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.
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?
Are none of these books suitable for school libraries?
Books become moldy, and full of bugs??? You can not tell if the books in these bins are in that shape?? If they are they were held to long and should have been thrown away a long time ago.
when was the last time these books were checked out??? My daughter runs the Local library in central Illinois. Some books are popular for only so long and then just take up shelf space>> They then have a book sale and get rid on the extra copies.
This library sends the left over books to B longistists who sells them on e-bay or recycles them?? The trashing of these books looks like not enough research was done before filling up the trash bins. B longistics is not an Illinois company but one she learned of when she worked in Colorado. This needs to be researched before more books hit the trash??
We must all remember one persons trash is another person life long treasure.
B lingisticts picks them up by the pallett full.
No point in sending them to school libraries–not Manual, at least. I was upset when Manual went through this weeding process. I was glad that I no longer taught senior English because many of the books that students had used, especially about British history, were thrown out. Once the “weeding” was complete, the library shelves were virtually empty. Teachers were allowed to take books. Maybe we have to acknowledge that this is the computer age and that students do not use books for information. It is still sad to see so many books destroyed.
Wow, who would have thought this was another opportunity to bash Manual?
Did you really just bring up Manual?! 🙂
Sharon!
In my opinion it is a sin to throw away a decent book. There has to be some place or some one that needs these books. Perhaps the mission or someplace else. Nursing homes, senior retirement centers, etc.. I’ve seen many books with lots of pictures that could be used by day care centers to begin to enlighten children. It just makes me sick to see books that could be recycled to new users thrown away. Even if you only take one book and save it please do so.
I want to be the first to blame all the standard public figures that will ultimately be blamed in some way, sort, or form. Blame Bush, Schock, Chaney, Rumsfeld, all Republicans, Neo Cons, Tea party members, Tri-lateral Commission, Conservatives, BlueDogs, Yellow Dogs, and any other person, group or cause that does not meet the standards of a few viewers of this and other local blog sites.
If I missed some please add to the list. ( end of Pre-emptive attack)
Kind of hard to tell what is being tossed there. Some books really don’t need to be kept. Books with a very contemporaneous context don’t necessarily need to be saved. Kind of like… do they really need to keep that Windows 95 manual?
Jon and Emerge: Manual was my whole focus for 36 years, so you can always expect me to do so–and the throwing away of books was done before the current administration. 🙂 Besides MAWB suggested giving the books to a school–it’s my guess that none of the schools would be interested in the books the public library is throwing out. How could this possibly be considered as bashing Manual? It’s a sign of the times that books are not as important as they once were–I was decrying that fact while at the same time acknowledging that the computer age has changed the way we all (including myself) access information. As it happened, when Manual was getting rid of books, I was taking a course at Bradley and was writing a paper on the history of plastic. One of the discarded books was an old book on the subject–a book that had hardly ever been checked out. (and is now on one of my bookshelves somewhere, probably never to be read again). Manual had had a very comprehensive selection of books. (And now on the topic of Manual and not the books). Whenever you perceive me as “bashing Manual,” please always remember I am bashing the leadership (past and present) who have destroyed a school that I loved–while I still hope that somehow it can become a viable school again. Never, never forget that my love for the kids of the southside is the reason (never the cause) for my criticisms of what is happening at Manual today–I wish that some of you who criticize me for my comments about Manual cared enough about it to join me in trying to find a way to give the young people of the south side a school that would serve them as well as it once did. Also, in case I have failed to mention it, there are still some teachers at Manual now who share that love of Manual students and its past. Whereas there used to be several Manual grads on the faculty and/or staff, today I believe there are only two. Also, there are new teachers who–given a few more years–can build those same strong relationships with the kids and their parents, but right now the strong ties between the teachers and the Manual community have been destroyed and must be rebuilt. Just about every day I run into former students or their parents who share that feeling with me–that the connection with the past has been broken and it was a very good connection.
aren’t those blue recycling bins? i think it’s safe to assume these books are being recycled! and when was the last time you were at the downtown building? there is/was a lot of old sh… stuff in that building! who wants to read a medical book from 1960? they need to get rid of the old to make room for the new, udpated stuff!
the Precinct Committeman
Blame: I am in a few categories that were listed,but you have the option to nominate.
Books are iconic objects. Notice that on TV interviews of authorities, there’s usually a bookshelf nearby.
The library should give the books away free to anyone who wants them. Many people would appreciate having them in their homes to be read at their leisure.
Or others might find a way to donate them to libraries and other facilities here or in less fortunate communities. Have all the libraries destroyed in floods been restocked? I doubt it.
Tossing them or shredding them for recycling is a waste of human resources and knowledge. Shame on the library!
What about donating some to Senior Centers, Nursing Homes or Day Care? Perhaps this would save some of them and these people might enjoy them. Perhaps they can’t get to the local library or don’t have computers and would enjoy the books. Children at Day Care could begin by looking at pictures and eventually get a love for reading. Seniors could remnisce while pouring through old books. Seems to me that there is a lot of places that might use these books. As someone mentioned earlier what about libraries that have been destroyed by some disaster?
As a “friend” of the library I can assure you that what is printed here is true. In the past weeks many of us have seen this taking place first hand. Supporters of the library have been dismayed by the way that the book weeding process has been handled, but have felt powerless to do anything.
We were at the library for the book sale a few weeks back and saw a bunch of recycle tubs exactly like the one’s above full of books. If I had known that they were going to be recycled I would have asked to look through them and see what I could find. Unlike Recycler I do think that even books printed as far back as 1960 or 1860 for that matter would be interesting to someone. That’s exactly why people go to the Peoria Library book sale every year.
I know the Peoria Public Library recently disposed of their copies of Railway Age before 1954. These were in book form going back to the 1920s, IIRC. I was ticked to find out about this. Lots of history lost (in fact, lots of local railroad history). Would have bought them to preserve them.
Sorry, David, the New World Order has no need of history. I bet this is going on a lot of places. Some people read Fahrenheit 451 and thought book burning was a good idea.
what a waste. wouldn’t it be better to donate them to the homeless so they can burn them in trash barrels? This way, the books are recycled and the homeless are warm.
David, I am not familiar with Railway Age, but I am fairly certain that the majority of all of PPL’s magazines from the years 1900 to 2000 are now gone. When the library is finished I believe that the same will hold true for the books.
PPL has Railway Age on microfilm from 1954 to about a year ago (most recent magazines are on the shelf), and I’m sure the same for others. But it ticks me that they got rid of their 1920s-1953 issues. I’d like to think they might be able to get these on microfilm as well.
Some of these look like old works of fiction – suggested by the embossed graphics on the covers. Take a look at the book in the foreground bin in the second photo. I’m also interested in the dark brown one with gold decoration in the first photo.
Here are a couple of books they haven’t tossed that are more than worth the read. “The Great Depression” – America in the 1930’s, by T.H. Watkins and “Green Metroplis” – Why Living Smaller, Living Closer and Driving Less are Keys to Sustainability, by David Owen.
As to Sharon and Manual? Why are so many schools better than other schools in the same district? It is not the kids, it’s the leadership. What the kids who disrupt get away with in the home and on the streets must not be tolerated in the school building in the guise of “politically correctness.”
So simple. The buck starts and stops at the top. With principals in the schools, the Superintendant and Boards that hired the Super. The monkeys don’t run the zoo, either. The library sytstem and the public schools are not working considering the amount of time spent, let alone, the wasted dollars. The library personell have always been extremely helpful and underpaid. So what’s wrong with the sytstem? Not to point fingers, but what about the last and current Library Administrator?
Wouldn’t the $27 million, actuallly $50+ million counting interest costs, currently being spent on libraries and paid for with property taxes, have been better spent on security, animal control, streets and sidewalks? And $500,000+ being spent to uncover and relocate dead bodies at Lincoln Library?
Visited Dunlap’s new library lately? Totally underutilized. Or Peoria Heights where recently you could buy a bag of used books for a dollar?
Remember, in the early 2000’s both the Downtown Library and the Mclure Library were considered for closure by the library board. Southside Library is open from 10 to 5, 5 days a week. Closed on Saturdays and Sundays so when would “working adults” use the library? And soon to be abandoned like the abandoned B & G Club on Grinnell.
Great community planning. Got to be politically correct, you know.
Interesting as to what’s going on.
Wow! The first thing that popped into my mind when I read this was, instead of destroying all those books, why didn’t they have a program in place that 1.) “weeds” old books out and 2.) scores a little cash for the library? I’m talking about a used book fair like, say every third Saturday. Buy a bag for a dollar and fill it with old books headed for pasture. Wait. That would be too easy…. Does this make sense to anybody? Or am I oversimplifying the issue? Books have been my salvation my entire life and to see them destroyed without giving them some kind of a second chance nauseates me. Surely not EVERY ONE of those books is beyond salvation?