A great blog post from Julie Goldberg from her blog Perfect Whole about weeding.
I can't believe you're throwing out books! May 2011.
She begins by saying "I am a librarian but no longer a bibliophile" and then goes on to talk about the process of weeding, the emotional hurdles we librarians - and our patrons - have to go through, dealing with donations, and an exploration of what a book really is and what makes it deserve shelf space...
The indignant bibliophiles value books not too much, but too little. By lumping all books together as sacred objects that can never outlive their usefulness, no matter how useless, they denigrate the power of books that can ignite a firestorm in a reader’s intellect, or tear a reader’s soul with pathos or romance.
It rang bells for me, and probably will for fellow librarians - and hoarders of weeded books !
This is a great essay, and I like the idea of keeping a few weeds as examples for when I am challenged about weeding.
ReplyDeleteHave you visited http://awfullibrarybooks.net/
It is a blog that features awful books that have been weeded. It is a hoot!
Glad you liked! Thanks for sharing my essay.
ReplyDelete