Part of the task of a librarian is keeping the collection not only current but containing and retaining the items that our community want. A large part of that job involves weeding -- taking out the old and underused to make room for the new and popular. I have always loved purging. I have excellent experience with this in my own life, as my house is in a constant state of cleaning out and getting rid of the junk that so easily seems to overwhelm me.
Unlike my home, however, the library has the supposed advantage of technology to help me in the purging process. With every item cataloged in our automated library system, the ideal is that with the click of a button you can run a report, for example, to let you know which items in a certain section have not been checked out in the past year. Over the past three years of working at the library, I have prided myself on gaining a strong working knowledge of our online system, and have run reports galore on a variety of issues.
For this reason, I felt certain that as I was called upon to tackle the heavily overloaded Large Print Fiction area, a few simple reports would get us the results needed, allowing us to simply send a minion out to pull the unwanted fodder. Oh, how wrong I was! After about three hours or attempting to run multiple reports, I was stymied. How could every book in Large Print be circulating? It just did not seem possible.
So, after consultation with our soft-spoken Collection Development Coordinator, I was encouraged to just pull actual books off the actual shelves a few rows at a time, sit at my desk, and physically scan each title to see the circulation stats. Oh, my goodness! How shocked I was to find not just a few, but many of our beloved Large Print books being neglected by our patrons over not only the past year, but several years!
The hammer came down, and I got a rhythm in my work and began deleting book after book, then adding the simple step of inventorying those that were deemed worthy to remain on the shelf for another season. I began to see actual space on my shelves and staff got excited too! Isn't that amazing.
Now the question is -- is technology really worth it? I wonder. I realize that the main problem in running those reports is that over 20 plus years, items are cataloged in different ways. Lack of uniformity in records hinders good report running. Therefore, there will always be limitations with our technology. I'm determined not to give up, but have gained a new appreciation for a hands-on approach to weeding. Not only does it give you real insight to what is actually on your shelves, but as you cover large areas of materials, you have a better feel for what your patrons really want to read! Isn't that cool?
So, I'm going to vote for ME over technology and work to keep a balanced view of the importance of both in all aspects of work at the public library.
