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 by Marilyn Mader
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| Acquisitions!!! Before one begins to look at what to buy, a clean up and assessment of what you already have needs to take place. Let's begin with clean up. Weeding can be controversial and is a much harder process than one realizes at first glance. In these times when budgets are tight or nonexistent, the first impulse even as a librarian, is to hang onto materials, simply because at least we have something. On further introspection, we realize that any materials which have not been checked out within the last ten years are either of interest to no one, or the material may be totally outdated. When one actually begins the process, it may also seem that you are weeding, or pulling from your shelves some of the newest books. Books that aren't used look nice. Books that are used have a worn appearance. Weeding may also bring thunder from those in authority above us or community members. "It should be noted that weeding can be an extremely controversial issue among rural school boards and the community as a whole. These boards, struggling to meet standards and tight budgets, regard as sacred all materials whether outdated or broken." (From Itinerant Library Network Final Report, p. 8) Educating the board and members of the community may also be a vital step in the process of preparing for house cleaning and preparations for acquisitions. Weeding should be done by professionals and not volunteers. Volunteers may choose to weed materials they don't like or that have opposing views on controversial issues. Volunteers may be useful in the process for books which have questionable merit and may need to be read and evaluated before decisions are made about whether to keep or discard. An example would be which books to keep and which to discard in the Native American section of the library. These books may need an evaluation sheet done on them as people read and rate them before the decision is made as to their fate. An evaluation sheet may be produced locally so as to fit local needs, or may be a commercial one if it gives you the information needed to make an educated and informed decision. Examples of what one might look for in this circumstance might be how old the book is, if the book contains racial slurs, is the book fairly accurate, etc. Be reminded that accuracy of a book varies with people's perspective and that "politically correct" or "historical revisionist" materials do not necessarily represent a complete picture. (A library is not a place to push "politically correctness," but rather an area of resource where viewpoints can be explored.) A thorough house cleaning of the library should be done before looking at acquisitions. The first step in this process is usually weeding of the entire collection. Weeding guidelines are varied, but the simplest is the 10 year rule. If books have not been checked out in 10 years, they should be discarded unless they have specific value. Examples of specific value would be books that are of particular interest to the community or state, classics or books by classic authors. Weeding should also address books in poor repair. Often these books are left on the shelf too long. Books with pages missing or partial pages missing should be pulled as noticed. This means that weeding is an ongoing process, as well as a scheduled process. A weeding for books not checked out in 10 years should be done on a scheduled basis. I recommend it be done every five years. Pulling of the books from the shelves is only the first step in the weeding process. Cards must be pulled from the card catalog, or deleted from the computer databases if the library is automated. This process can take hours, but is a good job for a volunteer if you have a reliable, consistent volunteer. Cards will also have to be pulled from other lists that you may have such as shelf lists or acquisition lists. Several methods may be used in the pulling of cards from the catalog. The simplest is to have one source from which to work, so that getting the discarded books out of the library can be done as soon as possible. Shelf list cards or the cards from the book itself are two of the quickest sources to work with. The books can then be disposed of and the cleaning up of the card catalog can be done as time permits. The main entry card, usually the title card will have a list at the bottom of the other entries in the catalog and will give you direction as to where other cards for the book are located. A proficient cataloger will have crossed off the entries that were not filed, but any entry not crossed off should be checked for. It should be noted here that marking of the book in some manner must be done so that books that have been discarded are recognizable if they cross your desk again. Marking should be done in a way which is least disfiguring to the book. If books are stamped with the name and/or address of the library, writing "discard" through this may be the simplest. Disposal of books may be a touchy subject and may need to be handled with caution, but there are places to dispose of many of the books so that they still get some use. Jails are often glad to take discarded books, as prisoners can then take with them a book they are in the middle of. Homeschoolers, local boys and girls clubs, shelters and rescue missions are all organizations that I have found are glad to receive some of the books. If you have an organization such as "Friends of the Library" or parent volunteers, you may wish to have a book sale and sell discards for a quarter or dime. "Haul away tables", made available first to staff and then to the students, have also been popular with my building. Last but not least, there are some books that no one is interested in and have to be hauled to the dump or destroyed. One last use for such books is that pages torn out can be used for a number of center type activities in classrooms. I tore some of these types of books apart and had a box of pages available to teachers. I made up a list of possible uses and put them in the teachers' mail and the number of takers was surprising. The list of ideas included things like having students circle specific things on the page. Examples in primary would be to circle the vowels or the letter of the day. Intermediate might circle conjunctions, verbs, adjectives, etc. Assessing the needs of the library is a continual process and is most effective handled that way. Having a folder on your desk and making little notes as you go is the easiest way to assess the needs you have. When a person requests a book or author that you don't have, jot it down and add it to the folder. When students are studying an area or topic and you have little or nothing on a topic, jot it down. When staff attend workshops, request book lists from the workshop with the most wished for books starred and add that to the folder. As you discard popular but damaged books, add the check out card to the folder. When books are stolen, they were obviously popular and you will want to replace them so their cards go in the folder. Other areas may be books you have read reviews about in library journals or other teachers resources. This ongoing process of assessment provides the librarian with a folder full of requests and possible needs. This folder will provide a starting place for the acquisition of books. Several of the jobbers will take this list and do all the typing and searching for these books for you. Follett is one such jobber. Follett will take your folder of handwritten notes, reviews, pages from catalogs or lists, type them up and will send you a detailed listing of all your titles available in their inventory. There is a form to fill out for this free service. Many of the other jobbers have similar type services available. Jobbers are book companies that work with a number of warehouses. If given a list, jobbers will hunt for the books for you. You may order books from one place that would normally have to be ordered from a variety of companies. Jobbers provide a wide variety of other library services, often for no charge. These services include the searching for books, price listing, and many will generate lists and prices on topics of interest or need. For example, if you are needing to improve your section on horses you can call a jobber and ask for their listing of non-fiction (or fiction, or both) books on horses, and they will send you free of charge just that list. Many cataloging services are also available on orders, from shelf ready processing to computerized cataloging. Each of these cataloging services adds an additional small fee to the cost of the book. If starting a new library, many jobbers will generate lists of a proposed start up library and costs, etc. You can order directly from those lists. Several of the jobbers provide shelf ready processing, which means that everything is done and books are ready to go on the shelf when you open the box. Often the only thing you need to do is press in the pockets, as some will even pack the books in the order in which they go onto the shelf. The catalogs from the jobbers can be very helpful. Catalogs from jobbers are usually organized several ways, including organizing by author, a section by the title, and often sections on topics or author specific. Some also include a non-fiction section where the books are listed by dewey decimal number. The main jobbers (in no particular order) and their toll free numbers are:
Follett Library Resources, 800-435-6170 Perma-Bound, 800-637-6581 Brodart, 800-233-8467 Econo-Clad Books, 800-255-3502 Subscription services are available for almost everything in the library. Books can be "rented" or subscribed to on a one, two or three year rental basis. Movies can be "rented" or subscribed to in the same way. Depending on your needs and budget considerations, this can be a very effective way of meeting the needs of your library. Books, especially in the area of technology, are out of date in two years. Using the services of a subscription service, you can keep current without paying full price for the books. If your budget is almost nonexistent, it is also a way to keep new books coming into your library without the full cost. There are definite drawbacks to "rentals" however. How does one catalog books, movies, etc., that are only going to be in your library for one or two years? At the end of the rental time, what do you have to show for the money? Do you have to pay replacement costs for lost, stolen or damaged materials? Are there hidden fees in the "rental" agreement (such as a yearly service charge)? Do you have a choice in the titles, or is it a set you must take? Would you be better off purchasing paperback (temporary) materials in place of renting books? These questions should be looked at in terms of what is best for your situation. A magazine subscription service is a company that works much like a jobber for magazines. This allows you to order almost all of your magazines from one place and with only one bill. The exceptions are local and state magazines and newspapers. They are not available through the subscription services and must be handled separately. Magazine subscription services provide a tremendous service, but it is an area where you also need organized information at your fingertips. Renewal notices come in constantly and you will need to know what you are ordering separately so that you can discard all renewal notices that come from magazines ordered through a subscription service. One such subscription service is EBSCO and it provides you with a list of your ordered titles and when they expire. This list will quickly remind you of what you have through them and which magazine renewals can be tossed. They are also very good about helping to obtain missing copies -- either copies that never arrived at your school or copies you may need to replace in a set. EBSCO's regional office for MT, SD, WY, CO, ND, KS, UT, and NE is in Golden, Colorado. Stan Terry is general manager at 303-237-1753 / 800-727-1077 or FAX 310-322-2558. Magazines on CD-ROM are also available. CatalogingCataloging of Temporary Items (such as rentals) You must address this. Regardless of what you choose to do, do something so that the material is put to use as much as possible during the time it is in your library. Book rentals may soon come with cataloging on disc. In the meantime, I suggest quick and dirty cataloging. To me that means hand done cards (with only the truly vital information on them) -- a subject and title card for nonfiction materials, and an author card for fiction. Remember that a card catalog that is current is much more important than a formal, properly written card catalog that is not current. If you have an automated system, then I suggest quickly entered information that covers author, title and subject. Again, this is quick and dirty but allows you to pull up these temporary items when doing searches. Inclusion of this section is necessary because most small libraries are also media centers and resource centers. These materials must also be cataloged enough so that they can be found. If your teacher/staff resource materials are not in the catalog at all, then I highly recommend that you put this area onto a computer database. That is the quickest, most usable way to handle materials not cataloged. All of the computer service programs have a database within them. The data that I suggest you enter should include at least these fields: author, title, subjects, location, media (filmstrip, video, etc.,) copyright, accession number (if you have this), and ISBN number. In the subject area take caution to use descriptors that are common, so the searcher will be able to easily locate the materials. Each area will then be able to be searched. This database will not only become invaluable to you as staff members make requests, but can also be your shelf list for this area. Most of these databases can be rolled over into an automated program or used to help do retrospective conversions. When I took over my library, the card catalog was so defunct that I built a database of my entire library and that is what we used as the catalog for three years. It was accurate and up to date. I entered new materials on it as I put them out and it was always current. It took the place of the card catalog and was also a shelf list. I was able to roll that over into an automated system, although there are not formal entries for each book. At some point (in order to hook up with other libraries) formal retrospective conversion will have to take place. At that time, I will haul the card catalog which no one has used in four years to the dump. For many of us who were moved from classrooms to the library, this section brings nightmares. Start by accessing your card catalog. (1) Has it been kept up to date? (Quick check -- look in subject such as alligators. How many books does it say that you have in that area? Check to see how many you actually have. Does it say you should have 11 books, but when you check your "full" shelf, you only have three?) (2) Have discards in the past been pulled from the catalog? (3) Have new books had cards ordered for them and been put into the catalog? (Are there piles of unlabeled cards lying here and there that you have no idea what they are?) If the answer to questions 1, 2 and 3 is "no" then I suggest you strongly consider the previous paragraph on building a hand made database. If the answer to any of these questions is "yes", then you have had the great fortune to take over a relatively organized library. Remember that quick access for patrons to materials is the main goal of the library. This goal means that regardless of the form of cataloging you use, materials must be cataloged. Preprinted, formal cards from book companies (as you order books) are worth every penny they cost. When the cards come, you will need to decide which cards you wish to enter into your card catalog and shelf list, do it, and discard the rest. If you are adding paperbacks or other materials that do not come with cards, you will need to produce cards of some type for your catalog. "Quick and dirty and keep it current" is the best philosphy. Translated that means get something quickly into your catalog and the books in circulation. Handwritten cards with only the essentials (as described in Cataloging of Temporary Items) will get you by. When time is on your hands, these cards are easily identifiable and at that point they can be done correctly. Shelving and organization of the library is a vital part of an efficient library. Skipping over the obvious things, such as 'similar materials should go together,' let's look at some aspects of actual life. Nonfiction materials should all go together...or should they? Is your Biography section so large it needs to be housed separately? Do you have some other area that may need to be housed in a separate area? Are you a library on an Indian reservation and need a separate area for Native American materials? These questions are best answered on an individual basis using as your guideline the question "What best meets the needs of my local patrons?" The more "separate areas" a library has, the more chance of patron confusion. The organization of library shelving should be as straight forward and simple as your library shelves allow. Logical splits such as between easy fiction and juvenile fiction or juvenile and adult nonfiction are easily taught to patrons. Splits between paperback and hardback within an area may not be so easily remembered by your clientele. If they need to be shelved separately, they should be shelved in the same area. Paperbacks are both an asset and a liability to small libraries. Assets are that they are cheap to attain and are much more used (especially by middle school and high school kids) than identical hardbacks. Liabilities are the short life span, lengthier processing time (need to be covered with contact paper and catalog cards made by hand) and some difficulty in shelving. Suggestions concerning shelving: Paperback books that are very thin (too thin to stand on the shelf) seem best shelved separately. Two sets (one set each for fiction and nonfiction) of tubs (dishpan type plastic tubs) will allow many of these books to stand. In place of a spine label, a sticker with the author's last initial (for fiction) or the dewey decimal number (for nonfiction) on the top left corner of the cover of the book allows identifying for shelving (tubbing). If the alphabet (and dewey decimal numbers) are split up, a colored dot can be designated for each set and tubs can be easily identified. Especially for elementary students, this works very well. Separations could be done as needed. I have four tubs for each section and my splits are as follows:
The dot on the book would have the author's last initial (or for nonfiction thin books, the dewey decimal number). The books with a red dot and a letter would all be easy fiction and would all go into that tub. The books with a red dot and number on the dot would all go into the nonfiction tub. The non-fiction tubs should be housed close to or with the non-fiction section. The same with fiction. This efficiently handles lots of thin paperback books and allows you to have more current books than you would be able to afford in hardback. Paperbacks (especially in easy fiction) are a quick way to get books that you would like to have -- until you can get the funding to have them in hardback. Paperbacks can be acquired from book fairs, monthly student book club orders (Scholastic, Troll, Trumpet, etc.) and often I pick them up at garage sales. The prices that companies offer to students and teachers through monthly book clubs is much cheaper than the same books in school catalogs, from the same companies. It is a bit of a headache to make a number of small orders, but the companies will allow orders from different grade levels clubs on the same school purchase order. The books in these book orders are usually current popular books and authors at reduced rates. The points you accumulate allow you to order additional books or resources. Realia, filmstrips, and movies are often shelved separate from the student book section. These items are shelved separately because of irregular shape as well as security reasons. Realia is a tough area to shelve, but it has worked best for me to use (boxes) of the same size for real objects. Within a resource area may also be kits or boxes on a topic where the "kit" contains a variety of items including books, teacher resource materials, as well as real objects. For example, an "Ocean Life" box might contain seashells, seaweed samples, ditto books on seas or oceans, trade books, etc. Filmstrips come in three ways: filmstrips with no cassettes, filmstrips with cassettes, and filmstrip kits. For reasons of space, these are usually shelved in three separate areas. To make these items easily accessible to patrons, it is vital that the cataloging designate the location. Some filmstrip housing units come with drawers that have room for cassettes. If you have these or are ordering, this type of storage area allows filmstrips and filmstrips with cassettes to be housed together and eliminates one area. Movies (VCR tapes) are usually shelved in a secured area. They should be separated into fiction and nonfiction areas using author (or director) for fiction and dewey decimal number for nonfiction videos. A biography section may be necessary, but in small libraries, the biography video section will normally be so small that it can be housed in the 900's of the nonfiction videos. The smallest amount of fragmented sections to the library, the better. Processing depends totally upon the system you are using. If you use circulation cards, then books purchased without processing will each need a spine label, pocket attached, a card made for checkout and an accession number assigned. Card catalog cards will also need to be made and/or entered into the card catalog. If you are automated, processing usually only requires a spine label, accession number and a circulation bar code attached. Entering of data onto the catalog or database may need to be done by hand or "down loaded" into your program if the cataloging data is purchased on disc when new books are ordered. Books with book jackets may need to be covered, but this may be an added cost and unnecessary use of additional time. Books that have attractive covers usually do not need their jackets. Jackets that are covered often are ripped up and ready to be taken off about the same time as the book pages are torn and the book is ready to be discarded. Therefore, a book ready for discarding may have a new looking cover when the jacket is removed. If books have a plain or non-decorated cover, then jackets are necessary. If not, determine why you are covering the jacket. Is it worth the added time and cost? Paperbacks have a short life span (two to four years depending on usage), but that is lengthened by covering them with contact paper. Book contact paper is available at a pricey amount from library companies, but regular contact paper works just as well. Contact paper is slightly harder to work with because it sticks immediately, whereas paper from library supply companies peels back away from books easier. But the extra ease of special contact paper from library companies for book covering is not worth the additional cost. The saying "a stitch in time saves nine" is true in the library as well. Constant maintenance of books saves in the long run. A box or area to pull off books to be repaired is a must. We don't have time usually to repair books when we find them, but if books are pulled and set aside, it seems easier to do a bunch at once than one here or there. The most important repair items are a flexible book glue and several kinds of tape. Tape is needed for rips, book binding repair, spine repair and corner repair. Frosted or Magic Scotch Tape works best for taping ripped pages because it does not discolor like its shiny counterpart. A permanent flexible book glue is a must. I recommend DEMCO's Norbond Liquid Plastic Adhesive. I use this for all spine repairs and gluing pages back in. When a book becomes wobbly as it tears loose from the binding by the spine, I run this glue down in from the top, spread it around with a skinny dowel and let dry. On paperbacks, I use this same glue to glue pages back in. Many tapes are on the market for spine repair. I prefer a cloth type tape in a wide width. I also purchase Scotch brand clear book tape in several widths to use on spines and book corners. Major suppliers of library products are:
Highsmith 1-800-558-2110 Brodart Gaylord The Library Store 1-800-548-7204 Major suppliers of audiovisual bulbs are:
Heartland Audio-Visual Supply 1-800-345-6898 (for the cheapest common bulbs and audiovisual equipment) The circulation procedure tends to show the librarian's organizational style and there doesn't seem to be one right or wrong way. Circulation at the primary (K-2) level is the most challenging regardless of whether you are automated or not. K-2 patrons, if allowed to get books from the stacks, will need to be taught how to get books out and put them back. Plastic markers are available for this purpose, so that the students put the marker where the book goes back while they look at the book. If they do not want to check out that book, they would put the book where the marker is and pull the marker out. I have found that these markers are also great to sword fight with and that it is difficult for students of this age to keep straight when they can remove the marker. For this reason, I have found that having kids pull the book next to the one they wish to view out a little seems to work better. They can still replace the book in its correct place with this method. Books for a classroom may be checked out to the teacher if books are not allowed to go home, or may be checked out to individual students. A tub of books checked out to the classroom as a whole also works well at this level. This way the books are checked out to the teacher and kept in the tub when not being used. These tubs can be rotated to the classrooms and this saves the librarian many hours of reshelving. One extra tub is needed to allow the rotation process. The books in the tubs are checked in and then out to the next class. If this system is used, tubs should always have a wide spectrum of materials to cover a variety of interests. The tubs may then be rotated until each classroom has had each tub. They then need to be changed to a new batch of tubs. A chart will help you keep track of which classrooms have had which tubs. If books are allowed to go home with primary students, then books will need to be checked out to the individual student and not to the teacher. Students at this age are murder on stacks and it may be advisable to have a separate area from which students can choose books. Books laid on tables or in magazine type racks are a good way to display books for primary children to choose from. If there is much interest in one subject area, the next time they come you may wish to have a number of books out on that topic. Dinosaurs, basketball and drawing books are a for sure sell in my school. The topics of interest will vary according to what the local culture is. With an automated system, books are easily checked out to either the classroom teacher or individual students. A hint in the organization of automated systems: when numbers or bar code labels are assigned to each student, these can be put on individual cards in a rolodex or on a sheet for each classroom. A sheet or file folder per classroom seems to be more efficient. Laminate the sheet of paper or the file folder and then use Magic Scotch Tape to tape the bar codes onto the sheet. Do not use the sticky back of the bar code to stick it to the page. Write students' names on the laminated sheet with a permanent Sharpie marker. The marker can be erased with finger nail polish remover or hair spray. In this way, if students are transferred from one classroom to another, they are easily removed in the sheets as the magic tape will peel off of the laminated surface. In preparation for each new year, the students' numbers can follow them to the next classroom and it is easy to keep track of books still lost or not paid for this way. Students above grade two are big enough to use the stack properly. A designated place to put books when students have changed their minds will save finding books in wrong places. There is not a right or wrong way. If it works for you, then I would say it is one right way. Book cards can be filed alphabetically by the date stamped in the book and on the card. This dated stamp is usually the date due, but could be the date checked out. They can be filed alphabetically by the date or alphabetically as a whole. Book cards kept separated by classroom works well if students only return books during their scheduled class time. If books are returned and checked out to students other than at their class times, then this does not work as you have no idea where the book came from and must look through all the classroom cards. Overdue book cards can be kept with the current ones and this aids in helping remind students of overdue books. In the case of tubs, the cards for the tub would be stamped and checked out to "Mrs. X", but be kept in an envelope (a sealed envelope cut in half) or rubber banded from the rest of the books checked out that day. If classrooms are kept separate, but all are filed behind the date, then if a book is returned at a time other than class time, you only have to look through that day for the card. A lot has been covered briefly in this chapter. The library is a place where the work is never done. It is an area that needs to be constantly changed and updated to meet the needs of its patrons. After teaching in the classroom for nine and one-half years, Marilyn Mader took over her school library in Lame Deer. That was three and one-half years ago. During that time she has utilized the expertise of a neighboring school librarian as a "phone mentor." Ms. Mader is currently working on her library degree. 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