Collection Reflection

One of the areas of my responsibility in the nonfiction collection is the 840s. Officially this is "Literatures of Romance languages"--on a practical level, this translates to "French literature and related stuff." There may have been a time when French poetry, plays, criticism, and novels were incredibly popular at my library, but now is not that time. The average copyright date of items in this section is 1965 (the median and mode are both 1967). The Spanish-language (860s) and Russian-language (890s) sections are both over capacity and much more heavily used at my library, and weeding the 840s will help provide some additional space in that area. The weeding list I am working from encompasses the majority of the items in this part of the collection. So what do you do when you have an area to weed and you could theoretically delete almost every item? I was given responsibility for this area because I have a mild grasp of French and opinions about literature.* A...

Happy Tuesday! Cengage may declare bankruptcy . Don't judge old books by their new covers:  Restyling the covers of classics . A law librarian at the Library of Congress blog investigates the origin of "In God We Trust " on our currency. The Appeal of Reading True Stories --a list of suggestions for nonfiction reader's advisory. From Scientific American ,  The Reading Brain in the Digital Age: The Science of Paper vs. Screens . Why Haruki Murakami translated The Great Gatsby . From the World's Strongest Librarian Josh Hanagarne, five great books about libraries . Just for Fun : How to Host a Genre-Reveal Party . Help a library, send a postcard ! 50 tattoos inspired by books .

This post was originally run by Kristi over at Books, Yarn, Ink, and Other Pursuits , but it is relevant to our interests here as well! She recently began working as a library director in western Massachusetts, and has been doing a lot of learning on the job. ________ Now that I have been here a year, I am starting to work on filling the holes in my knowledge about the collection. Over the last year I did accomplish some massive weeding projects throughout nonfiction, VHS, and books on cassette. We had some heavy-duty shelf sitters and overcrowded subject areas. The previous director loved nonfiction, but I have always been a fiction buyer and that was where I focused my efforts when I began working with the collection. Mysteries are the most popular genre here, but they still need to be weeded from time to time. I also broke out science fiction and fantasy into its own area. One thing I have enjoyed bringing to the library is more displays. We are a small library, but I have a b...

More Potter! Universal announces of the expansion of the Harry Potter theme park . How do YOU  like your classic lit: in a ball gown or lingerie? Women love erotica: they always have and they always will . (Women are a monolith now?) Polish spy, said to be inspiration for Bond girls, to be commemorated . Sourcebooks and Overdrive present: The Big Library Read . Ergonomics 101: for writers . (A lot of this applies to librarians, some of whom also sit a lot.) 10 disappointing film adaptations of classic American novels . 10 "essential" neo-noir authors . Famous books you didn't know were censored . Just for Fun: Could you talk to a caveman?  (I do. So often...) The best SF/F moms . William Shakespeare's Star Wars staged in Philly . (!!!) I would read each one of these fictional mama's biographies .

Happy Thursday! Last week, I presented on " Full-Frontal Shelving: Erotica in the Library " with  Kristi Chadwick --lots of opportunities for collection development in that area! The Anthony Award Nominees are out! Locus Award Nominees ! Finalists for the Shirley Jackson Awards (outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic). A handy flowchart for YA humor books (via the Lawrence PL). If you were waiting for a sequel to A Time to Kill , you're in luck . Via our friend @librarymary40, some tips on how to get started in a new library job . From Book Riot, your guide to summer movies based on books . Just for Fun : A brilliant solution to the quandary presented by reading in the bathtub .

"Denewing" is the term I invented for the process of taking books from the new shelf and changing their status to, for lack of a better word, "not-new." Sure, I could farm the work out to other people in my library, but it's never been clear to me why I would when denewing presents the perfect opportunity to see what has been circulating, how many times, and (thanks to Evergreen, our new ILS) the last library at which an item was checked out. Plus, peeling stickers = therapeutic. Denewing is something I can do on desk while I help people with their various computer issues. Denewing also makes your new shelves look better. Because space is at such a premium in most public libraries (although regular weeding could help with that-- cough ), the New Shelf is the place where we have the best opportunity to showcase what we're buying and catch people's attention. The new shelf should be positioned somewhere where it will catch patrons' eyes and shout (it...