Service Learning Journal: Entry 3

Service Learning Journal: Entry 3

09/19/12

This week, working with my service learning librarian, I deselected books from the 600-630 Dewey area. The librarian specifically asked me to focus on this area due to the fact that she had weeded most of the library over the summer, but this section had not been gone through. She told me to pay particular attention to the health sciences area, as she was certain most of these books would be significantly out of date. She asked me to physically remove the books I felt should be discarded, and she would check over them before we recycled. She also asked me to suggest areas that needed more resources and a suggestion of which books should be replaced. In addition to this area, I was asked to keep on an eye on books that were returned for check-in that were exceedingly worn and needed to be replaced.

 

During this assignment I faced several challenges. I had previously spoken to my SL librarian about this assignment, and she had informed me that she could run a report though Destiny, the county’s online library program, that would give me detailed information about each book. The report was to include the title, author, date published, call number, and how often the book had circulated in the past five years, but due to a software conversion, my SL librarian was unable to the run the report.  Before beginning the actual process she discussed a few tips for deselection and I re-read the “Weeding” section in the Lowe textbook. Mrs. Whaley, my SL librarian, also gave me a circulation report to use as I was discarding books. As I began to look through the books, I became overly anxious about tossing out someone else’s books. I second my decisions a lot. I decided to pick three random books from the shelf, view them and develop my opinion as to whether they should be kept or discarded, and then show them to my SL librarian and ask her for her opinion. After listening to what she had to say about each book, I realized that I was on the right track and felt more comfortable with my decisions. In total, I recycled 77 books leaving the shelves looking somewhat bare.  

 

I think assignment went well.  I truly enjoyed the assignment, and felt like I was learning the entire time.  There were a few hesitations, as mentioned above, but Mrs. Whaley was very patient and very considerate of my “beginner’s nature” when it came to throwing the books away.  I think the part that sucks the most about weeding is having to remove all the books from the computer, then go through each book with a marker and mark out all identifying information and barcodes, related to the school.  Mrs. Whaley did help me a lot through this process, but she gave me my distance to let me do my own thing, and I really appreciated that from her!  When someone is watching my every move, it makes me more nervous and hard for me to focus on the task at hand.  I also began to notice how the collection development policy would be such an important aspect of the deselection process.  The past assignments are starting to make more sense to me, and I am beginning to realize how they all fit together.