To promote growth of knowledge, old books must be weeded out

The hardest lesson that a librarian has to learn in graduate school and then act upon on the job is collection upkeep and weeding of materials. The easy part is knowing what to get rid of; the hard part is actually pulling the book off the shelf, withdrawing it from the collection and then taking it down to the Dumpster. We are bibliophiles. We love books! That is very much a part of why we work in libraries. We also know that mold is dangerous to books and people. Misinformation can be dangerous as well. Medical books that are 10 years old do not take into account all that has been learned over those years. Wouldn't it be far worse to read that the diagnosis your doctor just gave you was incurable because when the book was written a cure had not been found, than to see a caring, intelligent librarian take that withdrawn book to the Dumpster and a few minutes later shelve the new up-to-date- book that now provides a solution? I remember my first professional job at the McHenry Public Library District. My first day, I was wandering through the children's collection to see what we had to offer and I came across a set of children's encyclopedias. It was a set that many of you would remember. Each volume was only about 100 to 150 pages long, and there were a lot of pictures with very little type. It was published in the late 1950s. We had not been to the moon, John F. Kennedy had not yet been elected President and Ronald Reagan was a Democrat and known for his acting rather than his politics. My training in library school said this encyclopedia set needs to go. Not only is it not up-to-date, but the information has now become inaccurate. I pulled the set off the shelf and sheepishly walked into the director's office. &#8220I really think we should withdraw this set; the information is very out of date.” She looked at me, smiled, and said, &#8220That's why I hired you. Weed what needs to go.” In some communities, there have been occasions when journalists or citizens have looked in a library's Dumpster and cried censorship or, even worse, likened a librarian to a book burner because they found precious books just callously thrown away. These people did not take the time to look at what was in the library available to the community. They did not take time to understand what a librarian does to help and protect the community from misinformation. Sometimes we are thinking of ourselves. It can be really creepy to pick up a book and realize that pages are stuck together and we don't know what the adhesive substance is. I want to encourage everyone to take the time to go through their old books before donating them to the library, to the Salvation Army or anyplace else and have the courage to get rid of books that are out-of-date, inaccurate and especially moldy or covered with dead and/or living spiders and put them in your recycle bin or garbage. The cover on hard cover books needs to be torn off and thrown in the garbage; the rest of the book can then be recycled. When you look at the family Bible that was in your parents' home that you are putting up for sale, the Bible has value to you because it not only contains the stories of Judaism and Christianity, but memories of your family, your childhood, your baptism and communion. You need to choose to keep it for yourself or another family member or you need to let it go. Please do not bring it to the library; we have several copies of the Bible available for people to borrow. Your worn and loved copy will not be added to the collection. We will be having a book sale on Sept. 28-30. Our goal is to clean out our storage unit at Blackhawk Moving and Storage so they can have their space back, and we will then set up a used book sale space in the library. We do not have any people interested in running an annual or bi-annual book sale. The library staff are too busy helping patrons, making library cards and checking in and out books to put in the extra time and effort that it takes to run a book sale. We have a policy about gifts to the library. It is part of the Materials Selection policy and is posted on the library's Web site at www.sycamorelibrary.org. Take the time to read the policy before you bring your donations. We love current bestsellers; they will be added to the collection to meet demand. We will almost always add DVDs that are in excellent condition and are not pirated or home movies. However, we do not add magazines, encyclopedias, Reader's Digest abridged books, textbooks or any item that is moldy, out-of-date or in poor condition. These items don't even sell at a book sale. We hope to see you at our book sale Sept. 28-30. The deals will be great. Buy lots of stuff, enjoy them and when you are done, share the good ones with friends and let get of the rest. - Sarah Tobias, director, Sycamore Public Library