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.
