Tag Archives: weeding

Are books being carefully weeded or indiscriminately discarded?

Earlier this year, one of my readers informed me that the dumpsters outside the Peoria Public Library downtown were full of books being thrown away. I contacted library officials who explained that they were “weeding” books — a perfectly legitimate process based on established guidelines for libraries.

But now a new anonymous source tells me the library staff is concerned that those weeding guidelines are being thrown out with the books in the basement:

I have attached a couple of photos of bins of books ready to be taken away and destroyed. PPL has stepped up efforts to get rid of the books being stored in its basement levels. They will all be gone soon if this process is not stopped. All the bins in the attached photo are being filled at a rate of a couple of times a day. Shelves of books are being indiscriminately emptied of books regardless of condition or value. Staff here at the library believes that this process is a violation of the responsibility of the library to the citizens. Yes, some of these books are in poor shape and really have no future, but many others could be sold, donated or otherwise reused.

bins1

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That’s a lot of books. This makes me wonder, why the need to “step up” their weeding efforts? Aren’t we expanding the size of the library buildings overall? It seems there would be plenty of space to continue storing these until a proper weeding could be done. Why the rush?

Peoria Public Library weeding its collections

dumpster-readerA concerned taxpayer recently told me about the library throwing out a large number of books:

I take my kids to the downtown library a few times a week. I have noticed on a number of occasions that there are people dumping books into the dumpsters behind the buildings. When I asked [someone at the library] what was going on she said that the library was eliminating thousands of books from their collection. I was told that they are also removing most of the magazines and older books that have been stored in the basement level. She said that most all eliminated material is being thrown away and hardly any of it is being donated.

Well, that was certainly a provocative tip! I immediately wrote to library director Ed Szynaka, and he forwarded my inquiry to assistant director Leann Johnson. She basically confirmed what I was told and gave me the following explanation:

Withdrawing items from the collection is an ongoing process for libraries and Peoria Public Library locations strive to maintain an up-to-date and useful collection as well as a strong local history and genealogy collection. As observed, materials are discarded and the reported comment as to the number of items refers to an intensified effort to get the collection in good condition before the imminent building project begins. That being said, this is a very tough thing for librarians to do as we, like all book lovers, find it hard to let go of books of any kind. But the reality of the renovation of the Main Street Library has taken hold and we are now making the decisions that have been on the back burner for a long time.

I appreciate your asking if we donate books and about the library’s policy. Most of the materials are given to the Friends of the Library for their book sales. Proceeds from the book sales then support the wide variety of programs offered by the Library. Other recent cooperative efforts include working with Thomas Jefferson school after the fire, providing childrens’ books to a local church group for a school library in Louisiana, housing a collection of older materials related to the Civil War in the reading room of the GAR Hall, and working with Eastern Illinois University to transfer a large collection of government documents known as the Serial Set to an academic setting where the material is more likely to be used and stored appropriately. Materials that don’t get sold, donated, or recycled are then discarded. We do recycle and would like to recycle more. To my knowledge no recyclers in the area accept hardbound books. We continue to try to locate a recycler who will.

The answer to which books get eliminated and which are retained is a long one and depends on a variety of factors including general condition, outdated information (particularly in the areas of science, medicine and law), demand, copyright dates along with last date circulated, duplicate copies, superseded editions. These guidelines vary based on the subject (Dewey number) or genre. We do have a Collection Management Policy as well as “Weeding” Guidelines for withdrawing materials from the collection. The guidelines are adapted from The CREW Method: Expanded Guidelines for Collection Evaluation and Weeding for Small and Medium-Sized Public Libraries by Belinda Boon. Older materials present another challenge altogether and we take into consideration local topics that provide insight into the history of our area, historic events, unusual topics or unique items.

I hope this helps to answer your questions.

The acronym “CREW” in “The CREW Method” stands for “Continuous Review, Evaluation, and Weeding.” You can read about this method at the Texas State Library and Archives Commission website.