Throw-It Thursday: How Edumacated Are Your Patrons?

Ashley Borman, Technical Services Librarian at the Clintonville (WI) Public Library and YSS board member, is back with her monthly column and is taking a look at  education books in our collection.

This month, I’d like to chat about educational materials. While these are generally all adult materials, some youth librarians are responsible for the development of this part of the overall non-fiction collection, as they work more closely with the teachers and parents who use them. The education system has made some vast changes in our country over the past few decades, so some of the older titles you might find on your shelves are outdated. For example, in my library, I recently found most of the What Your _th Grader Needs to Know series still in circulation. These were first published back in the early 90s and have been updated since their original release, but for some reason, we still have the old crusty original editions on our shelves. These books are 30 years old! Think of how much has changed in education since you were in school. That’s how much the information in these books should change too. It’s time to pitch these in the discard pile! If you have these on your shelves, it’s time to update your education section. You could potentially replace these with the newer editions, or shop around for a similar newer series.