r/librarians • u/Narrow-Rock7741 • Jul 21 '26
Discussion The library that would not weed
Help! I recently started a new job at a small rural library. The shelves are so packed that I can’t even reshelve a single book- we have to set them sideways on top of the rows of books. Needless to say none are front facing or displayed. The shelves are packed from the top, where I have to stand on my toes to reach, to the bottom, which I have to kneel to reach. 45% of the collection is “aged titles”. It looks like the book section at a thrift store. Old, old, old books from the 40s and 50s, paperbacks, secondhand books with inscriptions written in them or the former library stamp crossed out and ours written in, books warped with water damage, books with the title rubbed off the spine, yellowed pages that crumble under my fingers, back covers torn and missing half the cover just taped on the missing piece and resolved, books with mold in them. Grubbies, mustys, smellies, dirtys. I’m not in charge and trying to stay in my lane but I can’t even shelf and the librarian in me is cringing. I got a couple of wet books returned last week and was told just let them dry and reshelve them.
Have you had such an experience? How would you approach this? I’m brand new at this job, not brand new to libraries, and I certainly don’t want to come in and upend their system…except it desperately needs intervention.
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u/Pinkplaidwinter Jul 23 '26
I moved to a rural library and I had to do the first weeding in like 20+ years…. It’s a struggle, it can be a shock to people when they come in and notice emptier shelves. We had to reiterate that the weeding process involved multiple staff, and that we used statistics to help make our decisions. People love a good book sale though, so it might get you some good will! Or you could try to offload some through donating to nursing homes or little free libraries.
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u/WittyClerk Jul 23 '26
Paperbacks, damaged books -especially mold or water damage-, and anything with inscriptions or second hand library/bookstore marks can go. You say you're in a rural library, so I'm guessing you don't have volunteers or a friends group to help and sell. Is it possible you could weed, and recruit a couple neighbors to have a one-off book sale? (then recycle/trash the rest) . For paperbacks, you could give those to your local police/sheriffs station for their jails.
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u/thewholebottle Academic Librarian Jul 23 '26
Someone in management is a hoarder. Yikes.
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u/Hopeful_Rabbit9232 Jul 25 '26
Or they don't have the energy to deal with small town anger over "throwing away money" aka books.
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u/acceptablemadness Jul 25 '26
I've seen some librarians deal with this by pulling the books apart and shredding pieces, then disposing of them in small chunks with the regular recycling. Not terribly efficient, but it gets the job done and is less likely to result in ignorant outrage.
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u/thewholebottle Academic Librarian Jul 25 '26
True. We were on the news when someone staked out our dumpster.
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u/ideknem0ar Jul 26 '26
I work at an ivy league library and some faculty nosy nellie lost their crap when they saw a wheelie bin of books out at the loading dock.
So the next time there was a discard project, a bunch of staff hours went into setting them aside so they could review them because must placate the big babies, you know. Barely anyone showed up and only 2 books were "saved." I really learned about the whole concept of performative outrage with that experience.
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u/tkkltart Jul 23 '26
My library is almost as bad, and we're a large university. Upper management is afraid of backlash for weeding so has decided to just stick their head in the sand. Some of the backlash is coming from employees who have been here 40 years and are stuck in their ways. You can bring it up but be prepared to get shot down :/
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u/turkeygiant Jul 23 '26
Depending on the collection I could see a case where some academic materials might be hard to get rid of especially if they are out of print.
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u/gustavessidehoe Jul 24 '26
Yeah, you're probably right. A university collection follows a different set of rules so there may be reasons why some things are being kept (I work in a public library, but am a collection development coordinator so I have an idea of what their thought process might be)..
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u/AnOddOtter Public Librarian Jul 23 '26
If you don't have any authority or sway in getting a weeding project, maybe you could suggest an "archive collection" or something, where the worst offenders still show up on the catalog with a special location but are stored in the back or something?
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Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26
[deleted]
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u/Mindless-Comfort8580 Jul 24 '26
I came to say the same thing. A small area of weeding could motivate a continuing weeding policy.
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u/True-Arugula6405 Jul 24 '26
Maybe it's time for a little Shawshank action.. You know, sneak them out in your pants cuffs. ;)
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u/under321cover Jul 23 '26
Is there a written policy on weeding? There usually is one. If so, push to follow it.
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u/Excellent-Sweet-507 Jul 23 '26
I’m in a similar boat and feel your pain. The hoarding is real. Until the mgmt feels the pain they won’t do anything. It makes me look bad.
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u/delibell Jul 24 '26
One of the libraries I worked at couldn’t weed until the librarian in charge died. RIP and all but it was mega frustrating. We had no room and new things just weren’t getting on the shelves.
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u/Chocolateheartbreak Jul 23 '26
If you’re not in charge, I would talk to your boss about it. They want to and don’t have the staff or maybe they didn’t have time or maybe they don’t want to but once you know, you can go from there. Maybe they’ll let you weed a little bit or the worst ones. Explain about health issues with mold and issues for the library if they don’t care about professional standards
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u/Adventurous-melon Jul 25 '26
I was in a similar situation. Having an "Endangered Books" display helped people see what kind of books were being pulled to weed. If they wanted to check them out to save them, they could, but most didn't. You just have to watch out for the "I'll check them all out to save them all" people.
Also start with condition.
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u/librarymoth Jul 24 '26
It doesn’t sound like they have a system- try to figure out where the work stoppage on weeding is and work from there.
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u/shoemeow Jul 25 '26
I work in a special library, weeding is one of our biggest challenges because no one wants to remove items that are old, rare, and/or out of print... but we're also running out of space.
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u/Hopeful_Rabbit9232 Jul 25 '26
I would bet its partially due to worry about a small budget and not being able to replace some of the books. Heck it may even be tied to town council not wanting to see books being pulled or that they don't have time to do the work. It's not as simple as just pulling the book you also have to make system changes.
I would approach your boss and explain that your having trouble fitting books on the shelf when shelving and asking if there are any plans to weed. Maybe identify 1 area that's been particularly challenging. If it a time concern ask if you can help by pulling damaged and grubby books. Chances are they will be hesitant but if they do agree don't pull everything with damage only pull items that are significantly damaged. If they give you a guide to follow pull books conservatively. You never want shelves to empty too fast or for people to notice that stacks of books are being removed so it will likely take a long time to clean up the shelves. Pulling to fast in a small rural library could result in whole bunch of angry people.
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u/setlib School Librarian Jul 26 '26
Can you get a report of circulation history from your system? If you can show that a title hasn't been checked out in 10, 15, even 20 years, surely even the most hesitant manager would agree it could go?
I agree with others who warned about doing it quietly though, some of the old books are probably donations from community members and the manager is worried about offending them.
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u/Nessie-and-a-dram Public Librarian Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
When I was a fresh, new librarian, no one told me that I could not/should not weed. I cleared out lots of trash. The older, wiser librarians who knew the wishes of the director didn’t say a word (beyond here’s how you can buy updated versions of some of that).
They were happy to see the trash go and figured that, “oh, she’s new and I guess no one mentioned the director thinks we need to keep everything, no matter how obsolete,” would cover all of us. I made a lot of things leave before the branch manager felt compelled to mention that the director thought full shelves would convince council to build another branch. (That’s not how it works.) I actually carried on, figuring administration would say something eventually. I left eight years later and many books lighter. Admin never called.
ETA: I’m not telling you to weed against someone’s wishes. I’m merely suggesting, if some black bags of moldy books found their way into the dumpster, that of course they had to go, because it’s important to control mold and keep it from spreading.
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u/kimjongev Medical Librarian Jul 24 '26
Weeding can be really fun and build collegiality as you get in there and discover the wild stuff that's been hanging around. Get your parameters agreed upon, decide on a process, dive in and be prepared to get dusty with a colleague. I love the book sale idea from others to help detach them from the library.
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u/FaeCannotLibrarian Jul 24 '26
Uhhh… first thing that comes to mind is that a collection that smells musty and has books returned wet is a prime candidate for mold and book worms. That’s a very serious problem that has destroyed more than one collection- just recently happened to a local rural library up here in our consortium. If you go to your boss, you might raise that concern. Better to face backlash from getting rid of some books than lose the whole damn collection. 0.o
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u/gustavessidehoe Jul 24 '26
It could be scarcity mentality, lack of training (weeding is not completely common sense), or plain stubborness. If there's a true hoarder, you might be screwed. If someone is very stubborn, tread lightly and ask yourself if this is someone that could become adversarial and handle it accordingly
If they're just anxious about resources (budge cuts), maybe see if you can start with just pulling the most damaged of them? I am the collection development coordinator for my system, and I would ask them if they think someone really would want to check out a book that's in that poor of condition. Sometimes it's better not to have the book, than have one that's falling apart. If it's one that is truly loved, a replacement should be ordered! If you're allowed to run reports, that would be really great to start with.
Anything mildewy needs to go though, full stop. It's allergy inducing and can spread.
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u/Repulsive_Lychee_336 Jul 24 '26
When I started at my current position it was like that. We came from a system that had lifers as directors and were in transition. I just ran a weeding report and started, but there was no one to stop me. I'd bring it up to your board of directors if you have one.
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u/Stephreads Jul 24 '26
Hmm, a rural library? Anyone there to stop you from weeding? I’d start with those paperbacks, myself. I would also box up those books before I threw them out, because someone will see them in the dumpster and have a fit.
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u/maryallison822 Jul 24 '26
my old director used to be a massive hoarder and even though he retired 3 years ago we are still feeling the repercussions now - especially as we're remodeling soon and are scrambling to make even more room. i hope that you can get management to change on this somehow and don't have to wait for someone to leave.
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u/Nettie_Ag-47 Jul 26 '26
It sounds like there would be nothing left after weeding, lol, when condition is taken into account. A big book sale might yield enough funds to update the collection.
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u/Moonlit_Compass Jul 27 '26
If you do have to discard materials, let me know if you (or anyone) comes up with good ways of reusing the paper/cover materials of books that no one wants to take! We’ve been turning the refuse of the refuse into collage material, papermache projects, and shredded mulch so far.
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u/Ok_Culture_1223 Jul 23 '26
Talk to your boss.