The Island of Unwanted Books
One part of maintaining a library's collection is to find books that no longer have relevance to the users and to remove them. The professional euphemism for this is deselection, but more commonly we call it weeding. Basically, it means removing the really old books that are no longer useful to anybody. In some cases, the books may be downright dangerous. For example, I once removed an old gardening book from our collection because it recommended using DDT for pest control.
The children's fiction books are not weeded as aggressively as other areas, because in some ways, stories are timeless. But there comes a time when even these books have to go the way of the dodo. I was shelving some children's books that had been recommended for deselection when I ran across a few that made me laugh out loud. They truly belong to another time.
This book was 92 pages. What joy they seem to have after getting their boots. "A little boy, who wants most of all to own a pair of copper-toed boots and a dog, works hard to earn his boots and finds a dog too." I don't see a dog. I'm not sure what the tree stumps have to do with anything. It almost looks like they've been kicking over the trees with their new boots. But maybe the wooden fence and wooden houses were made from the trees. So instead of frolicking in the forest, the boys get to frolick among the stumps.
If I had been so excited about copper-toed boots when I was young, I might never had cut my foot open when I jumped barefoot in a ditch.
Some books just jump off the shelves, begging to be read. Others don't. Doesn't this look exciting? Actually, my first thought is that the boy with the panda-bear eyes has no friends, and he would befriend the cabbage, but the phrase "Nobody Plays with a Cabbage" keeps going through his mind (perhaps he hears his nagging mother and a taunting schoolmate repeating the phrase in his head). So he is sadder than ever, which would make it a precursor to the young adult problem novel, which became so big in later decades.
Nowadays, a title like this wouldn't make past even the most brain-dead of editors. Now that I think about it, perhaps I should keep this book and put it on display so that kids can make fun of it.
They could make fun of this one too. What is it that Merrylips does? Is she causing scandal in her Puritan village?
Also, what is up with these authors' names: Beulah Marie Dix, Meindert DeJong, Walter de la Mare? I don't care if he wrote the next Harry Potter, I don't think anybody could buy anything written by someone named Meindert DeJong.
Another strange thing is that I took these pictures with the books on the same table. How the table became different colors is beyond me.
came on your site via "Quetzal," which I came upon because i just took up tournament scrabble. the truly important question is, what happens to your deselected books? i'm frighteningly curious about the cabbage tome.
Well, most books are sold for very cheap to the public in an ongoing book sale. 10 cents for paperbacks, 1 dollar for hardbacks.
However, in the case of Children's books, I merely recommend books for deselection, and the head of the Children's Division must approve them. She only reviews books from my branch in the month of April (other branches get other months). So the Cabbage book sits around until April to be approved. It may be sold there, or it may simply be discarded. However, another copy of it does exist at the Main library. We don't discard the last copy of any fiction title in our system.
Deselection is a touchy subject. It is something that librarians do not like to mention to non-librarians, because some people become offended that we actually discard books. But in a world that is choked with information and where my limited shelving is choked with dusty unused books, I cannot save everything just because it was created.
thanks for the info! i believe that it's not the library's job to be an infinite archive of books - as you mention, in a world of unlimited information, it seems to me the library should provide what's of the most value to the most people. but i'm thinking i need to check out my local library's "finished books sale" more often, because i have a penchant for the literary equivalent of independent filmmaking - i figure, you either find a real gem or something to laugh at, and either way, awesome. So last night, I bought myself a copy of the cabbage book, which should be arriving shortly. truly, thanks for the tip!
mike, your friggin' hilarious...
that's all i got.
I found your blog because 'Nobody Plays with a Cabbage' is the most wonderful story... in my top 10 favorite read-alouds! :-)
Meindert de Jong was a brilliant children's author -- this one should have had a Newbery award.
Get yourself a copy, too... and enjoy! You'd find it very amazing.
It is always so interesting to hear of people reading books because they are "new and relevant" and discarding books that depict real character and value. I, along with a large number of other elementary school educators, consistantly have to request these books from the main library branch because someone in their infinite wisdom (note the sarcasm) deemed them irrelevant and "brain dead" and removed them from the shelves and replaced them with "Goosebumps" and other such deeply educational and value-instilling books.
Heu--Meinhert de jong wrote :THE WHEEL ON THE SCHOOL", which was a popular read aloud when I was a kid. I liked it!
Just because a book is old, doesn't mean it's devoid of value!! Many books from the old days have much more character and depth than present day "literature" offerings.
I understand the library's need to save space, but please don't just discard something because of it's age!
knitcindy
Are you saying you discard the books without reading them first? There's that little saying, "You can't judge a book by its cover." Perhaps you should at least read a chapter or two...
My 11 year old daughter has the most difficult time finding good books to read at our local public libraries. Even very recognizable titles and authors disappear from the shelves with alarming regularity. The new book rack is jammed with colorful, silly, entertaining books. But when finished reading some of them, she wonders why she bothered. We are so glad two shelves are being dedicated to Newbery and Caldecott winners, but to think they are the only older titles worth saving is a sad thought.
By the way, we also love Meindert deJong's books. He was born in the Netherlands; hence, the "funny" name. He was the first recipient of the Hans Christian Andersen Medal by the International Board on Books for Young People. He was given this award for his entire body of work (over 20 books), although most authors recieve it for a single book. This award is presented as a stimulus for humanitarian efforts and international friendships. Oh, and by the way, "Wheel on the School" won the Newbery Award in 1955. DeJong's books have been favorite read-alouds in our household! They certainly take a little more concentration and brain power to understand than some books, but helping children develop rich vocabularies and appreciate well-written prose seems well-worth the effort!
I am glad there is someone who double-checks the deselected books. Thinking that someone can just toss books into a throw away bin based on the cover, age, or the odd name of the author hardly seems like the most educated way to evaluate a book's usefulness. I am also glad the books are offered for sale to those who can see beyond the shiny new covers to the true value of the book -- the educational merit or enjoyment factor of the printed words themselves.
You must be incredibly young to be a librarian and not recognize the name DeJong! You might want to actually read a few a those books before you discard them.
You must be incredibly young to be a librarian and not recognize the name DeJong. You might want to read those books before you discard them.
Now I know why it takes so long when I try to get books with older publication dates from the the library! Thanks to librarians "de-selection" there is likely only one copy left in the whole library system of these books !!!
How did you get a job as a librarian when you don't even know Dejong's work? That you would throw away such gems is a testament to your ignorance of good children's literature.
Are you really a librarian? You aren't familiar with the works of Meindert DeJong? Perhaps you need to spend some time familiarizing yourself with great children's literature. Very scary.
Excuse me ! Maybe you should spend your time as a children's librian reading and promoting the good books in literature, instead of making fun of them. That shows how ignorant you are to make fun of such good books.
Who are you, Hitler? Never remove a book! Never! No matter how stupid, corny, deranged, sadistic or inflammatory it's name sounds. By the way, in my younger days I used to play soccer with a head of cabbage against my monkey. He wore copper toed, I wore steel toed boots. I kicked his ass everytime.
We are avid readers in our home and struggle to find any books worth reading in our own library system due to this type of deselection. It amazes me that popular culture and pretty covers assign value to a book. Most of the new books on the shelves I won't even allow my kids to read, either because they are so dumbed down that they are condescending to a child with any intelligence, or the themes and content are not acceptable. Like many things in our world today, the quality is simply not there like it was in the past.
Although I can only assume you were trying to take a humorous look at the de-selection process, I think it backfired. Those of us who take educating our children with quality literature, characters, and values seriously would wonder why someone in your position wouldn't. Your follow-up comment that "deselection is a touchy subject" made me laugh. The issue is not deselection and discards - I could happily discard over half the books on the "suggested reading" children's display table alone. The real issue is the evaluation process, a concern which you only heightened with your enlightening blog entry. Librarians should be leading the charge for quality reading material, not flippantly deselecting some of the best on a personal whim.
Andie,
The point of this post was indeed to be humorous, however the humor is not to be found in the deselection process. The deselection had done been done, as it were, thus the sentence "I was shelving some children's books that had been recommended for deselection..." These books were not deselected on my personal whim, rather they were caught up in a coordinated process involving librarians much more experienced that myself.
I can assure you that my personal opinions had nothing to do with the fact that they were deselected. Librarians are generally wary of letting their personal opinions about the content of items interfere with the management of those items. Which is why I will happily show a patron where to find books and magazines on hunting and trapping, which as a vegetarian I find morally repugnant, but nevertheless still part of my duty as a professional.
That being said, I personally found them to be ridiculous, and felt impelled to take pictures of them and mock them publicly. Thus the humor is not in the deselection process, which is tedious and mind-numbing to say the least, but in the books themselves. So I don't think my post back-fired, because I still get a chuckle when I see that picture of "Nobody Plays With a Cabbage" by Meindert DeJong.
Here I go on a tangent: It's usually best not to explain a joke, but I haven't played the deconstruction game in a while, so let's give it a try.
Why is the title "Nobody Plays With a Cabbage" by Meindert DeJong funny? Let's say I were to ask someone to explain to me what a children's book would be like? Colorful, vibrant, playful? Empowering and instructive? Positive? Well the first word word I get here is Nobody. It's a negative. As in the absence of people. Nobody Plays. That's a downer too. What does nobody play with? Most kids play with toys or animals or other kids. Well in this case, it's a cabbage. A CABBAGE. It reminds me of my mother telling me about the time she got an orange as her only present for Christmas. You know how old people get when they talk about the past (not that my mother is old, mind you).
So, seeing this book, with the title and the panda faced boy and his cabbage, I could hear an old curmudgeon telling me about how when they were young, all they had to read was books about nobody playing with cabbages. And they were glad to have it! All you newfangled youngsters with your Captain Underpants and books about Martin Luther King! There hasn't been a good children's book written since 1972!
I hope that eases your mind some about the deselection process.
So all you people who would like the library to keep every book ever published no matter that it hasn't checked out since 1988 and has a coffee stain the size of Wisconsin through the center of the book, I recently found a craft book entitled "Crafts for Retarded" on my library's shelf. Should I keep that, too? I mean nothing in cultural experience changes over 20-75 years, right? I have a vision in my head of you home schoolers, and it involves a polygamist religious sect in Texas.
To think that someone who turns innocent names of delightful books and the authors that wrote them into something profane actually works with children is an extremely scary thought. It's a comfort to know you're several hundred miles away.
Not so scary, or surprising, is the fact you know nothing about classic literature. Meindert DeJong was the writer of at least five Newbery Honor books. Maurice Sendak illustrated six of his books........oh, you probably don't know him either.
Yes, those of us who value literature that has stood the test of time must be geriatric and decrepit ...we couldn't possibly have as much education as you have...we must be uneducated,"religious cultic" and backwards people because we don't value Captain Underpants as good literature...and certainly those of us who see a difference between "Crafts For the Retarded" with it's coffee stain the size of Wisconsin and literature written by Meindert DeJong can't possibly understand what a good title for children's literature might entail... we could never understand that a title must conform to marketing ideals such as " Colorful, vibrant, playful? Empowering and instructive? Positive?" and that any book that doesn't conform to this formula is certainly not worthy of staying on the library shelves. And anyone daring to question a librarian's wisdom concerning what books should be on the shelves is to be labeled, sight unseen (rather like the actual content of the books in question), as part of a "polygamist religious sect in Texas." How dare any of the rest of us, who pay those librarians' salaries, dare to question the selection and deselection process!!!!!
You say that you picture some "old curmudgeon" telling you "There hasn't been a good children's book written since 1972." Isn't that exactly what you have been saying, only you say books that are "old" or have an "old cover" or written by someone with a funny name should be "deselected." This is chronological snobbery. You would probably say that Tolkien's books are to be thrown out of the libraries because they are too "old." If these books hadn't been given new, slick, and colorful covers but instead had the original, "old" covers, perhaps these would be thrown out also. You also ridicule a person's name. Tolkien's name and all those initials instead of a first name (not to mention Reuel as a middle name...HA,HA)...should we ridicule his name, too...oh, we can't because modern major movies were made of them and that redeems those books and that author. "Nobody Plays With a Cabbage" just needs to be given new covers and modern sounding titles, and they would suddenly be worthy of staying in the system. Robert A. Heinlein published his books a long time ago, though some of them may have been made iton movies...and new covers given to them...so his books books were somewhat redeemed. Though, I own a set of Robert A. Heinlein books--"Red Planet", "The Rolling Stones", "Starman Jones", "Time for the Stars","Have Space Suit-Will Travel"--and the stamp says "Discharged". I cannot understand why all but the last copy of an old book should be deselected. Boy, am I glad that I get these "discharged" books! And i don't think that only old books are good. I love all the "Redwall" books, and I thought "Holes" is great. By the way, did I mention that I am 12? Hardly some "old curmudgeon!"
You say that you picture some "old curmudgeon" telling you "There hasn't been a good children's book written since 1972." Isn't that exactly what you have been saying, only you say books that are "old" or have an "old cover" or written by someone with a funny name should be "deselected."
Actually, he never said that. If you read (are you home schooled? I thought you runts had excellent reading comprehension skills) de-selection isn't based on age alone, it's based on usage. These books weren't being used. Public libraries are not museums.
This is chronological snobbery.
Chronological snobbery? Snobbery that proceeds through time? Poor, nonsensical word choice, tsk tsk.
You would probably say that Tolkien's books are to be thrown out of the libraries because they are too "old." If these books hadn't been given new, slick, and colorful covers but instead had the original, "old" covers, perhaps these would be thrown out also. You also ridicule a person's name. Tolkien's name and all those initials instead of a first name (not to mention Reuel as a middle name...HA,HA)...should we ridicule his name, too...oh, we can't because modern major movies were made of them and that redeems those books and that author.
Wrong. Tolkien has been widely read for decades now, long before the movies and long after the animated Hobbit. Tolkien is not discarded because - like Heinlein, who is starting to read dated - Tolkien is still read.
"Nobody Plays With a Cabbage" just needs to be given new covers and modern sounding titles, and they would suddenly be worthy of staying in the system.
BS. Nobody Plays With a Cabbage is unread because... nobody wants to read it. Like most things in life, the presence of this book in libraries is dictated by demand - no demand, no presence.
*clip*
By the way, did I mention that I am 12?
No, but your entry made this fact painfully obvious. Come back after they drop, kiddo.
"There hasn't been a good children's book written since 1972."
The most accurate statement on this blog!
(With the exception, perhaps, of Gary Blackwood's Shakespeare Stealer series... and one or two others.)
Book lovers = Polygamists?
I've been trying to wrap my brain around this one.
Oh!
Perhaps it is because we love more than just ONE book? Is that it?
And Brandon -- I was VERY impressed to see you are only 12 years old. Anyone can make a mistake in their usage of words, too. Did you mean PATHOLOGICAL snobbery? I think that fits well.
And Brandon -- I was VERY impressed to see you are only 12 years old. Anyone can make a mistake in their usage of words, too. Did you mean PATHOLOGICAL snobbery? I think that fits well.
Dear visitor. I'd rather be an elitist snob than some fly-by-night drive-by anonymous coward with a penchant for snide, contentless jibes, who hoves to the ridiculous assertion that there hasn't been any good children's literature written post-1972.
Please forgive my sanguine response to your cutting and well-informed diagnosis, but until "Pathological Snobbery" makes an appearance in the DSM-IV, I'll hold off seeking treatment, as, I'm sure you've done all these years that "smug asshole" has remained unlisted.
Also, you'll notice, you ignorant, dyslexic pompous, twit that I did not employ the term "Chronological Snobbery" Homeschooled wonderboy came up with the neologism - a real beaut, I might add. I was merely gaping in wonder at the unique insipid banality of its crooked and stillborn construction.
Run along now, Timmy, I can only spank you so much before my hand begins to sting.