Ten year old books are exciting just by virtue of having copyright dates that fall within the Twenty-first Century. I can't believe the happiness I get from adding these items to my collection, which in the 973 Dewey Decimal range has a 26 year old average copyright age, and an average copyright age of 21 years for the collection as a whole.
Granted, that collection age is skewed a bit by some reference items that I didn't want to discard probably because of some African American content that might be of interest to teachers. However, I suspect that the number of library books dating from the 1990s and some from the 1980s are the greater culprits.
The newly added books have been sitting in my office probably for several years. Last year was my first year at this school, and I spent a lot of time attempting to clean up the textbook room and weeding the library collection. Yes, the average copyright date of 21 years is after extensive weeding. If I did the weeding thoroughly, the shelves would be close to bare.
Sadly, these 10 year old books should have been circulating, but for lack of labels, barcodes, and interest to make it happen, they just sat here in an office to a library that wasn't functioning as a library. I am putting these books into circulation thanks to a mini-grant from the Parent Teacher Association for a couple hundred dollars of library supplies that I would not have otherwise.
I wonder how my library compares to the average for libraries in California on the average copyright date. I fear that this library is probably the norm, and possibly better off than some. At least we are automated and can get at the statistics.
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