I am the librarian at a middle school in Central Illinois. My school district is changing library automation providers—a big step as the current system is the first one we’ve ever had and has been around since the early nineties. Although I am a fairly conscientious weeder, the last few months I have gone into overdrive, figuring why carry excess baggage over to the new system. So in the past month, I have tackled all of the 900s.
The 900s have always been the hardest for me to weed—history doesn’t change all that much does it? And, yes, I know that perspectives and interpretations change, but it’s hard to toss the gorgeous civil war book with Matthew Brady photographs no matter how many others are on the shelf.
And then there are the books about countries. I have dutifully purchased all the updates to the Enchantment of the World series as they have been published. I am fine with taking the old copy of Switzerland off the shelf and putting the shiny new one in its place. I have noticed that the old country books have rarely been checked out—and wonder if the new ones will be either. You see, our sixth grade social studies curriculum focuses on ancient civilizations. Seventh and eighth graders study strictly U.S. History. So we rarely use our country books. Why do I buy them, you might wonder? Because fortunately, in this time of shrinking library budgets, I have seen an increase in my own funds, so I don’t need to cut anything out to get them. But even more so, because I can’t imagine a “real” library without a set of country books… or a set of state books… or a set of books about the systems of the human body.
How many of us buy things so that we “cover all the bases” even if our school curriculum doesn’t address the subject at all? How many students would come in looking for a book about Zimbabwe… or philosophy… or [insert your own non-curriculum topic here]? Are we better off leaving things out of our collection and directing the one-in-a-million student who asks for that topic to the public library so we can buy our 7th copy of Twilight or Diary of a Wimpy Kid or The Clique or the Eyewitness book, Ancient Egypt, that all the sixth grade teachers seem to need at the exact same time? Or is it more important to be able to provide at least one book on almost every subject at a moment’s notice? These are the choices that we make every day that have nothing to do with review sources or the current buzz-word, self-censorship.
Thinking I might wrap it up with a definite answer—even for just for me? Not a chance.
In fact, a colleague and I have been recently charged with selecting an opening day collection for a currently-being-built junior high school. With the perfect opportunity to start from scratch and what seems like an unlimited amount of funds which path do we choose?
I think I’ll prop my feet up on a couple of print volumes of the World Book Encyclopedia and have a good think on it.
Michelle Glatt is the the librarian at Chiddix Junior High in Normal.
