[Publib] Uncatalogued paperbacks

[Carolyn Scheer]

We have a very similar collection-- they are kept on three wire 
spinner racks and we weed them as necessary when the racks get 
full.   Of course, many of them don't get returned, but we don't 
care, since we have tons donated.  We weed mainly on condition.  When 
they get ratty looking we pitch 'em (torn covers, coffee stains, 
chunks of loose pages, etc).   We tend to keep westerns a little 
longer than others because we don't have as many donated.  Our 
automation system doesn't keep track of who, what, and when--only how 
many.  Over the years the collection has morphed from Harlequin 
romances to more ''sensual" romances, but we have been known to pitch 
some with raunchy or gruesome covers.  We don't keep oversized 
paperbacks that are too big to fit in the racks.  Some of the books 
that settle to the bottom get pitched for looking boring.   Some hot 
authors are weeded only when they fall apart--Danielle Steel, Louis 
L'Amour, Nora Roberts, etc.

How're those for professional guidelines!  The UPI collection is my 
favorite for the very reason that we don't have to agonize over weeding.

At 02:17 PM 1/4/2006, you wrote:
>We have a large selection of donated paperbacks that we keep as 
>uncatalogued. Patrons may take them out on their honor and return 
>them at any time that's convenient for them. They are not in our 
>database and are not "checked out". The problem is that we have 
>amassed quite a collection and need to weed through them to free up 
>some valuable shelf space. Do any of you have these collections and 
>what criteria do you use as far as what to keep, what to discard, 
>and when to discard them?
>
>Vicki
>
>Vicki Marsh
>Branch Manager
>South Oldham Library
>P. O. Box 365
>6720 W. Highway 146
>Crestwood, KY 40014
><mailto:vmarsh at oldhampl.org>vmarsh at oldhampl.org
>502-241-1108
>Fax: 502-241-1108
>_______________________________________________
>Publib mailing list
>Publib at webjunction.org
>http://lists.webjunction.org/mailman/listinfo/publib

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.webjunction.org/wjlists/publib/attachments/20060104/d2fe3a5b/attachment.htm