Throw-It Thursday (Special Saturday edition): When Disaster Strikes

Ashley Borman, Technical Services Librarian at the Clintonville (WI) Public Library is back with her monthly column. This column typically runs on the third Thursday but this special edition is timely to many of the WI communities affected by the severe weather last week.

What does your library do when you endure a local disaster? Since last week, this has become a pertinent question for many libraries in my area. While my library is safe, many around us have been affected by recent flooding after numerous days of severe storms. Houses have been destroyed and material possessions have been lost.  The terrible thing about floods is that they are oftentimes not covered under renters’ or homeowners' insurance. According to the FEMA website, “flood insurance is a separate policy that can cover buildings, the contents in a building, or both” (https://www.fema.gov/flood-isurance). What does your library do when someone comes in and tells you they have lost everything, including the library items they had checked out?

This is the road I live on in Clintonville, WI. Monday night, April 13, it was under water by the river

The water finally receded on Wednesday (resulting damage photo taken Thursday, April 14th). 

If you have a policy in place for disasters (whether someone loses their house in a fire or flood or what-have-you), good for your library! If you don’t, what would you do? We have had patrons who have lost everything in house fires before. When this happens, usually their insurance will cover the cost of replacing materials. In the odd case where that didn’t work, we have waived the fees for those damaged materials. Since most people don’t have flood insurance, we will do the same for anything that is damaged beyond use due to the flooding our communities are currently facing, as well. Families typically have bigger worries than how to pay for their library materials after something so devastating, and we don’t want to cause them any more stress. We will eat a few hundred dollars' worth of materials if we must (just consider it another type of weeding!)

*If you are in an area that has been affected by the recent severe weather we have been seeing across the country, my thoughts are with you. Good luck on getting things fixed up and back to normal as quickly and safely as possible. ~Ashley

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 Thursday: What the Manga?!

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

We recently separated our manga books from our graphic novels and gave them their own collection. It was not a terribly difficult process (unless your tech services department likes to be difficult, then it might get a little dicey), mostly because the collection is not overly large to begin with.

First, I ran a collection report to see all the books we had in our graphic novel collection. Then I went to the shelf and grabbed the books that were checked in and clearly manga. I took these back to my desk (it’s so much easier when you are the tech services department and you are the one who wants to create the collection!) and re-coded and re-labeled them. We got manga stickers to use instead of graphic novel stickers.

After I finished changing all of the books that were on the shelf, I went through the items on the list that were not on the shelf (checked out, in transit, lost, etc.) and placed holds on all of the items I knew were manga or thought might be manga. As they come back, I am re-labeling them and sticking them in their new section if that is where they belong.

Our new manga collection is small but beautiful!

The graphic novel section is now smaller, but it is easier to find things!

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: Something to Ponder

Hey all! Ashley back with some more thoughts on weeding(ish). I hope everyone is well and happy and excited about summer! Let’s dive right in, shall we?

I would like to look at weeding from a different angle this month. When a patron or community member complains about an item in your library, how do you deal with it? Do you just take their word for it and throw it away so you don’t have to deal with any possible controversy? Do you explain to them that they are entitled to their opinions, but that a) there is a process you must go through to officially file a complaint, or b) you cannot remove an item simply because they do not like it for whatever reason? Do you know your libraries policies in regards to removal of materials, whether it be by staff maintenance or personal request?

There are many ways to censor library materials, and oftentimes we may be doing it without realizing it. We may choose not to purchase something because we don’t personally think it looks interesting or because we don’t see the need/value of it in our communities. We may discard items for the same reasons, and not take into account how we are going to update the collection to reflect the interests/needs/values of different people, cultures, and ideas. And of course, the most controversial of ways to censor materials, is by yielding to a complaint made by someone who dislikes the contents of the material they are contesting.

I’ve specifically had YA materials on my mind for the past couple of months. The school district where my public library is located had a book from their high school library contested by a community member. This book is a graphic novel about a freshman in college who is a gay hockey player and has swearing in it (Check, Please! Book One: #Hockey by Ngozi Ukazu - Check it out! It’s amazing...and book 2 came out last month). The person disliked all the swearing and claims that is why the book should not be allowed in the school library. The school district went through their process when materials are contested, and the school board finally had a vote and they decided to keep the book, YAY! It was a close call though, as some board members did not want to keep the book.

Anecdote aside, as librarians, we know that censorship and banning books can lead to worse things, which is why it is so important that we do our best to be inclusive and pro-active in our collection development. I encourage everyone to take a look at your libraries policies in regards to collection development, discarding materials, and censorship. Make recommendations to edit these policies (or create them if they don’t exist) so that they provide clear instructions on how collections are maintained in your library. This means you will have something to fall back on and show patrons should they complain. If you ever need help with a book complaint, the staff at CCBC are very helpful and knowledgeable and can provide you with helpful information and resources. (https://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/freedom/default.asp).

Some other resources for information and assistance include:

American Library Association http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/censorship

Freedom to Read Foundation https://www.ftrf.org/default.aspx

The National Coalition Against Censorship: https://ncac.org/resource/what-is-censorship

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

Throw-It Thursday: What's Your Style?

Hello friends! Ashley here, again.

As I am unable to work in my library as we are under a safer-at-home mandate, I am flying by the seat of my pants for this month's blog post (all my notes/ideas are on my work computer), so I thought I’d change it up a bit this month. I’m curious...how do you weed? Do you have freedom in your library to get rid of things as you see fit? Does your director have to approve every discard? Do you have to wait until certain staff members are on vacation or at a meeting and sneakily and quickly discard a pile you’ve been waiting to get rid of? I have been in all of these situations myself at one time or another. I am fortunate enough that I am currently free to do as I please when it comes to weeding my collections, as is our children’s librarian.

There are several ways in which I weed: usage reports, random sightings of sad looking books on carts or in the stacks, and physically touching/opening/examining every item shelf by shelf. Each type of weeding has it merits and drawbacks. Usage reports are great for finding items that haven’t been checked out in years, but miss books that have been used so much they are falling apart, as well as skipping over outdated books that are full of mis-information. Finding dingy books on carts is a great way to find items that are loved and need to be replaced, but misses the items that might still be sitting on a shelf somewhere. And going shelf by shelf is very time consuming, but I have found this to be the best way to find damaged items and keep our collection nice and in working order. And if you are in charge of a digital collection, don’t forget those should also be weeded, so patrons have less data to sift through to find the items they want. Each type of weeding is useful in its own way, but only you know what works best for you and your library. If you try something and don’t like it, don’t keep doing it. Find a way that you are comfortable with and make it your own.

If you have trouble finding time, or are concerned about upsetting patrons/staff, try doing things a little differently. Here are some ideas to help you get started:

Do one section of shelving when you have a few spare minutes. By only doing one section every week or so, you space out the materials you are getting rid of, causing less patron (and staff) kickback than when they see huge piles being discarded at once.

Going through collections book by book is a way to find issues that are easily missed. Example: When we did our picture book re-organization project, I handled every single book and found a number of items that were damaged beyond help (missing pages, moldy, etc.). Now, I go through a shelf at a time in all of our collections looking for all sorts of damages and either note, discard, or replace these items.

Looking to get rid of a collection? Maybe you have a VHS or audiocassette collection that you have been wanting to get rid of for years. Start by getting a report of items that haven’t gone out in the last year. After a few months, run another report of items that haven’t gone out in, say, 6 months. If you still have a lot of materials left, get a report of when they were last used. Once you get down to one section of shelving, take a handful here or there until there’s nothing left. If you have something that is a local treasure, see about putting it in a special place (such as a local history collection). Or, you could just make the whole lot disappear at once, but that might raise alarm in patrons.

Happy weeding!

Resources of interest:

Awful Library Books: http://awfullibrarybooks.net/

Chant, Ian. The art of weeding; Library Journal, 2015. https://www.libraryjournal.com/?detailStory=the-art-of-weeding-collection-management

Swoger, Bonnie. Books are for use: Weeding and deselecting; Scientific American, 2014. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/information-culture/books-are-for-use-weeding-and-deselecting/

Vnuk, Rebecca. Weeding without worry; American Libraries, 2016. https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2016/05/02/library-weeding-without-worry/

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

Throw-It Thursday: Crafting Conundrums

Question: How do you know when it’s time to get rid of a crafting book? Do you go by last checkout date? Condition? Age? The answer: yes to all of the above. There is a fine balance we walk when it comes to certain parts of our collection. Crafting books are one such area. It seems like they are always getting checked out, whether they are shiny and new, or falling apart or just plain ugly! It’s kind of a conundrum. Some books are so old you just wish you could throw them out, but they are the only books on a specific topic and patrons still use them. Others might look brand new, but not be used frequently.

Obviously, if an item hasn’t circ’ed in 5 years, get rid of it! Why are you holding on to that junk?! Unless it’s a really rare item for a specific type of craft that has limited books (but even then, no one’s using it, so WHY ARE YOU SAVING IT?!). Those crafting books that are well loved and falling apart have lived their best life: time to move on (If they are relatively new, you could look into replacing them, but with as many crafting books as are produced, I recommend replacing them with newer titles on the subject if you can). If you have a crafting book that is thirty years old, and it LOOKS like it was made in the ‘80s or ’90s, you probably don’t want to hang on to it (those pictures do NOT age well, have you seen some of the awful styles from back then?!), whether or not it gets circ’s. Make room for some newer, more eye-catching titles!

I know this doesn’t necessarily seem like an easy answer. Finding the right balance between popular, well-used items and newer, nicer items to replace the old and cruddy crafting books can be difficult, and varies from library to library. However, by weeding out old, gross, and non-circulating materials, you can help create a more visually appealing collection, as well as promoting newer materials you have.

 

Plus, the discards can also make good weapons!

Until next month, my weeding peeps. Stay safe and healthy!

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

Throw-It Thursday: The Health of Your Collection

Hello Library Lovers! Happy Library Lover’s Month!

It is still early in the year, so I think it is a good time to talk about updating and replacing outdated materials while we still have most of our funds available. This month, we are going to focus on medical and health books. Many books on specific health issues get outdated very quickly (3-5 years and that new book on cancer/autism is old news). The medical field is constantly changing; we see this in the way illnesses and disorders are viewed and ideas evolve about why certain people are affected, to how new treatments are discovered and used on patients.

As librarians, we sometimes tend to overlook the fact that our patrons rely on us to keep our medical and health books up to date, as the ones who use them are researching answers to problems they or someone they love are experiencing.  Sometimes outdated information can be misleading or perilous. By not keeping this area up-to-date and discarding old and outdated material (and replacing with newer information where necessary), we are doing our patrons a disservice. SHAME ON US! This includes children’s books, even though they are typically less detailed and more generic when it comes to such topics.

The CREW method suggests several good tips/ideas for weeding this subject, including:

“Weed ruthlessly when it comes to current medical practices. Up-to-date information is important, outdated materials must be promptly discarded”

“Regularly review books on fast changing topics, such as AIDS, fertility, cancer, and genetics to ensure that the information is up-to-date and accurate.”

“Anatomy and Physiology do not change as rapidly as other topics.” (These books could probably be kept up to ten years, depending on what information they hold and the condition they are in.)

“Weed unattractive titles, especially those that lack good illustrations.”

This book from 2010, should be replaced with a newer version if possible, to provide patrons with the most up-to-date information on the chickenpox virus.

Sources: CREW: a weeding manual for libraries. https://www.tsl.texas.gov/ld/pubs/crew/index.html

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

Throw-It Thursday: Braille Books

January is Braille Literacy month. Let’s take a few minutes to discuss the evolution of Braille and how we can keep our collections up to date.

Louis Braille invented the Braille tactile code in 1829. Over the years, Braille has evolved in different parts of the world into local “dialects”. In the 1990s it was realized that a drastic overhaul of the Braille code was needed to create a code that was universally serviceable. After years of adapting the code and translating materials into the new singular code, the Unified English Braille Code was finalized in 2007. This code makes it much easier to produce, translate, teach and learn Braille.

Some people may see Braille as outdated, especially in the age of technology, where a computer can read aloud to us and transcribe our thoughts as we talk out loud. But for the people who actively use Braille, it serves as a form of independence and heightens their quality of life. For these people, Braille is the foundation to literacy and can only aid in their growth and how they communicate with others.

While we don’t have any Braille users at our library specifically, there is one library in our system that houses books in Braille, so we do have access should we ever need it. There is also the Talking Books Library  from the DPI should we ever have someone who wants to use this service. But we also have an ugly gem that we have yet to get rid of. We are the only library in our system that owns Roly Goes Exploring by Philip Newth from 1981. While it is not necessary to keep this book for our patrons, it does still get used regularly and it has been rebound and is in good physical condition.  This unique book is a teaching tool for both blind and sighted children. Each spread has a page with text on the top half and Braille on the bottom. The other page of the spread is a green cardstock page with basic shapes cut out so the visual children can see a story and the visually impaired can feel the story.  Sometimes, it is better to hold onto something (GASP! I know you are all shocked I would ever admit such a thing), especially if there is no newer copy or better alternative title. And since this book is out of print and people still like to use it, AND because it is such a unique title, we hang on to it.

 There are also some great books available that show children how people with vision impairments see the world. The Black Book of Colors by Menena Cottin (2008) is one such book, using tactile learning with descriptions of colors based on imagery.  And then there are the educational books about Braille. This copy of All About Braille by Laura Jeffrey is from 2004. That is 15 years old. Changes have come and gone in those 15 years. Braille, like any code or language, has evolved. Therefore, these educational books should be updated, if you can find new books on the subject.

Happy Weeding! (or not, as the case may be)

Sources

Snellings, Meredith. The Evolution of Braille. 2019. https://www.cviga.org/sightseeing/evolution_of_braille/

Photos from Amazon.com and littlespark.in

Throw-It Thursday: Happy Weeding! (I mean Holidays!)

This holiday season let’s take some time to look at our holiday books. Books about special days like Christmas, Easter, and Halloween usually have those holiday books flying off of the shelves! But what if there’s a Thanksgiving book that no one decided to check out this year? Throw it! Make room for some of those new, brightly illustrated titles! One of the best ways to do this is to pull out all of your books about the upcoming holiday and put them in a display. When the holiday is over, take all of the books still on the display and look at their circulation stats. If they were not checked out during the current holiday season, maybe it’s time to replace them with a nice clean copy, or just remove them from the collection altogether. I mean, come on, if no one checked out that Christmas book during November or December, why are you holding on to it?! That’s some primo shelf space that book is taking up!

And while you’re at it, head into your non-fiction collections. Find those holiday, cooking, and crafting books and take a look at what old, crusty holiday books you have hiding there too! Remember, if the pictures are old and a book easily looks like it is from another decade, it can probably get tossed. Find some fresh, new holiday books to spruce up your collection! Unless you’re one of those people who thinks all books should be loved and cherished forever. Then by all means, let your library shelves overfloweth; turn those stacks into a maze of books where no one can find anything because there’s too much of everything.

Happy Holidays - I mean weeding! - Ashley Borman, Technical Services Librarian, Clintonville Public Library

Throw-It Thursday: What About Pluto?

Welcome to Throw-It Thursday! My name is Ashley Borman, and I’m a Technical Services Librarian at the Clintonville Public Library.  This is a new (hopefully regular) monthly weeding tips segment of the YSS blog. Here we will discuss what to get rid of, when to get rid of it, and why are you still hanging on to that?!

This month let’s talk about Pluto. Why are we talking about Pluto, you ask? Because, in case some of you haven’t noticed, Pluto was removed from planet status way back in 2006! So check your shelves, and any books that reference Pluto and were published in 2006 or earlier should be promptly removed, and books from 2007 should be checked for accuracy, as they were probably written in 2006.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/wfryer/2366672802/in/photostream/

I know you might think this is a bit redundant. I mean, this happened 13 years ago! We all know this. But some of those sneaky books have lingered, especially when you weed by circulation stats only. Most patrons don’t pay attention to things like publishing dates when they are looking for books about the solar system and check out everything and anything they can find. Example: when I started working at the Clintonville library in 2013, I found around a dozen books on the shelf that still talked about the ninth planet in our solar system! I promptly pulled them off the shelf, said goodbye, and made our children’s librarian update the books about Pluto and dwarf planets. What are you waiting for?! Get out there and spiff up your collection if you haven’t done so already!

If you have any requests on weeding tips/tricks or certain topics to talk about please leave a comment below!