Weeding--It's Not Just for Gardens

Spring is finally beginning to make an appearance in the Inland Northwest, and those of you who are into gardening are probably starting to prepare the soil, plant the seeds, and do some weeding.  It may surprise you to know that your very own perch librarian also does some weeding...in the library.  Weeding in the library?  You might be wondering whether we have a lot of plants around here, and although we do, I'm not talking about weeding that's of the horticultural kind.

From time to time, we in the library need to take a look at the shelves and decide what needs to get taken out of the collection or "weeded."  I think I just heard a collective gasp from you, my dear fans.  How dare we get rid of our precious books?!  Those books that are so dear and benefit so many.  I can assure you, there is no greater advocate for our bibliofriends than yours truly, but some friendships occasionally need to be re-evaluated, die of natural causes, or move elsewhere.

Sometimes, books get a little dated and may do more harm than good.  A health or medical book printed in 1984 may have been useful in its day, but a lot of things in medicine have changed and gotten better in 30 years.  Similarly, how much would you gain from a book that discusses how life will be different once Man gets to the moon?

Other times, books get sick.  Their spines get broken, their pages get torn, their covers get chewed on, or much worse.  When books get sick, they go to the book hospital and get operated on, but every so often there's only so much book-care professionals can do.  Sometimes, even books need to go to that big library in the sky.

Of course, there are those books that aren't old or sick.  There are some books that simply go unloved for so long that it would be heartless to keep them in our collection.  When books haven't been checked out in 10 or 15 years, they are unloved books.  Even though we at the library may love them dearly, we know when it's time for them to move to our free cart, where they can be adopted by someone who will take them to a good home and love them as they deserve. 

The space that's created on the shelves from books weeded out of the collection allow us to bring new bibliofriends to you, our wonderful patrons.  And as you gardeners out there know, to grow the garden and keep it healthy and strong, weeding is a necessary activity.  So goes it with the library as well.

With best spring wishes from your library gardener on the perch.