To Reference or Not To Reference?
Yesterday, I finally got back to a project that got pushed to the wayside last spring. It happens all the time, we start working on something full steam ahead and something else that is more important takes its place. We began working our way through the reference area in our children’s department – with the Internet, fewer of these resources are needed and they are currently taking up a large amount of space on shelves that we desperately need for other things.
So, we’re going to keep a few things on maybe one shelf – a dictionary, thesaurus, atlas, etc. Everything else is either getting added to our circulating collection or weeded because it is (very) dated. It’s been hard for us to do this project because so many of these resources are very costly, but we hope that they will be better used once added to our circulating collection.
It was also important for me to weed many of these resources (especially in the science and technology area) as the information is outdated and incorrect. I want to ensure that the kids using these books are getting quality information that is appropriate for school reports and for general knowledge.
What does your library do? Do you have a reference collection or has it been dispersed? If you do have one, what does it include?
3 Comments
lbpsbbook
Reblogged this on LBPSB Library Resources and commented:
Another great posting on Literacious! This is a dilemma that we are facing these days. What to do with the reference section. I have to say that my library has drastically diminished the amount of books – either putting them into circulation or weeding because they are so outdated. What are you doing in your libraries?
Anonymous
In our library we weeded a lot of the old reference books which we did not use. this past school year these weeded books ,some were used for book art, some went to the classrooms and all other major reference encyclopedias were re shelved with the non fiction. A yellow tape on the shelf indicates that these books are reference books. If you have the space try and shelve the books and encyclopedias by subject. The once reference area is now a well used graphic novel section where the graticule novel club loves to meet every cycle 1 day 1. The graphic novel section is now bilingual and much easier to display new purchases and student graphic drawings. Also, much easier to find the book you are looking for or tell if you are missing a volume. Next year we are looking to
Students to become GN agents to help with the collection. Kathryn Lukian JRHS Library
literacious
What a great use of space and I love the idea of getting students to help create the collection! Our reference collection space is going to be used for our “Write & Illustrate Your Own Book Contest” winners from the past 40+ years. We have school teachers who show their students their books from years past… It’s a pretty neat project!