts to fill with books. 

• See if a school/daycare/senior center would allow you to bring bags of books for the kids to check out at the school.  

• Doing curbside? Use flyer stuffers in bags to promote book bundles, personal shoppers, etc.  

• Reader’s Advisory brochures, bookmarks, online book lists.... 

• CONSIDER: Tips for finding more space 

• Weed your collection 

• Workroom collection for duplicates or lesser used books 

• Book displays—choose areas that are overcrowded. Use book carts to fill with books.  

• Display books on the tops of shelves or ends of shelves—offers more space and increases circ. 

 

Changing buying habits  

• With delays in book publishing and with decreased traffic through the library, you might be purchasing less new books. 

• CONSIDER: Besides newly-published books, what other materials have you purchased recently? 

• Tips for purchasing e-books. By Abby Johnson

 

Budget 

• CONSIDER: Tips for what to do when your budget is cut 

  

Selection tools for collection development 

• Kirkus

• Goodreads

• School Library Journal

• Growing Minds, a Baker & Taylor publication

• Bookbirds

• Booklist

• CCBC: Collaborative Children's Book Center

• CAT’s Title Talk: https://cats.baker-taylor.com/

• Barnes & Noble

• BookPage

• Leah Langby & Anne Hamland's Starred Reviews (this is a listserv email)

• New York Times bestseller lists

• Amazon bestseller lists

• Ask your school teachers and librarians what is popular. What they need for their students. 

• Instagram & YouTube videos from authors & book influencers 

• Blogs such as Imagination Soup or Read Brightly

Throw-it Thursday: For the Love of Board Books!

Parents love board books. Small children love board books. But let’s face it. Board books get some of the roughest treatment in the library. Babies and toddlers aren’t the gentlest of creatures. These books get tossed around, pulled apart, and sucked on and chewed more than any other collection in the library (at least, this is true in my experience). Therefore, we should constantly be monitoring these items for condition as they are checked out and returned. They are practically self-weeding. 

 

The spine on this board book is obviously damaged and was not worth fixing. 

I really like that the board book collection tends to weed itself. When they are bent and torn in half, it’s time to go. When they are chewed and slimy, chuck ‘em out the door-I mean come on! Would YOU want to give your child something another kid has salivated all over? Especially these days?! Sometimes board books might look grungy or be sticky from little fingers full of food. If you want to try to clean them, good for you! But sometimes, cleaning them just isn't enough and no matter what you do, they still look grungy or are still sticky. If that’s the case, just let them go. At least you can say you tried. 

 

This board book has obviously seen better days. The edge is soggy and waterlogged and the inside page has also been damaged as a result. 

Weeding by condition gets rid of most of the problem items in this particular collection. For most people, this will seem good enough but it’s still a good idea to run a report once a year or so to see if there are any board books that just aren’t getting checked out (and if you have anything show up on this list, WHY ARE YOU STILL HOLDING ON TO IT?! Those kids and parents obviously don’t want it, so throw it out!) By weeding out all the gross looking board books, you can make it look like a whole new collection of shiny, exciting titles for your little people to discover!  

Guest post by: Ashley Borman, Technical Services Librarian, Clintonville Public Library