The reality is there has to be some kind of weeding process. Libraries can't forever hold an ever-increasing number of books, especially how woefully funded public libraries are in some areas. I think as long as the process - and list of weeded books - are transparent there's nothing wrong with it.
Weeding the Worst Library Books
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Re: Weeding the Worst Library Books
#22I wonder, if part of the pre-weeding process, if books proposed to be disposed could be run through Amazon's system for sale. If sold within a certain window, then they go on to a new, more useful life. If not, they head to the dumpster. Since they're already shelved and easily located, it should be trivial for library staff to find, package and send any orders.
Re: Weeding the Worst Library Books
#23The criteria of "usefulness" is a slippery slope. Books like The Iliad are completely devoid of any practical usefulness, they would have been discarded centuries ago by the librarians at Alexandria. I've seen libraries in Spain throw away good novels, even excellent novels, to make room for the latest potboiler.
The library at Alexandria was where the early scholarship on Homer was done.
> The Alexandrine grammarians undertook the critical revision of the works of classical Greek literature,[3] particularly those of Homer, and their studies were profoundly influential,[4] marking the beginning of the Western grammatical tradition.[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandrine_grammarians
(Not arguing with your point about usefulness in general; just twitching when it came to the Iliad.)
Re: Weeding the Worst Library Books
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
The library at the university I attended as an undergraduate threw out (3 or 4?) volumes of TAOCP but kept "the magna guide to SQL" or some crap like this. Their justification was that TAOCP had never been checked out. Which is funny because the year prior when I tried to check out a volume, they told me it was a reference book and could not be checked out. I'm still completely confused about how that decisions was a…
The manga guide to Calculus is a great book. It helps me reason on a topic that is hard for me to grasp. Someone must think SQL is a difficult topic too. TACOP is extremely dense and put me to sleep every time I tried to read it. I recently donated my copy of 0-4 to my work library, where nobody was interested in reading it. The fact that we both have opposite views of your example books shows that this is a difficul…
I worked through Chapter 1 back in college, now over a decade ago, with a professor of mine one summer. It was a great introduction (and led us to Concrete Mathematics) for me to a lot of topics regarding algorithmic thinking and discrete mathematics.
That said, I never worked through the remaining chapters of the series, and likely never will. It's a reference book. Read the sections as they pertain to you. For instance, TAOCP was my introduction to sorting networks. This led to direct, measurable, improvements in a few embedded programs (where consistent, deterministic behavior, and optimal behavior, were strongly desired).
I mean, few people ever read a dictionary. I still have one on my desk at home and at the office. This isn't substantially different (though I do recommend skimming it so you are aware of what resources it contains for later reference).
Re: Weeding the Worst Library Books
#25Having worked in libraries for many years, weeding is a very contentious issue. Many patrons (and librarians!) have an emotional attachment to books, so to recycle them just feels wrong. Some libraries have resorted to putting their weeded books into locked dumpsters - there have been instances of patrons coming across a dumpster full of weeded books then going on a tirade against the library for "throwing away knowl…
> As a compromise I've seen some libraries offer weeded books for very cheap or even give them away for free, which seems like a good way to please both sides.
Another option might be to try putting them on the "library book sale" shelf for ultra cheap... if that's legal.
Re: Weeding the Worst Library Books
#26Does anyone have a recommendation for a good public library in London?
I've often found myself wanting to read a reference book prior to purchase (technical books are extremely expensive to buy).
Do any of the universities offer subscriptions to members of the public?
Re: Weeding the Worst Library Books
#27Having worked in libraries for many years, weeding is a very contentious issue. Many patrons (and librarians!) have an emotional attachment to books, so to recycle them just feels wrong. Some libraries have resorted to putting their weeded books into locked dumpsters - there have been instances of patrons coming across a dumpster full of weeded books then going on a tirade against the library for "throwing away knowl…
Here in Finland all libraries seem to have a small shelf of weeded books free to take (or sometimes about 1-3€ each) next to the exit. I honestly thought it would be the same everywhere else.
Re: Weeding the Worst Library Books
#28Does anyone have a recommendation for a good public library in London? I've often found myself wanting to read a reference book prior to purchase (technical books are extremely expensive to buy). Do any of the universities offer subscriptions to members of the public?
Not a direct answer to your question, but you might also consider a subscription to Safari books online with the caveats that I don't know if it is available internationally and it is not necessarily cheap. My work covers my subscription and it has had a copy of virtually every technical book I have searched for.
Re: Weeding the Worst Library Books
#29Having worked in libraries for many years, weeding is a very contentious issue. Many patrons (and librarians!) have an emotional attachment to books, so to recycle them just feels wrong. Some libraries have resorted to putting their weeded books into locked dumpsters - there have been instances of patrons coming across a dumpster full of weeded books then going on a tirade against the library for "throwing away knowl…
I briefly worked in a public library and the problem they had was that there's no practical way to maintain sufficient numbers and depth of subject-matter experts who can answer the subjective assessment such as you list. Ideally one or two shallow-SMEs in each field would be maintained over a region, but that will never happen. So you end-up with librarians making retention decisions based on what publications tell…
Right - "subjective assessment" being the key here. Hopefully each criteria is considered at least a little bit, but even experts are going to disagree on what's worthwhile to keep. Beyond that, many libraries out there have very limited time/resources to make weeding decisions.
Re: Weeding the Worst Library Books
#30I wonder, if part of the pre-weeding process, if books proposed to be disposed could be run through Amazon's system for sale. If sold within a certain window, then they go on to a new, more useful life. If not, they head to the dumpster. Since they're already shelved and easily located, it should be trivial for library staff to find, package and send any orders.
This is absolutely done if the library has the time/resources to do so.