Be Your Own Makeup Artist: Jerome Alexander’s Complete Makeup Workbook
Alexander
1983
Submitter: Not sure why this cover is giving me such Robert Palmer vibes… This was found languishing on the shelf and no wonder – time to replace this with some from this century.
Holly: They do look like Robert Palmer girls!!
Christy
Marshall LeSourd
1967
Submitter: While assisting a rural library with their weeding, we came across Christy. The solo librarian could not believe that it was still on the shelf. She was horrified. It was last checked out in 1995. This little library has done an excellent job of serving its citizens of 353. They use catalog cards and do everything manually, so it is hard to keep up! Someone must have thought that Christy could be brought back to life!
Holly: Poor Christy is being held together with about a pound of tape and a prayer – which is appropriate, since this book is popular with Christian homeschoolers in my community. My library’s copy has circulated 43 times since 2007 when our current copy was added, most recently one year ago today. It would even be worth buying a new copy if ours was in bad shape. Clearly it is not that popular in Submitter’s library, though, if they have a copy in this kind of condition that hasn’t gone out since 1995. I think they’re safe weeding it and letting it go. Different strokes for different folks! I am curious about the tape job, actually. You can no longer see any title from the spine and there’s no call number sticker either. Even the title on the cover is so faint you have to look closely to see what book it is. Maybe it would have circulated if anyone could tell what book it was while browsing.
Thanksgiving represents the start of the holiday season. I particularly like working post Thanksgiving due to the large number of college students that show up telling me that their family is driving them crazy. There is also a high probability of pumpkin pie in the break room. Thanksgiving also makes me think of holiday books, especially ones for the kids.
As we head into the holiday season, it is a good time to dig deep into your holiday book collection. Instead of looking to see that holidays are represented, take a minute to really evaluate the collection, especially the older titles. Our library has been making a a concerted effort to make sure we are inclusive and respectful of both religions and cultures. Particularly helpful for collection development of non-Christian religious holidays and celebrations is Diverse Bookfinder.
Be mindful of how non-Christians or indigenous people are represented in books. Thanksgiving holiday books can be quite problematic in native representation – not to mention factually inaccurate. If you want some examples, check out the category “Holiday collection” on our site for examples.
Although I don’t do kiddie collection development (adults are SOOOO much easier!) anymore, I thought I would share a few resources for both youth and adults. (Holly cobbled this together based on some workshops and recommendations.) Of course, this is only to scratch the surface and gives you a starting point. I am sure there are more resources out there and this is not to be considered a comprehensive list. If anyone has any to share, by all means say so in the comments!
I will also point out that we have some sample collection development policies if you are looking for language on DEI. I also want to point you to the ALA discussion on Diversity in Collections.
The Atlas of World History: From the Beginning to Alexander the Great
McEvedy
1970
Submitter: Weeding my high school library, where the non fiction books average an age of 1986, I found this in the history section. I flipped through it and it seemed pretty decent for being published in 1970 and White American centric, but then I saw this map and read the text accompanying it. It seems pretty racist even for 1970s.
Holly: Ouch, 1986? You have your work cut out for you, Submitter. Good catch on this one.
How to Eat Like a Republican: Or, Hold the Mayo, Muffy – I’m Feeling Miracle Whipped Tonight
Townsend
2014
Submitter: This book was just weeded at my public library. It was weeded for low checkouts and there’s a reason why. It’s trying too hard to be funny and the recipes don’t look good at all.
Holly: I bet if you replaced “Republican” with any other group of people, political or not, you’d get the same basic recipes submitted. It’s definitely tongue-in-cheek, and I bet there are libraries where this kind of thing circulates well. I agree that the recipes look kind of dumb. For me, that’s actually what makes it funny! Some of the reviews on GoodReads are pretty funny too.
How to solve your decorating problems
Bradford
1976
Barbara Taylor Bradford has shown up on our site for her nonfiction decorating books. (I am so glad she turned to fiction.) For the time, these were pretty decent books, although I just about die a thousand deaths with this example.
Depending on the library’s mission, I don’t think one has to keep everything simply because the author is “significant”. No doubt that Bradford is significant. Hanging on to older titles because the author is “important” is not enough of a reason to keep something clearly outdated. Larger or specialty libraries can do this, but for the average public library, this is probably outside the scope of the library mission. Always remember your core audience and mission.
Computer Programming 1,2,3
1983
Grosset & Dunlap
Submitter: Anyone who has worked with children and school assignments will know this story…
A class in the school across the street assigned a project on programming a computer and students flocked in to check out books from the library. There is of course that one student who shows up the day before the assignment is due and there is not much left. Trying to help him out, I found this ye olde computer book on the shelf. Yikes! Not awful in 1983, but not helpful today.
Holly: Oh look! A punch card!
McDonalds McDonaldland Specification Manual
McDonalds Corporation
1975
Submitter: There are many wonderful gems in our vertical file collection that really make no sense on why we collected them. This is one of them. It’s a 1975 booklet on the McDonalds characters. I love this quote “Ronald McDonald is a CLOWN. The fact that he is a corporate spokesman should not overshadow his ‘clownness.’ He is all the good things that come to mind when thinking of clowns.” I see that this booklet has been digitized in a few places and they will allow us to let this one go.
Holly: Nostalgia at its finest! I had a birthday party at McDonalds when I was about eight. I was a cool kid for that one day. Best. Day. Ever. But yeah – why is this still in a library collection? And I’m genuinely curious – who still has a vertical file? We do, but it’s mostly local history.
