Help me weed older fiction from my elementary school library
June 8, 2010 10:12 PM
What classic books belong in an elementary school library?
I'm a school librarian in a large urban elementary school. The collection was built by my well-respected predecessors and is heavy on books written 20- 70 years ago (I'm only talking about the fiction section here). The shelves are stuffed and need to be weeded. As I approach this task, I realize that 80% of my circulation is generated by 10% of the collection- and those books are almost exclusively under 20 years old. Kids will check out older books if I sell them- but I have to know the books to do so.
So I'll weed, and I'll read as much as I can to identify books of value that should be kept. But while I'm reading 200- 1000 pages a week (and have since I became a librarian 3 years ago), there's no way that I can personally sample more than a small number of the books that clog my shelves while simultaneously keeping up with the new stuff. How can I find good counsel on which of these books still have value to kids today?
I know how to use collection statistics to make weeding decisions and don't need help with that. I'm looking for resources I can use, or specific suggestions from librarians or others who work with young readers. "I really loved Misty of Chincoteague as a kid" isn't real helpful. Thanks!
I'm a school librarian in a large urban elementary school. The collection was built by my well-respected predecessors and is heavy on books written 20- 70 years ago (I'm only talking about the fiction section here). The shelves are stuffed and need to be weeded. As I approach this task, I realize that 80% of my circulation is generated by 10% of the collection- and those books are almost exclusively under 20 years old. Kids will check out older books if I sell them- but I have to know the books to do so.
So I'll weed, and I'll read as much as I can to identify books of value that should be kept. But while I'm reading 200- 1000 pages a week (and have since I became a librarian 3 years ago), there's no way that I can personally sample more than a small number of the books that clog my shelves while simultaneously keeping up with the new stuff. How can I find good counsel on which of these books still have value to kids today?
I know how to use collection statistics to make weeding decisions and don't need help with that. I'm looking for resources I can use, or specific suggestions from librarians or others who work with young readers. "I really loved Misty of Chincoteague as a kid" isn't real helpful. Thanks!
If you can make a list available as k8t suggests, I'd be happy to help. I'm sure other education and library folk would also be happy to comment on the titles. It's a bit difficult to comment without knowing what you have...
posted by bardophile at 11:44 PM on June 8, 2010
posted by bardophile at 11:44 PM on June 8, 2010
I think you should probably be thinking about dividing up your thoughts into at least two classes:
1) Books kids want to read - i.e. books you want in your library just so you can get kids reading, and enjoying reading. Until kids are hitting their teens I personally don't see a lot of harm in them just reading whatever makes them happy.
2) Books kids should read. There are several places where one can find lists of classics and modern classics. Positioning is key - i.e. getting over the perception that old stuff isn't relevant to them.
This list, for example, is a good starting point for teens and late teens that mixes the fun and the more intellectual. It's a bit UK-centric (a notable absence is Mark Twain), but pretty decent nonetheless. In fact you'll find a pretty good set of resources at the BBC's Big Read site.
posted by MuffinMan at 2:25 AM on June 9, 2010
1) Books kids want to read - i.e. books you want in your library just so you can get kids reading, and enjoying reading. Until kids are hitting their teens I personally don't see a lot of harm in them just reading whatever makes them happy.
2) Books kids should read. There are several places where one can find lists of classics and modern classics. Positioning is key - i.e. getting over the perception that old stuff isn't relevant to them.
This list, for example, is a good starting point for teens and late teens that mixes the fun and the more intellectual. It's a bit UK-centric (a notable absence is Mark Twain), but pretty decent nonetheless. In fact you'll find a pretty good set of resources at the BBC's Big Read site.
posted by MuffinMan at 2:25 AM on June 9, 2010
I'm a (new) librarian at an elementary school too, and I fully admit that my own collection needs a bit of weeding itself. If it is possible to make available some sort of list of titles, I'd gladly take a look at it--it might help both of us tackle this often monumental task
The American Library Association's (ALA) website has a lot of good resources and lists, especially the Association for Library Services to Children (ALSC) division (http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/alsc/index.cfm). You might try browsing around on just to see what you find.
Get lists of Newberry and Caldecott winners and honor books (which are available on ALA's site too), as well as the Coretta Scott King, Printz, and Pura Belpre award lists (available at http://www.ala.org/ala/awardsgrants/index.cfm.) These will provide you with a good foundation of notable titles and diversified classics.
There are some good school and public library websites that may have book lists for you to use--if you know of a good library, check out their site.
I might ask the teachers at the school what books they teach or have taught--you'd definitely want to keep those. Maybe create some sort of survey to get a general idea of what they think are classics. Teachers love to be involved.
Finally, your students will more than likely let you know if there is something that you're missing, so ask them. Mine are never shy in telling me what they want (often over and over again...)!
posted by Junie Bloom at 7:01 AM on June 9, 2010
The American Library Association's (ALA) website has a lot of good resources and lists, especially the Association for Library Services to Children (ALSC) division (http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/alsc/index.cfm). You might try browsing around on just to see what you find.
Get lists of Newberry and Caldecott winners and honor books (which are available on ALA's site too), as well as the Coretta Scott King, Printz, and Pura Belpre award lists (available at http://www.ala.org/ala/awardsgrants/index.cfm.) These will provide you with a good foundation of notable titles and diversified classics.
There are some good school and public library websites that may have book lists for you to use--if you know of a good library, check out their site.
I might ask the teachers at the school what books they teach or have taught--you'd definitely want to keep those. Maybe create some sort of survey to get a general idea of what they think are classics. Teachers love to be involved.
Finally, your students will more than likely let you know if there is something that you're missing, so ask them. Mine are never shy in telling me what they want (often over and over again...)!
posted by Junie Bloom at 7:01 AM on June 9, 2010
Thanks for the comments. I appreciate the need to see a list- unfortunately at this moment I'm swamped with end-of-year stuff. If the mods don't mind too much, perhaps I'll re-post in a few weeks when I've cranked one out.
posted by carterk at 7:04 AM on June 9, 2010
posted by carterk at 7:04 AM on June 9, 2010
Feel free to post again in a few weeks. I would also agree totally with Junie Bloom, make sure you have the award winners, the books by local authors, the books on local topics, and the books teachers reccommend [and they could help you with the local stuff if you're not from there]. You can also check the catalogs of other nearby schools and see what they have. Really, in your dream world you would have a colelction development policy that would guide some of your decisionmaking but if not, hey now's a great time to make one! This is also really useful if you're in a region which might have ... challenges from parents upset about gay penguins or that sort of thing. The American Association nof School Librarians has a wiki and they have a page about collection development which has links to some policies as well as other go-to places for getting some standard catalog guides if you just want a baseline collection. The big deal as I see it is making sure the local angle of your collection is kept up. This is the sort of thing you may have to research on your own and will be time intensive but I think ultimately worthwhile.
posted by jessamyn at 7:24 AM on June 9, 2010
posted by jessamyn at 7:24 AM on June 9, 2010
In a former life I was a librarian and actually Marc cataloged the children's collection over one summer - +/- 5000 titles I think . The name Dennis Fradin will never be forgotten. As a dad I love the Caldicott award books as they are so "of the period" . The books of Ingri and Edgar D'Aulaire are always a treat to find .
Another trick I used was to peruse web catalogs of libraries of similar size and affluence - because they would have similar collections of books with the Marc records available for download .
posted by epjr at 8:48 AM on June 9, 2010
Another trick I used was to peruse web catalogs of libraries of similar size and affluence - because they would have similar collections of books with the Marc records available for download .
posted by epjr at 8:48 AM on June 9, 2010
Please, please, please bring in low-level, high-interest books. There are SO many children who for any number of reasons can't read on level. Just because a fifth-grader reads on the first grade level doesn't mean he'll be willing to read See Spot Run -- it's embarrassing!
Look into Sharon Flake, Walter Dean Myers, and Sharon Draper.
posted by jander03 at 10:18 AM on June 9, 2010
Look into Sharon Flake, Walter Dean Myers, and Sharon Draper.
posted by jander03 at 10:18 AM on June 9, 2010
Yes, I also came in to recommend keeping the Caldecotts and Newberrys.
Another librarian I just asked about this suggested that Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys would be worth keeping.
However, weed the "ugly" books, even if it won an award. And by ugly, I don't mean worn, or dirty, or anything that would come as a result of actually circulating - I mean stuff that looked ugly the day it came off the press. No kid is going to want to read something with a cover illustration that screams seventies (or sixties or fifties), no matter how good the text inside is. If something with a dated cover is a classic, order a new copy with an updated illustration - the kids are much more likely to try that.
And skim through for any with broken bindings and so forth - those will be an easy weed.
posted by timepiece at 10:41 AM on June 9, 2010
Another librarian I just asked about this suggested that Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys would be worth keeping.
However, weed the "ugly" books, even if it won an award. And by ugly, I don't mean worn, or dirty, or anything that would come as a result of actually circulating - I mean stuff that looked ugly the day it came off the press. No kid is going to want to read something with a cover illustration that screams seventies (or sixties or fifties), no matter how good the text inside is. If something with a dated cover is a classic, order a new copy with an updated illustration - the kids are much more likely to try that.
And skim through for any with broken bindings and so forth - those will be an easy weed.
posted by timepiece at 10:41 AM on June 9, 2010
This is a difficult issue, I run 2 different school libraries and I struggle with weeding. I truly believe now after 5 years of doing this, that less is more and I am pretty ruthless when it comes to outdated covers. If my students can't relate to the cover they won't read it. If the book has the cover that it had when I was young, I usually get rid of it. I keep an ongoing list of books/authors I need to replace. I also tailor to my students, so while one of my schools has kids who really will read anything and another where they really judge a book by it's cover.
I also look up book talks, and see what are listed. It is impossible for me to read all the books I need to book talk, so I do rely on what I find on websites. You could search for book talk websites and use the lists to compare to the books on your shelves and use that as a list of books to try and sell.
You could use one of the Library Book Websites (I used Permabound) and look at their "opening day" collections (memail me if you need help sorting out how to get to that point.) these are the collections that a school would buy to fully outfit a library, you can compare what you have to what they recommend and discard things not on the list.
posted by momochan at 11:18 AM on June 9, 2010
I also look up book talks, and see what are listed. It is impossible for me to read all the books I need to book talk, so I do rely on what I find on websites. You could search for book talk websites and use the lists to compare to the books on your shelves and use that as a list of books to try and sell.
You could use one of the Library Book Websites (I used Permabound) and look at their "opening day" collections (memail me if you need help sorting out how to get to that point.) these are the collections that a school would buy to fully outfit a library, you can compare what you have to what they recommend and discard things not on the list.
posted by momochan at 11:18 AM on June 9, 2010
The Wheel on the School by Meindert Dejong
It was definitely my favorite book as an elementary school kid, barring Plato's Republic.
posted by cmchap at 3:04 AM on June 10, 2010
It was definitely my favorite book as an elementary school kid, barring Plato's Republic.
posted by cmchap at 3:04 AM on June 10, 2010
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posted by k8t at 11:20 PM on June 8, 2010