Re: [ARSCLIST] Interesting WSJ Article on when libraries should discard their holdings.

[Miriam Meislik <miriam+@xxxxxxxx>]

When I worked in a small town public library many many years ago, I was 
instructed to cull anything that hadn't circulated in five years.  The 
difference in our culling was that we had additional criteria.  No 
classic would ever have gone away nor would anything written by those 
authors be discarded.  Some books were truly dated and their information 
was no longer useful so those were removed.  Anything pulled was placed 
on a book truck and reviewed by the library director. Removed books were 
then added to the annual library book sale.   I agree that two years is 
far too short a period. 

Miriam

Don Cox wrote:
> On 03/01/07, Steven Smolian wrote:
>   
> > There are circulating libraries and research libraries.  They perform 
> > different functions.
> >
> >     
> True, but even a circulating library ought to keep the main classics in
> stock. There are always new readers coming along, who haven't read any
> Hemingway yet. (Or Dickens, or Jane Austen, or Mark Twain....)
>
> Two years is a very short cut off period. Ten or fifteen would be more
> sensible.
>
> Otherwise the library is just competing with the local bookstore, and
> may well drive it out of business.
>
> Regards
>   

--
Miriam Meislik
Media Curator
Archives of Industrial Society
University of Pittsburgh
7500 Thomas Blvd.
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
(412)244-7075	voice
(412)244-7077	fax
miriam@xxxxxxxx


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