*BFTP: Keeping Your Library Collection Smelling F.R.E.S.H! *Reflections from a New Teacher-Librarian: Weeding is an Equity Issue – Canadian School Libraries Journal. By Rabia Khokhar The school library learning commons (SLLC) is an important space in a school community. It is the ‘heart’ that connects students, teachers and other community members in many different ways. Therefore, the SLLC must always strive to be a space that is relevant, responsive and evolving so that it can represent, affirm and authentically teach students about diverse identities and lived experiences in their local, broader and global communicates.
As a former teacher-librarian (and of course one always in my heart), I recognize the positional power and platform the SLLC has in a school community. It is a space that can really model and intentionally embed equity within its structure and practices through the design of the space, collaboration with students and teachers and book collections. One of our goals for our SLLC was to weed and update our print collection. This initial scan and assessment helped me learn the context and background of our school library. Reference. *Why You Should Weed More Than Just Books at the End of the Year. At the end of my first year at Stewart Middle Magnet School, I ended up with a great opportunity. We replaced an aging air conditioning system over the summer, meaning that ALL the furniture had to be moved into the gym.
Luckily, the books could stay on the shelves with plastic covering them. The library at that time was extremely cluttered – I had already been doing an extensive weeding of the collection. But there was lots of unnecessary furniture, and old art projects on display gathering dust, and weird, out-of-date posters. These things “disappeared” over that summer of air conditioning work. Why You Should Weed More than Just Books In the Making Your Library Epic eCourse I’ve led with AASL, we talk a lot about how less is more. How to Decide What to Weed As you’re reflecting and getting ready to wrap things up at the end of the year, look around your library for objects that you need to weed. Take these observations and look at what you could potentially remove over the summer. *Weeding Without Controversy through inclusion and transparency. The Librarian Who Hates Books Internet Addiction in 1998 Earlier this year my daughter came home from school to tell me about a controversy at her school.
The school librarians weeded the collection, and some students became so offended that they took to social media to protest the discarding of library books. There was even an unsubstantiated rumor that a student had been suspended for climbing into a dumpster. One of my daughter’s teachers also became upset about the removal of library books.
Avoiding Controversy How can we keep a fresh, clean, and up-to-date collection while keeping the controversy surrounding weeding to a minimum? When we ultimately do discard books, I like to use positive verbiage. Preserving Rare Books Rare Books in our collection In 1886 the Webb brothers moved the Webb School from Culleoka, Tennessee, to Bell Buckle, Tennessee. Because I was still new to my position, I waited until around 2010 to truly begin to weed the collection. Creating a Weeding Strategy. *Why We Weed - Awful Library Books (Read the "Why We Weed" section and then peruse the rest for fun. About This Site Librarians, bibliophiles, and lovers of nostalgia are all welcome here. Your librarians for this site are Mary Kelly and Holly Hibner.
We are public librarians in Michigan. We have both been holding court at various reference desks for over twenty years and love talking about library collections and library service. This site is a collection of library holdings that we find amusing and/or questionable for libraries trying to maintain a current and relevant collection. Contained in this site are actual library holdings. Comments are welcome and moderated, but we do ask everyone to be nice and use your library voice. Why We Weed Weeding is an essential component of library collection management.
Here are some links to professional literature on why we weed. Weeding Library Collections: A Selected Annotated Bibliography for Library Collection Evaluation – from the American Library Association. Weeding Library Collections – from LibSuccess.org.
Welcome! - Putting the L,G,B,T,I and Q in Collection Development: Resources on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity - LibGuides at University of South Carolina Upstate. De Colores: The Raza Experience in Books for Children: How to Tell the Difference: A Guide for Evaluating Children’s Books for Honest Portrayals of Raza Peoples. How to Tell the Difference is a work in progress.
We welcome additions to these criteria. Please send them, along with full citations. Look at the Language Structure. Does the book mock language and culture? “Fossilitos, schmossilitos,” declared Poquito Tito, the smallest of the small ones. “We want to see los dinosaurios with our own ojos,” he said, pointing to his eyes.
“¿Por qué? “Because, Bobocito,” said Don Diego, the biggest of the small ones, “We hear they are reelly, reelly beeg, dude!” Does the book promote respect for the language and culture? And Tito replied, A lo que Tito respondió “No way, José! Not by the hairs of my chinny-chin-chin.” No entrarás aunque te duela. Is the dialogue forced and clunky, with literal Spanish phrases immediately followed by faulty English translations that are clumsy and confusing to Spanish-speaking children? Cristál, Abuelita’s silver dog, rises on stiff legs to greet me.
Does the language flow naturally, both in English and in Spanish? Oyate - Resources. Buy your own copy here! How to Tell the Difference: A Guide for Evaluating Children’s Books for Anti-Indian Bias by Doris Seale, Beverly Slapin and Rosemary Gonzales explains Oyate’s very basic criteria for evaluating books about native peoples, or that engage Native themes.
This book has been helpful to so many authors, parents and educators over the years that we believe we have helped raise our collective expectations, which in turn has enriched the publishing industry. How to Tell the Difference was published in 2000 and the content is reproduced in A Broken Flute. Since then, we have continued to compile and clarify criteria to help us discern honest portrayals of our peoples in children’s books containing retellings of traditional Indian stories, as well as contemporary stories and representations of Native peoples. You can buy your own copy of How to Tell the Difference from Oyate. Criteria from How To Tell The Difference: A.2) In Counting books, are “Indians” counted?