Books in Bad Condition

Hello Everyone,

Please, read the e-mails below from Lin Swalley, Coordinator of Collection development regarding books that need to be weeded.

Hi.  This is yet another request that you OPEN the books you are planning to use to fill holds, and/or send to other branches for whatever reason.  Please open them and assess their condition before sending them.  Recently, a number of branches have sent Collection Development samples of books that they received to fill holds—books with pages missing or falling, glued together with “we’re-not-quite-sure”, and etc. 

Most of the books will be in fine shape, and needless to say, the more you weed those materials you DO find in bad condition, the fewer you will find.  But it is clear that some members of our staff continue to send materials sight unseen.  Please be considerate of our customers, of the receiving location staff, and, last but just as important, the Delivery staff working so hard to carry these items. 

Please ensure all of your staff are made aware of this issue and of their authority to automatically weed materials in bad, bad condition.  Earlier this year, Collection Development shared with you information regarding what constitutes “bad condition”.  I am attaching that description to this email.

Thank you for your attention.

Lin Swalley

Hello Lin,

What should we do when a hold item is in poor condition and it’s the only copy in the system?  That has come up in the past, and since it was the only copy we sent it on to fulfill the hold.

Thanks,

Carol H. Rico, Assistant Manager

Oak Forest/Acres Homes Neighborhood Libraries

Lin's reply:

I guess it depends on just how bad of condition it is in.  If you are willing to handle it, i.e., it doesn’t gross you out, then the next question is whether the customer will want to handle it—will the customer prefer the book in bad condition as opposed to having to wait for an ILL request, which is what I would place on behalf of the customer,  if it was in too bad of condition for me and/or the customer to handle it. If the customer chooses to borrow it, be sure to make an entry in the customer’s record, so he/she isn’t charged for damaging the material and, assuming staff are paying attention, the material itself should be discarded the minute it gets back.  Of course, if staff is not paying attention, it will go back on the shelf and it will all have to be addressed again with the next customer.