library – Andrea Is Reading

October 17, 2021

Weeding My Book Collection

One of my favorite library tasks is weeding, which means discarding books that are obsolete, worn, or aren’t being checked out. Weeding is just as necessary as adding books to a collection. When the clutter of non-circulating books is gone, the rest of the titles stand out even more. Weeding can breathe new life into a library’s collection and can increase circulation numbers.

I’m a pretty ruthless weeder at work, but I suddenly want to keep all the books when it comes to weeding my personal library. That paperback I got for a dollar at Goodwill seven years ago that I still haven’t read? I might want to start reading that tomorrow. That book I finished that I didn’t like very much? The cover is so pretty, so it should probably stay.

I buy books faster than I can read them, and since the space I have to keep these books is relatively small, I know it’s time to do some weeding. In an attempt to get me focused and motivated, today’s post will be about how I approach getting rid of my books: what stays, what goes, and where they go next. I hope these ideas will help you if you too are afraid that the tower of books in the corner of your home will fall on you and cause bodily harm. Let’s jump in!

What Can Go: Books That No Longer Interest Me

I’ve always liked collecting things, and books are no exception. When I become interested in a subject, I want to have books about it. Several books about it. Maybe even a lot of books about it. And sometimes I lose interest in that subject later on, but the books remain. It’s okay to get rid of books that don’t interest me anymore.

**What Can Go: Books I’ve Owned for Years and Haven’t Read**

I’ve worked in libraries where books are discarded if they haven’t checked out in a year or sometimes even months. That’s not because the library didn’t value the books, but because there was no more room on the shelves. Books that weren’t being read had to go to make room for the books that were.

I have to let go of the books I’ve owned for years that I haven’t yet read. That’s a sign I’m not interested anymore, and if I become interested again someday, I can get the book again. In most cases, getting a book in my hands only takes a couple of clicks. I don’t need to keep that one title I bought in 2013 because someone told me I’d like it.

What Can Go: Books I’ve Read and Don’t Like

This one seems so obvious, but I struggle with it sometimes, usually out of obligation. If I didn’t like a book but think I should like it, I’ll probably keep it. If someone got the book for me as a gift, I’ll probably keep it. But having books on my shelf that I feel obligated to like or keep doesn’t serve me. These books could be read by people who will really appreciate them.

What Can Stay: Books I Love

Just as important as deciding what books go is deciding what books stay. The books I love get to stay. It makes me happy to look at my bookshelves and see books that mean something to me. I like seeing my underlined copy of Gilead. It makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside to see Stoner or The Secret History, two of my most beloved books. Some books serve as souvenirs from vacations or college classes or an essential part of my growth. Those books have earned their spot on my shelf.

What Can Stay: Books That Are Part of a Special Collection

As I said, I like collecting things. Over several years, I collected all the books in the Penguin drop caps series. I also like collecting Penguin’s clothbound classics and new vitae series. I love presidential history, so the presidential biographies I own can stay put. As long as I’m still interested in my special collections, the books have earned their keep.

What Can Stay: Books I Really Do Want to Read

I know it bothers some readers to have too many unread books on their shelves, but I am not that reader. I like the idea of having a library full of books that I’m excited to pick up. It’s okay to keep unread books if I’m still looking forward to reading them.

Where the Books Go After I Weed Them

Even though I’m letting them go, I want my discarded books to have a second chance at being read. Sometimes I donate them to my school libraries if I think students or staff will be interested. Other times I donate to a local thrift store that helps unhoused people get back on their feet. I can also donate books to local library book sales, knowing that all the money earned will go directly back into the libraries that serve my community. I’ll ship and sell books to Powell’s now and then if I have newer titles I’d like to discard.

I hope these ideas were as helpful for you as writing them down was for me. What criteria do you use when deciding what to keep or weed?

September 19, 2021September 19, 2021

A Day in the Life of a High School Library Clerk

Photo by Erol Ahmed on Unsplash

This September marks my tenth year as a school library clerk. I love my job and how varied it is. No two days look exactly the same, especially since I split my full-time schedule between two high schools. When people ask what my job entails, I say that it’s a little bit of everything. I get to do nearly all library tasks: circulation, reference, collection development, marketing, shelving, and technology help. In addition to my daily work, I help run a multicultural literature book club and serve on one school’s equity committee. I like being busy when I’m at work, and that’s certainly no problem, especially this year.

Since the past year and a half of school has been virtual, my job was primarily virtual, too. Thankfully, students are allowed back in the library this year, and I think I forgot how busy the days could be.

I thought it would be fun to celebrate my tenth anniversary by sharing what one of my workdays looked like this week. People tend to think of libraries as quiet, calm places, but that’s an old stereotype. Here’s a glimpse of what the library is like for me on an average day.

7:00 a.m. | My workday begins at 7:15, but a crucial part of my day often starts around 7:00, when I stop by Starbucks to pick up my usual mobile order (Venti decaf shaken espresso with sugar-free vanilla, in case you were curious, which you definitely were). When I walk through the door, most of the staff greet me by name, so it’s fair to say I choose Starbucks over my at-home coffee maker most days. Sorry, Nespresso machine.

7:15 a.m. | I walk into the library, flick on a few lights, and turn on the vintage circulation computer that sometimes takes a while to wake up (I relate, so no judgment). I help with laminating at one of my schools, so I usually turn on that machine, too. There’s nothing like the smell of burnt plastic in the morning.

7:30 a.m. | I open up the library doors for students to come in. Sometimes kids are waiting, and sometimes only a couple of students come by before class. I’ll check out a few books and give students the holds they’ve come in to pick up.

8:00 a.m. | I help with laptop distribution, so kids start steadily coming in either needing a computer or needing help with a computer problem. I have several carts full of new books in my workroom that need to be processed, but I’m so busy with laptops that I only finish processing a handful.

10:00 a.m. | The first class of the day comes in for book checkout. After not having students in the library for so long, it’s a delight to have it packed and busy again. I start by giving the students a quick introduction to the space, and then they’re off to find books that look interesting. I have several displays set up and books faced out everywhere, hoping to make it easy for students to find engaging titles.

11:00 a.m. | It’s time for the first lunch of the day. We let kids eat in the library, so it fills up pretty quickly. I check out a few more books during lunch, but most kids are there just to eat and hang out. I heard a student say to a friend, “The library is where all the kids with social anxiety come for lunch.” I’m thrilled to be part of a place where kids feel safe and able to relax.

12:00 p.m. | Second lunch is happening while another class comes in for checkout. It’s a little chaotic, but the students are good listeners and end up finding a lot of books to read.

12:30 p.m. | I finally get a moment to pause and eat my lunch. I usually bring my Kindle to read during my break, but since I’ve been so busy today, I skip the book and play around on my phone instead. I knew I couldn’t focus on a book, which is a tad ironic, considering my job.

1:00 p.m. | The final classes of the day and kids needing help with their laptops fill the rest of my afternoon. I try to process a few books between students at my desk, but I don’t get very far.

2:45 p.m. | School is out, and I’ve waited a few minutes for the halls to clear. Now it’s time to take a book cart to an English teacher whose students had placed a ton of titles on hold. Kids have been so excited to have access to library books again, which makes me happy. Some kids requested one book, while several others requested five. I relate more to the kids who requested five!

3:00 p.m. | I return to the library, where the homework club is in full swing. Though this happens in the library, I’m not in charge of it, so I finally have some time to shelve, get books checked in, and straighten up the shelves for the classes coming in the next day.

3:30 p.m. | I reply to any emails I’ve missed, check the library visit sign-up calendar, and clean up my desk.

3:45 p.m. | I’m finally heading out the door! I turn on a podcast in my car while I drive home, looking forward to a (very long) nap.

That’s what my Wednesday looked like last week! For those of you who are also library workers, what are your workdays like?

February 21, 2021February 21, 2021

Naming What Matters for My Home Library

Photo by Radu Marcusu on Unsplash

My book collection has become a situation. Shortly after I started doing library work professionally, I decided I wanted a personal library. I’m privileged to have always owned books, but I wanted more than a few books on a shelf. I wanted a collection, something I’d build slowly over time. I have that now, and it could be going better.

For one thing, I’ve outgrown my bookshelves. When that used to happen, I’d just buy another bookshelf from Target and call it good. But now there’s no room for more bookshelves. Hence, the situation.

One of my favorite people on the internet is Kendra Adachi, a.k.a the Lazy Genius. I never miss her podcast, and I love her book, The Lazy Genius Way. Her work always helps me clarify my thinking, so I re-listened to a recent episode of her podcast called What to Do Before Reorganizing Your Home. In true Kendra fashion, she said something that resonates deeply: start by naming what matters.

What matters to me about having a well-organized home library?
What matters about having a collection where I can find the book I want without moving a gigantic, wobbly tower to get to it?
What matters to me about having a home library at all?

These are some of the questions I’ll be thinking about in this post as I design a plan to conquer my bookish clutter. (I wrote about this in 2018 too but have apparently ignored my own advice.) I was going to make a Word doc and work through this project privately, but I thought this post might help those of you who are facing bodily harm due to the stack of hardbacks on your nightstand that looks more like a Jenga tower than literature. Let’s dive in.

Problem #1: I don’t have enough space for the books I have
Solution: Get rid of some books.
Question: What matters about the books I choose to own?

Here’s what I came up with as I thought about what books and types of books I want to own rather than borrow:

I want to own books by authors whose work I value deeply
I want to own books I know I’ll want to write in or underline
I want to own books I know I’ll return to over and over again
I want to own books that are part of special series I collect
I want to own books that are pretty because aesthetics matter to me
I want to own books that I’m excited to read right now

That last bullet point is probably the most important one for me as I embark on getting rid of books. I’ve had some titles on my shelves for years that I haven’t picked up yet. When I run into those books at one of my school libraries, I have no hesitation discarding them because books that don’t circulate don’t provide much value to a library. I need to take that approach with my own collection, too.

Problem #2: My books are disorganized.
Solution: Organize my books in a way that makes sense to me.
Question: What matters to you about an organization structure?

Because I’ve been doing library work for nearly sixteen years, I can’t help but want my home library to have a strict structure. I like my fiction shelved alphabetically, and I like my nonfiction divided by subject. Have I briefly considered putting Dewey decimal numbers on my nonfiction books? Maybe, but I don’t want to talk about that right now. Organization matters because it saves me time finding books and putting them away.

(Dear People Who Shelve Books By Color,

Your shelves look so pretty, but I just cannot.

Love,
Andrea)

Problem #3: I buy books a lot faster than I can read them.
Solution: Buy fewer books. (Maybe stop checking out 17 library books at a time, too.)
Question: What matters about how I spend my money?

Of the three main issues I have with my home library, this issue bothers me the least. I don’t mind having many unread books on my shelves, but I know I need to be more thoughtful about spending my money. Years ago, I’d often visit thrift stores and pick up any cheap books that looked even mildly interesting. I’ve become choosier over the years, but I still have work to do in this area. After thinking about it for a bit, here is what matters to me about the books I choose to purchase:

I want to financially support authors whose work means something to me, especially if that author is a person of color
I want to purchase books I want to read, not books I think I should read
I want to purchase books I intend on keeping in my collection for a long time
I want to focus more on quality than quantity, like buying one new book at my local indie instead of six at a thrift store just because they were cheap

Having a home library matters to me because I love books and I like having them around me. It’s that simple. They’re exciting, comforting, beautiful, and stimulating. My collection brings me joy, but only when it’s contained and not piled up everywhere.

Working through these three main problems has helped me clarify what my next steps to need to be in order to go from a situation to an enjoyable part of my home. I should probably go get started.

May 8, 2019

Small and Low-Cost Library Changes That Make a Big Impact

Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash

Sometimes when I think about changes I’d like to make in the school libraries where I work, I think about new furniture, cool technology, fresh layouts, and shelves packed full of new books. It’s fun to imagine these things, but it’s also unrealistic given my schools’ annual budgets. Instead of making over the entire library and purchasing every new book that’s released, most of the changes I’ve brought to my libraries have been small but effective. Today I want to share a few of those changes with you in case you need some free or low-budget ideas that have a significant impact.

Read the rest over at Teen Services Underground.

March 8, 2019July 5, 2021

3 Reasons Why Weeding Matters

Today I have a blog post up over at Teen Services Underground.

If you went into your local library looking for a book about space, would you want to check out a copy that was published before the moon landing? If you wanted a travel guide, would you choose the one written twenty years ago? Of course not, yet I know from experience that books like these occupy the shelves of many school libraries. I’m going on eight years as a public school library clerk, and during that time I’ve worked in six different schools. Several of them had books on the shelves like the ones I described above. The tape on the book jackets had become yellow and brittle, the information inside was obsolete, and the books hadn’t circulated in years, but they remained on the shelves because no one had bothered to weed the collection. Today I want to share three reasons why weeding matters to me and the difference I’ve seen it make in the libraries where I work.

Read the rest of the post here.