Your Prostate
Cunningham
1990
At first glance, this book looked (and smelled!) much older. It has the old fashioned binding and no color pictures or drawings. It is in good shape. (Probably because no one has checked it out.) I cannot speak to the accuracy of prostate health in the last 20 years, but medical materials must be held to a standard of no more than 5 or so years in my opinion.
On this site we have lots of discussions and fun with outdated materials, weird titles, and cover art, but this kind of mistake annoys me no end. (I am still trying to figure WHY they sent this to the bindery). Even the most pathetic effort at weeding materials should have caught this book. First, it was a medical title, so the pub date should have stood out like a sore thumb on any shelf list. Second, given the old fashioned binding, even a casual stroll down the 600s should have made this an obvious find.
Forgive my less-than-cheerful tone, but it is very cold today and I haven’t had enough caffeine to make me more forgiving of this title. It also could be that my latest trip down my 900s aisle revealed a pile of ugly old books that I missed. Worst part: a ten year old I was assisting rolled his eyes at the choices and said, “Seriously?” Perhaps I am projecting.
Mary
More Ancient Health Materials:
Question from a non-librarian: when you weed a book like this, how often (and how quickly) do you replace it with a more modern equivalent?
Speaking for myself only, I do regularly audit the medical materials and would try to have items only a few years old. If I weed, I try and order the same day.
I wonder if such a book might not circulate, but would be read in the library by those who don’t want to carry YOUR PROSTATE up to the circulation desk.
I find it highly amusing that “Your Prostate” is “Feeling Good”.