The Weeding Monster

Posted October 1, 2015 by Tara Pealer

I am good at weeding. I’d go as far to say that I like weeding. Weeding, to me, is a relaxing way to organize, understand, and address the usage of not only a library’s book collection, but my own as well. I look at the book to see if it’s been read, if I would want to read it, if I would read it again, if I really want to keep it, and, finally, if there’s a place I can give it to improve the chance of it being used. Books that don’t make the ‘cut’, and are removed from my shelf, get donated to book sales, or, if it’s a textbook in good or new condition, with relevant material, donated to the academic library I used to work at. I also give children’s books to my five year old niece and other books to my friends if they want them.

Cue, now, the looks I got from my LIS 401 classmates when I say this. How could I? Why would I? To that I say: Weeding isn’t easy, but when you’re trying to move with a 350+ book collection, it’s necessary. No matter how much your family loves you, when they get to that super heavy tenth box of books, they’re going to get a little annoyed.

So, my book collection, over the past year, went from over three hundred and fifty books to about two hundred and fifty. (By the way, since I’m not a complete weeding monster, I am keeping the books which didn’t fit on my new bookcase in boxes in my closet because I don’t want to get rid of them.) Here’s an example of the ‘weeding’ spreadsheet I used:

 

In my defense, I had the spreadsheet ready because I had, the previous year, made a list of all the books I owned.

One of my least favorite concepts about a library is that it is a depository or repository. A library’s collection is a living element, because it changes constantly. A library serves the purposes of its users–whether that library is a national, state, town or personal library. So if books, or movies, or CDs aren’t being used, then they need to be removed to make room for other items which may work better for the community. Besides, maybe throwing a book sale or donating the items to another location can help the library and extend the use of the item far into the future.

So, yes, I gave away over 100 books, not because I didn’t want them, but because I knew the books would have a better life somewhere else than in a box behind a closed closet door.

Side note: does anyone know of a bookcase which could fit about one hundred or so books while also fitting into a three foot by three foot closet? I’m asking for a friend.