Throw it Thursday - What the Teens Don't Read

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

I had an interesting question a couple of weeks ago. A colleague asked for some advice on weeding YA nonfiction. I know there are a lot of libraries that tend to weed their YA sections by last circulation dates of two years or sometimes less. Most often this is due to high circulation of the collection and not enough shelf space. My colleague was worried about weeding items that hadn’t circulated but are still relatively new (with a copyright date within the last few years).

If you struggle with how to weed a collection with newer items that have not circulated, I have this idea to offer you: before you start weeding, consider your space. Do you have a lot of free shelf space for your YA nonfiction? How many nonfiction books do you usually add every year? If you are low on space, clean them out and make room for new materials. If you have the room to keep some of them, consider their usefulness. 

Take it on a case-by-case basis. If you have a book that hasn't circulated in 2 years that is new within the last 5 years, look at your collection. Do you have more items on that subject? Is the topic relevant to your patrons? Can they easily find the information elsewhere? Chances are if it hasn't been checked out in the past two years, and the total circulation count is low, it will not be used and you can feel free to Throw-It with a clear conscience. If you truly believe that the items still have value for your patrons, hang onto them for another year or two.

There are a number of criteria you could use if you want or need to make space:

• Circulation date (all of my nonfiction is considered for weeding at 5 years of no circulation or longer)
• Publication date (some sections, such as computer manuals and medical books also get weeded against publication date because they become outdated very quickly-10 years or older, probably time to Throw-It.)
• Creation date (not common, but you could see when you added it to your system and see how many times it has been checked out during the time you owned it)
• Physical condition (is it falling apart, non-reparable, horrible water damaged, or moldy? Throw-It! Buy a replacement if you really need to but who wants a crusty book?!)

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These are just a few ideas for weeding. I also have a great idea for some of those books that don’t circulate but you think could be helpful for some people. There are some topics that people may not feel comfortable checking out from the library. The Waupaca Public Library took some of these books and created an Honor Books Box.

This is a small collection of books on sensitive topics that are not barcoded. The teens can take them out and bring them back as they need them. Books include information about eating disorders, self-harm, LGBTQ+ and other things they might not feel comfortable checking out. If some of the books on your weeding list are on similar topics, maybe you want to think about discarding them, removing the barcodes and creating your own Honor Books section. Sometimes thinking outside the box and doing something different with some of your discards is a great way to breathe new life into them.

Happy weeding!