Interview with a Librarian- Librarian C

Librarian #1- C

My first interview was with Librarian C, an adult services librarian at a public library. Librarian C has been working in the library for over 13 years and has been in this role for seven years. Librarian C is constantly assessing the adult collection for deselection and replacement. She utilizes the library’s system to find out usage for items, has the check in desk assess for physical damage, and considers the library’s space to help her assess weeding needs. She mentioned that for the adult patrons, the most used items are the e-book collection, but for physical items, the large print collection is checked out most often. While she considers this a year-long project, most of the spring and summer is spent collecting information and the winter is spent doing the actual weeding. This is because she is busier in the summer months with programming and summer reading projects, she struggles to find enough time to consider weeding. Librarian C says winter is much slower and her library has shorter patron hours on certain days, so it’s easier for her to dig into organizing the data.

Librarian C noted that the biggest struggle is usually with patrons complaining about their favorite collections shrinking. She used the example of the Christian fiction collection which is situated near the large print collection. Since the large print collection is well used, they would like the add more items. To do so, they need more space. Since the Christian fiction collection is underused, it made sense to reduce the size. A patron caught wind of the project when she found Librarian C removing items from that section and loudly complained to the board. Librarian C ended up continuing the weed of the project, but on a smaller scale by removing a little bit over a longer period of time. The board also asked that they evaluate refreshing the collection with newer texts, but not requiring any specific numbers.

She also notes that sometimes collection management is about the space in the library, not just the books. Her library had spent a few years overhauling the adult fiction collection. They wanted to increase the size of the library aisles to be ADA compliant and that meant that the overall collection needed to shrink a bit. Since the e-book collection was booming and the lack of a recent weeding meant that the library director felt comfortable reducing the size of the fiction section.  

Librarian C said that she didn’t really have an idea about what weeding really entailed when she started but she likes doing the actual work of cleaning up the collection. She would like to form cross department committees to discuss collection management. She thinks it would be helpful to those in charge of collection management to hear different perspectives about what the library needs and what can be removed.