A “shocking” news story from KWQC of the Quad Cities was delivered to my Facebook timeline this morning, along with a full color photo. Apparently Davenport Library books are being thrown into a dumpster by staff members! (I’ll spare you the visual—you may find it disturbing.) The story went on to report that even beyond the Davenport incident, librarians do this all the time. Who knew?
It’s called “weeding,” and if librarians didn’t do it, their libraries would be featured on episodes of “Hoarders.” I think that what is upsetting people about this issue is not that libraries get rid of books—obviously (with the exception of the Library of Congress) they are not set up to keep every book they have acquired. Different libraries have different standards for weeding out old books to make room for new books. The standards take into consideration the appearance and condition of the book, the date of its last circulation (the last time anyone checked it out), and its value to the collection (whether it’s a classic or needed for a particular class or interest group in the community).
The reality is that if a book isn’t earning its keep by being checked out every couple of years, it doesn’t deserve to be taking up prime real estate on a library’s crowded shelves. So what should be done with it? Library book sales take a huge amount of staff and volunteer time, not to mention the storage and space requirement. If the sale is not successful, something must still be done with the leftovers. The reality is that schools, other libraries, and nursing homes really don’t want books that have been withdrawn from libraries—they are usually outdated, worn, or otherwise past their prime. Shipping them to undeveloped countries is expensive, but there are companies that team up with libraries to find homes for the outcasts. The problem with that is that libraries usually do not have the staff time to devote to sorting out which books the companies will accept. Add to this task dealing with the plentiful donations of old books that libraries regularly receive from people in their community; public libraries of all sizes have become the Goodwill donation center for print material.
Books are a natural waste product of a reading society. It’s okay to get rid of them. I am lucky in my area to have access to a fine, well-maintained recycling center, City Carton of Cedar Rapids. There are separate bins for hardcovers, paperbacks, and magazines among the bins for glass, plastic and cardboard. Still—I have to load the books into my car and drive the forty mile round trip to accomplish this, something that not everyone can do. Personally, I think nothing more of getting rid of the paper between two covers than I would of any other kind of paper. It’s certainly more desirable environmentally to recycle weeded materials, but I sympathize with overworked librarians tossing them into the nearest dumpster. It makes for bad publicity, but it emphasizes a problem in our culture that bears thinking about.
If you really want to help save books, go to the library and read them. Don’t buy new print material unless it’s absolutely necessary. If you can afford it, purchase an e-reader and download e-books (your library loans those, too). Go to library books sales if you want, but don’t donate what you buy back to the library. They may end up in the dumpster.
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