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.
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