Hoarding is not collection development
Retro Cool Bowling
Bowling
Burton
1973
Submitter: It is important for us to provide information on pastimes and hobbies for our students’ leisure time. Which is why this bowling book from 1973 is a great choice. There’s nothing kids today like better. Inexplicably, it has never circulated. Perhaps we should leave it on the shelf to give it a chance to find its audience?
Holly: I’m not sure why there are so many old bowling books hanging around in libraries. Every single one of them has groovy fashion and represents a time when bowling was the hip, cool thing to do. Or, at least, it must have been seeing as how so many titles were published on the subject in the early 70s. It’s fine to have bowling books, but represent the current decade, at least! Now they have cosmic bowling with black lights and automatic scoring. Sounds much cooler to me!
Strike or Spare?
Inside Bowling for Women
Sperber and Pezzano
1977
Submitter: Unsurprisingly, it has not left the library in over eight years. The lack of circulation, in addition to the dated fashion and language, made the decision to weed this book incredibly easy.
Holly: If I tried to do any of the exercises pictured on page 66 (below), I’d end up dropping a bowling ball on my face. Look, bowling is great, and bowling for women is wonderful, but keep it in the current decade, at least!
Bowling for the Ladies
Bowling for Women
Audsley
1964
Submitter: Here we have a lovely example of why our library needs to weed. This book serves to tell us that bowling is a fashion statement (new dress, anyone?) and that we need more help and advice because we have less strength than men. Pair that with pictures of women bowling in skirts to their ankles and antiquated scoring “equipment” and this book is a weeding winner! Culled from a college library.
Holly: This is a GREAT example of why libraries should weed! What possible use can it be today in a college library (or any library outside of a museum or archive)? I don’t even have anything to add beyond what Submitter already said. It’s that obvious.
More Women in Sports: