Tidbit Tuesday: Extreme Fiction Make-Over
Do you ever go through your closet and weed your clothes? Do you ever feel like I have all these clothes and nothing to wear? Do you find it difficult to rid yourself of treasures that you just know that once those ten pounds come off, you will wear that outfit again?
Sometimes the collections get like there are all these books and nothing to read. Weeding the collection is like closet cleaning. If I just book talked this book more? What do you mean get rid of it, that’s a NEWBERY Award book? Oh, maybe I will make a display about this book. Sometimes it takes EXTREME measures to get the task done.
That’s what happened a couple of weeks ago in the library. My practicum student, stepped up to the plate and did an “extreme fiction make over”. This project happened as a result of conversations about getting kids to elect to read by selecting books that they will stick with all the way through. Stats were run and books were pulled. Many graced the shelves on opening day thirty-six years ago.
I was out of the building at a meeting when the weeding occurred. This was a good thing. I could not say, “But I loved the Black Stallion series as a child” or “Really, you do not think we need… ? It is so much easier to look at a book on a cart, away from the collection, and see that really the book has served its time well.
The stark reality is that kids will not check out books that look old, look warm, have dated covers. Kids will abandon their book if it is not easy to find. My fiction was guilty of that. Big time. Now the shelves have room to breathe. Books can be displayed outward.
After
After
Comments have been that shelves are not so overwhelming. I look at the picture book section and the nonfiction section and I see weeding to be done. Until the fiction books are boxed up and cleared out, those shelves are safe.
Happy Reading.
MsMac
November 11th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
I just moved everything and have forward facing displays by topics, and the students love it. The problem is keeping them stocked. It is hard to weed, but good books still circulate at my library even if they are worn. My Book of Three is so old that the hard cover (a rebind) is bendy, but it is still always checked out. Glad you are liking the changes.
November 11th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
Good for you. When I was a librarian, I could never weed anything out unless it was falling apart or had outdated information. I would have kept those Black Stallions until the pages fell out. Not saying that’s a good idea, but buying books and recommending books and checking out books and even reshelving them was always lots more fun than weeding.
November 12th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
My local library needs weeding badly, and our librarian is working on it, but for lovers of old books like myself, it has such treasures that I hope they never finish the job! Or at least off me first dibs on the discards….
November 12th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
of course I meant “offer me” not “off me.” sigh. Death by discards…
November 12th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
Ms. Mac, do the Lemony Snicket books move in your school? I was so surprised to see the ones in Jr.’s school library on a bottom shelf, gathering dust. No one checks them out. I’ve see other older series fly off the shelves, like Goosebumps.
November 13th, 2008 at 5:48 am
May I borrow your practicum student? Even though I weeded 11 boxes out of my classroom last spring, I am overrun by books.
Susan — my observation is that The Series of Unfortunate Events is gathering dust. But then, I don’t see anyone reading Harry Potter anymore, either.
November 13th, 2008 at 11:44 am
I am hoping to display more of the chapter books because of weeding. The Snicket books do still go out a bit but HP interest is waning. Studetns opt for shorter books.