A Front-Page Article on Weeding Puts the Fairfax Library Under Fire
-- Library Journal, 1/8/2007
Last month, a Washington Post reporter contacted the Fairfax County Library, VA looking for story ideas. The library pitched its "Hot Picks" bestsellers program. The reporter got interested in the library's acquisitions process, especially weeding. A front-page story emerged on January 2, headlined "Hello, Grisham -- So Long, Hemingway? With Shelf Space Prized, Fairfax Libraries Cull Collections." While the article, library director Sam Clay told LJ, "wasn't that far off in what we do"—a more aggressive weeding program than at neighboring systems—it offered a misleading portrait of how much books are actually threatened. The library, thanks to three-year old software, can determine if a book has not circulated in 24 months, but that doesn't mean—as a chart in the Post suggested—that specific classics were on the chopping block. Rather, the list could lead to a discovery that a copy was misfiled, stolen, or tattered, Clay said.
Still the article, reproduced widely, generated much critical comment. Some on the Post web site pointed out that weeding reduces the opportunity for serendipity. Others however, considered books gone from one branch indicative of the 21-branch system. In the Wall Street Journal, for example, John J. Miller wrote, "Good luck finding Christopher Marlowe's play about him in a Fairfax County library: "Doctor Faustus" has survived for more than four centuries, but it apparently hasn't been checked out in the past 24 months." Actually, 12 copies remain. The Post article cited three books—Abraham Lincoln: His Speeches and Writings, The Education of Henry Adams, and Emily Dickinson's Final Harvest—no longer available at specific branches, but there are ten, 15, and 19 print copies remaining in the system.
Clay said that the library has gotten tougher about weeding since the materials budget has declined 30 percent over the past five years, even as some branches have seen shelf space tighten. "The effect of our buying smarter is, we're predicting a ten percent increase in circulation," he said. "Obviously, it's an issue of balancing; we want to make sure our branches meet the needs of the community of users." He posted further comments in a memo on the library web site and in a letter to the editor. Asked to comment, Barbara Genco, director of collection development for the Brooklyn Public Library, said, "To me, it looks like libraries need to do a better job of communicating how we keep our collections fresh. It's great to use technology as a starting point. What this is about is how the art of weeding—the librarian's sensibility and knowledge—converges with technology to make a choice. That's exactly what the library director said in his memo."
