I wrote to Peoria Public Library Director Ed Szynaka and asked him for his response to anonymous reports I’ve been getting about books being indiscriminately discarded, as reported earlier on my blog. He sent me this explanation:

First of all let me assure you that our weeding guidelines, created and adopted from best library practices, are still in force. I do understand that it is human nature to see an action and believe you know what is happening and to spread that tale with your own interpretation. My explanation for why people are reporting such things to you are that they do not understand what they are seeing. They are responding to the end of the process and not seeing what happens ahead of that.

They see recycling bins of books and do not or may not realize the steps leading up to that point. Also, they don’t see how much we are keeping or realize where books are going. For examples, truckloads of books are being taken to Lakeview Branch to bolster their collection during construction. Other books are boxed to be moved within the building.

Yes, people are seeing large amounts of materials leave our building. Some are being recycled. Other materials are being donated to other libraries and in some cases sold so that we have further funding to purchase the materials Peorians want on our shelves. For example, we did not throw away bound copies of Railway Age. That title and other periodicals have gone to a service that makes them available to other types of libraries, such as academic libraries, that want to complete their collections. Periodicals were weeded and then double-checked by our local history authority who did have the final say on retaining some titles and in fact, pulled bound periodicals to be retained for the local history collection.

For many of the items that are weeded, we know we can obtain this information either online or through inter-library loan for the few patrons who may want to access it. It would be irresponsible to continue to use large amounts of space for items in poor condition or items that only one or two people want to use. Other items have gone to other academic libraries where students of various topics want, need and will use the information on a regular basis

You mentioned that it was reported to you weeding was being sped up. In reality weeding is not being sped up, but the staff is very focused. More people are working on the project for longer hours, but they do not proceed any more quickly. For instance, a team of professional, Master-degreed librarians are involved with checking materials before anything is discarded as part of the weeding process.

The decisions are made carefully, and then the last step occurs when librarians at computers are quickly scanning and discarding books. As this last task has become familiar our staff have become very practiced at the physical motion required and yes, they have “sped up” their ability to scan, but the weeding process itself is not done any more quickly.

Another visual effect that is contributing to the sense that the Main Library is being emptied is that we are in the process of clearing three floors – second, first and IB – and moving all books to the basement so we continue to retrieve them for the public during construction. That moving is going on at this moment and lends to the sense of materials disappearing when they are actually being relocated.

You mentioned that perhaps we should be using our expansion to house books and weed more carefully. The extra square footage you may be hearing about is only our new stair tower and entrance, not space for library materials. We will have the same square footage within the library itself, although IB will now be a public floor with a dedicated Local History and Genealogy room as well as an expanded gallery and more public meeting space.

I do hope this has answered your questions and as always I appreciate your continued support for Peoria Public Library.

I would only add for clarification purposes that when I mentioned that the library was gaining square footage, I was not referring to the main branch in isolation, but to the entire Peoria Public Library (all branches). They are building a new north branch and dramatically expanding the Lincoln branch. Those add a significant amount of square footage.

My thanks to Mr. Szynaka for taking the time to respond.