SUBSCRIBE
SUBSCRIBE
SLJ Blog Network +
  • 100 Scope Notes
  • A Fuse #8 Production
  • Good Comics for Kids
  • Heavy Medal: A Mock Newbery Blog
  • Teen Librarian Toolbox
  • The Classroom Bookshelf
  • The Yarn
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • About/Contact
  • Fusenews
  • Reviews
  • Librarian Previews
  • Best Books
    • Top 100
    • Best Books of 2022
    • Best Books of 2021
    • Best Books of 2020
    • Best Books of 2019
    • Best Books of 2018
    • Best Books of 2017
    • Best Books of 2016
    • Best Books of 2015
    • Best Books of 2014
    • Best Books of 2013
  • Fuse 8 n’ Kate
  • Videos
  • Press Release Fun

May 16, 2019 by Betsy Bird

What We Keep Hidden Away

May 16, 2019 by Betsy Bird   7 comments

This post begins with a tweet.

When I read Sharon’s message here, I wanted two things simultaneously. First, I wanted that Jack Kent book for myself. In a world where the most Kent you can hope for is The Caterpillar and the Polliwog or Joey Runs Away, I wanted this robin in all his roly-poly glory. Second, Shannon said something key there: “… we still have this one which we keep in a special cabinet to extend its life.”

Lord howdy, I thought I was the only one with that cabinet. Or, in my case, it’s always been a drawer. The drawer of books where you keep the things you can’t stand to weed.

SCROLL TO KEEP READING THIS POST

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

Once upon a time I worked in New York Public Library’s Central Children’s Room at 42nd Street. We were required to weed the collection, an act I hated. Not because I dislike weeding (in principle) but because the collection had been so much larger when it had been at the Donnell Library previously that it felt like a crime to winnow it down even further. Still, you do it, right? You’re a librarian. Weeding’s part of the game. But there was this one circulating book I couldn’t bear to part with. It’s cover was torn. It looked like death warmed over. I had no desire to read it myself, and yet I couldn’t condemn it to a recycled grave.

Mind you, this was before Poppins had her current Renaissance. You can get a paperback of this book easy peasy as of 2018. But at the time it was out-of-print and I was working for a library that would occasionally put Travers’ umbrella (the one with the parrot head – yes, it is real) on display. So maybe it was an odd justification but I felt I had to keep this book in the system. Trouble was, it was too ugly to keep on the shelf. The solution? Well, not a cabinet exactly, but a drawer. Alongside two or three other books in similar situations, I would keep the book tucked away. Then, when the morning holds list / pick list came out, I’d inspect it to see if any of those books were included. Sometimes they did. Sometimes they didn’t. But by gum, I kept them in stock.

These days I’m a voracious weeder (I’m literally going to a presentation by the women who run Awful Library Books today). Still, I regret nothing. And I suspect that I’m not alone. Shannon’s post proved as much.

So fess up, librarians. Let it out. What do you keep in a drawer or cabinet or closet that you cannot part with?

Filed under: Uncategorized

SHARE:

Read or Leave Comments
weeding

About Betsy Bird

Betsy Bird is currently the Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system and a former Materials Specialist for New York Public Library. She has served on Newbery, written for Horn Book, and has done other lovely little things that she'd love to tell you about but that she's sure you'd find more interesting to hear of in person. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of EPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name. Follow her on Twitter: @fuseeight.

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Posts

March 2023

Announcing the Stinetinglers Winner! The Kettle's Dark Secret by Clara J.

by Betsy Bird

March 2023

Bologna Presentations: IBBY Doing the Good Work That Needs to Be Done, Worldwide

by Betsy Bird

February 2023

Sydney Taylor Book Blog Award Tour Interview: Featuring Mari Lowe of Aviva Vs. the Dybbuk!

by Betsy Bird

January 2023

The Top Ten Most Disappointing Edibles and Potables of Children's Literature

by Betsy Bird

January 2023

Announcing the 2023 Newbery/Caldecott/YMA Pre-Game Show!

by Betsy Bird

ADVERTISEMENT

SLJ Blog Network

100 Scope Notes

One Star Review, Guess Who? (#184)

by Travis Jonker

A Fuse #8 Production

Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Gerald McBoing Boing by Dr. Seuss

by Betsy Bird

Good Comics for Kids

Review: Nat the Cat Takes a Nap

by Esther Keller

Heavy Medal

March suggestions: early Mock Newbery possibilities

by Emily Mroczek-Bayci

Teen Librarian Toolbox

Here Be Monsters: On Horror, Catharsis, and Uneasy Truces with Yourself, a guest post by author Rebecca Mahoney

by Karen Jensen, MLS

The Classroom Bookshelf

The Classroom Bookshelf is Moving

by Erika Thulin Dawes

The Yarn

Jarrett and Jerome Pumphrey Try Something New

by Travis Jonker

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Articles on SLJ

SLJ Reviews of the 2022 Youth Media Awards

Children’s and Teen Choice Book Awards Voting Is Open

Jack Gantos on the Real Norvelt, Propaganda, and Good News | The Newbery at 100

Standout Debuts & Titles from Acclaimed Authors | Pondering Printz

"In the Margins" Committee Announces 2020 Book Awards Honoring Marginalized & BIPOC Youth

About Betsy Bird

Betsy Bird is currently the Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system and a former Materials Specialist for New York Public Library. She has served on Newbery, written for Horn Book, and has done other lovely little things that she'd love to tell you about but that she's sure you'd find more interesting to hear of in person. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of EPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name. Follow her on Twitter: @fuseeight.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Laura says

    May 16, 2019 at 10:15 am

    Paul Gallico’s THE MAN WHO WAS MAGIC, a gorgeous fantasy about a real magician in a kingdom of stage-magicians–Adam the Simple doesn’t know he’s the only one who isn’t faking it. He has a wonderfully sarcastic talking dog, and there’s a girl who wants to be a magician, not just an assistant!…WHY is this book out of print?

    And I used to have Catherine Storr’s THE CHINESE EGG, a really GOOD mystery, but someone checked it out and walked off with it.

    And Mary Ellen Chase’s LORETTA MASON POTTS, which is dated in every way except the most important one: sibling rivalry never goes out of style.

  2. Margaret says

    May 16, 2019 at 11:56 am

    I have an AIMS Media VHS tape, “Ducks.” According to the notes in the case, it was part of a Starting to Read, “a series of 12 films for K-3 grade level that introduces vocabulary words in lively settings with an original song.” We used to use it in storytimes.

    We don’t circulate VHS tapes any more, we don’t have a VHS player either, and I’m not sure the tape would play anyhow, but I can’t bear to part with it because I think the song is one of the Great Kids’ Songs Of All Time. Fortunately I still remember a lot of it:

    “Duck is a word that stands for a bird
    that walks on little web feet.
    Feathers on its back and it talks with a quack
    to anyone it might meet.
    Ducks are big and ducks are small.
    Ducks are short and ducks are tall.
    There are many kinds and colors:
    some are white and there are others.
    Brown and green and tan and yellow —
    yellow like this little fellow.
    Ducks take baths like you and I,
    but ducks do not need towels to dry.”

  3. Carl in Charlotte says

    May 16, 2019 at 2:13 pm

    OK, Betsy, you let slip a tantalizing tidbit that I’m going to obsess over until you tell me. You said that the Travers book was in a drawer “Alongside two or three other books in similar situations” WHAT WERE THOSE OTHER BOOKS?? Please tell me soon!

    • Elizabeth Bird says

      May 17, 2019 at 12:07 pm

      Hooboy. I remember there were other books. I . . . can’t remember what they were. But by GUM they were important! I’ll think more on this.

  4. Carl in Charlotte says

    May 17, 2019 at 12:54 pm

    That’s OK. It was along time ago. I’ll check back sometime and see if you can ever retrieve those titles out of your mental memory files.

  5. Meg says

    May 20, 2019 at 11:00 pm

    I haven’t been able to keep them in the system, but I’ve rescued them from the discard pile: Marguerite de Angeli’s books including Skippack School, Thee, Hannah, and Henner’s Lydia. Yup, I’m in Pennsylvania. Our library even has an original Marguerite de Angeli sketch which we believe she drew during a children’s program here.

    • Elizabeth Bird says

      May 21, 2019 at 9:53 am

      Oo! Now there’s an idea for a post. The sketches that authors and illustrators create during their visits. A de Angeli would be magnificent to have on hand!

ADVERTISEMENT

Archives

  • External Links

    • A Fuse #8 Production Reviews
  • Follow This Blog

    Enter your email address below to receive notifications of new blog posts by email.

    This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

    This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

    Primary Sidebar

    • News & Features
    • Reviews+
    • Technology
    • School Libraries
    • Public Libraries
    • Age Level
    • Ideas
    • Blogs
    • Classroom
    • Diversity
    • People
    • Job Zone

    Reviews+

    • Book Lists
    • Best Books
    • Media
    • Reference
    • Series Made Simple
    • Tech
    • Review for SLJ
    • Review Submissions

    SLJ Blog Network

    • 100 Scope Notes
    • A Fuse #8 Production
    • Good Comics for Kids
    • Heavy Medal
    • Neverending Search
    • Teen Librarian Toolbox
    • The Classroom Bookshelf
    • The Yarn

    Resources

    • 2022 Youth Media Awards
    • The Newbery at 100: SLJ Celebrates the 100th Anniversary of the Award
    • Special Report | School Libraries 2021
    • Summer Reading 2021
    • Series Made Simple Spring 2021
    • SLJ Diverse Books Survey
    • Summer Programming Survey
    • Research
    • White Papers / Case Studies
    • School Librarian of the Year
    • Mathical Book Prize Collection Development Awards
    • Librarian/Teacher Collaboration Award

    Events & PD

    • In-Person Events
    • Online Courses
    • Virtual Events
    • Webcasts
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Subscribe
    • Media Inquiries
    • Newsletter Sign Up
    • Content Submissions
    • Data Privacy
    • Terms of Use
    • Terms of Sale
    • FAQs
    • Diversity Policy
    • Careers at MSI


    COPYRIGHT © 2023


    COPYRIGHT © 2023