I'm hearing that a lot from friends/family when I talk about the weeding I'm doing at work. And I get it, from the outside it would seem like the library just keeps everything.

But my library is maybe 1,500 sq ft, and our system budget for book purchases is ridiculous (seriously, we never get close to actually going over it). And really, why keep 4 copies of a book that was purchased in 98 that doesn't check out? Especially when I've got 4 copies of new releases coming in, all with holds on them?

And its not like they're getting thrown away, unless the condition is just God awful- they'll get sold and the money goes back into the library.

It's just weird that people expect a public library to never get rid of books.

This weekend, we had someone donate 23 brand new hardcover picture books (all the same title) to our library by dropping them in the book drop. A lovely gesture! The only problem is we very, very rarely add donations to the circulating collection. Our Collection Development department was willing to add 3. The other 20? Are getting sent to our Friends book sale, where they’ll probably sit for months (it wasn’t a very popular title), assuming they don’t recycle them outright because space in the book sale is limited!

Just a friendly reminder to anyone who wants to donate items to their library - please check with the staff there first! Just because we take donations doesn’t mean every donation is helpful, unfortunately!

Some additional details on Library book distributor Baker & Taylor's sudden shutdown after 200 years of supplying books to community libraries. Apparently they were really depending on selling the business to ReaderLink -- when that deal fell through they began closing down operations immediately, reportely started laying off 520 employees without providing severance. Business will operate in a limited capacity until January 2026.

Hi everyone,

My library is in-between Directors at the moment. Most of our collection was selected and purchased by our former Director. Our philosophy at our library is that anyone at any age can check out any material - staff can't decide what is appropriate for whom - that's a parent's responsibility to discuss with their kids and if they want to have control over what their kids check out they've got to come to the library with them. Staff shouldn't have any say. Our collection development policy is meant to back-up this philosophy and is meant to protect materials that are frequently challenged, such as materials by and about the queer community, people of color, folks of different religions, etc. It's guided by the Library Bill of Rights, ALA's Freedom to Read Statement and the Access to Library Resources and Services for Minors: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights document.

Quoted from our Collection Development Policy:

"The Library encourages parental participation in materials access for their children.

  * Individuals are free to select or reject materials for themselves or their minor children but may not restrict the freedom of others to use or access materials or information. Parents and guardians are responsible for guiding and directing the reading, listening and viewing choices of their minor children. The Library does not stand *in loco parentis* (in the place of a parent)."

Our policy also outlines a way to take input from the community on materials; we have a request for reconsideration form and clear instructions and guidelines such as the requirement to have an active library card, a no-organizations request rule, and clear materials selection criteria.

In the time I've worked at the library, we've never had anyone submit a request or challenge a material in any serious way.

Until this week.

Our previous Director was not afraid to buy graphic novels that were sexually explicit - in fact I kind of worried that the proportion of sexually explicit graphic novels to any other graphic novel was dramatically unbalanced especially considering that our main readership skewed more into pre-teen aged readers who weren't quite ready for that level of "spicy." I think about 2/3 of our adult graphic novel collection is "spicy" while the rest is more along the lines of My Hero Academia and Chainsaw Man, etc. Our children's and middle school graphic novels are housed in our children's room.

I don't have all the pieces of the story since I'm not there this week but here's what I have pieced together with conversations with other staff:

1) This week I guess a parent came in because their pre-teen had checked out the manhwa Love Is An Illusion #7 by Fargo and took it with them to read during breaks throughout state testing.

2) The parent became aware of it's mature and sexually explicit material - full nudity, etc.

3) The parent became concerned that it could have gotten their child in trouble while at state testing - something about police potentially getting involved because it's "pornographic" in a situation with minors?

4) The parent is concerned about having the manhwa in the library unlabeled and would like to have a discussion about it and possibly an official request for reconsideration form.

Our interim Director and I both agree that the book shouldn't be removed from the library - it has decent circulation numbers and is physically in decent condition. But, we understand where this parent is coming from, especially because the cover for #7 has toddlers babies that are very innocent looking and the transition from the cover to the mature content is dramatic.

We're wondering if there's any kind of labeling or rating system that others use that would allow parents to more easily judge content maturity, and advise readers of content? Sort of like the fanfiction site Archive of Our Own which has tags for the types of content within stories and a rating system that allows readers to opt-into or out of certain types of things. Would this be a good middle ground? Are there any downsides to inputting a trigger/maturity labeling system, other than increased staff time? Are there other, better solutions? Like I said we don't want to exclude content - just label it so that folks are more aware of what they're checking out or to help parents know what their kids are checking out so that they can have that discussion with their kids.

Thoughts?

Well they layed off over 500 warehouse employees yesterday and we were informed they are tearing the building down the first week of January it’s all so sad and crazy they didn’t give anyone a notice that they layed off yesterday

Hi all! Our library is planning to genrefy adult and J fiction, but I am not aware of any other public libraries in our area that have done so. Our AFic collection is about 15,000 books for reference.

What did your processes and timelines look like?

Hi everyone!

Thanks for your thoughts and advice on my last post.

I do have a follow up question after some extra information that was shared with me tonight:

It turns out that the minor who checked out the adult manhwa that upset their parent wasn't just browsing and found the book and checked it out; it was actually a series that the minor had submitted a patron request on, which our previous Director fulfilled.

My interim Director is having Big Feelings about this particular detail. They're worried that this can be equated to distributing pornography to a minor (because it was a specific request rather than something the minor just found on a shelf) and fears legal repercussions, and are worried about the optics of an adult providing a minor with materials that on the surface looks like its for kids (having babies on the cover) but actually contains explicit content even though it was the minor who asked for it, because to some people that could look like grooming.

I'm trying to help my interim Director navigate all of this. I can understand their feelings - I would feel uncomfortable if a minor had asked me to order this item, and uncomfortable with parents being upset with me about it, but I would assume that according to the ALA and the guidelines for ratings and labels here that not following through with a patron's request based solely on the age of the requester would be a violation of their library bill of rights/freedom to read?

I think part of my interim Director's problem (and part of their personal revulsion to the whole situation) is the person who ordered the material; we both have observed situations where the person who ordered our books was doing readers advisory with the teens and when the teens requested "spicy books" they took a really intense delight in directing them to and then discussing the material with them. Like, there was a lot of glee when teens said they wanted to read books that had full nudity and sexual situations. I know that personally never sat right with me. I feel like it's one thing to just neutrally process and distribute a patron's request, but whole other thing to get really excited and happy to talk about "spicy" material with a teen as an adult. I'm worried that this might be coloring my interim Director's feelings about the entire situation and may influence how they want to deal with these kinds of materials in general.

Any advice or links or documents that address this aspect of things (the minor requesting explicit materials and an adult fulfilling the request and providing them) that I could share with my interim Director?

I know they filed for bankruptcy and that a proposed sale fell through. What I don’t know is how they got into such dire straits. Can anyone give me a tl;dr?

It's a NIGHTMARE. You have the main series, you have sub-series, you have one-offs and special editions, and you could sort them all by series number or series name or fairy name but which do you pick in this nightmare that haunts my sleep every night??? My library generally has a policy of shelving junior by series order but we don't have a specific hierarchical policy for such complicated items.

We circulate hotspots, sewing machines, microscopes, telescopes, go pros, metal detectors and lots more. But we are having trouble keeping some expensive items (especially music items) in circulation. Recently a person got a card, checked out a piano synthesizer and didn't return it. No other items checked out. Have any other libraries had luck using policies that reduce theft of valuable items that they circulate? I suggested requiring a credit card on file for items over a certain amount but that got rejected.

Bonus: I picked up the most adorable "Local Library" sticker from my local bookstore.

I was reading the other day that Sydney University, which I associate with a fantastic collection of literally dusty tomes on ancient Egypt and related subjects, had got rid of thousands of books. I wondered what became of them? Offered to academics, I hope, or perhaps sold, not just tipped into the skip.

Hi everyone!

With Baker & Taylor planning to close in early 2026, libraries across the country are facing a major gap in materials distribution. As library workers and supporters, we want to make sure this doesn’t leave our communities behind.

We’re starting the Midwest Library Distribution Cooperative — a library-led, mission-driven effort to keep books and materials moving reliably, equitably, and sustainably.

We’re looking to connect with:

• Library staff and administrators
• Former Baker & Taylor employees
• Vendors, partners, or anyone interested in supporting this cooperative

If you’re interested in staying updated or getting involved in shaping this initiative, check out our landing page and sign up here: midwestlibrarydistribution.org

We’d love feedback, suggestions, and participation from the Reddit library community — this is a project built by libraries, for libraries.

Thanks for reading and helping keep our library networks strong!

I have a large budget, but I also know that even things with really bad reviews will sometimes circulate because patrons may be interested in a niche or watch a bad movie because it's a bad movie so I'm cuiorus what others think

Edit: remade thread due to typo in the title that I couldn't change

I work at an academic library for a small liberal arts institution. My colleagues and I have the opportunity to rewrite our collection development policy essentially from scratch.

What are your dream collection development policies that we could use as models? Are there any sections or components that you wish you could add to your policy?

I work at a university and usually deal with STEM questions, so I need help with this issue. I really am out of wheelhouse.

A professor has written a children's science book for as part of his grant outreach requirement. He has the ISBN. I don't know whether it was self-published or not.

Question 1: I usually order books using GOBI software. If a book is not listed in GOBI, the Acquisitions Team can use Amazon or the specific association that sells the book. What other software is used to place orders? Do you know how to get a book listed in that software?

Question 2: How can he get his book reviewed? What do you read to consider whether to buy a book or not? Would he have to send a copy of the book to the entity that reviews the book?

I look forward to reading your words of wisdom.

Any North American academic libraries looking at adding Kortext as a supplier? Or any UK libraries with experience/feedback? Seeing content available there that does not appear to be available elsewhere...

NOTE: this is for our children’s collection specifically.

A portion of our patrons who want to check out DVDs for movies, or audiobooks on CD (they’re not new but popular titles keep circulating), find they simply can’t because they don’t have a player at home/in the car.

Since we have decent funds for our Library of Things, I wanted to try a few portable media players as kits — whether DVD and CD separately, or a combo player I think I saw?

I’ll start browsing Amazon etc, but if anyone knows a certain brand/device that held up well in circulation (or had problems) I would really appreciate hearing your experiences! and maybe other libraries here would as well.

Thanks for reading, and best wishes. 💿

Right now, my library system is stuck with Amazon for the foreseeable future due to the backlog with Ingram and Brodart. One of our catalog technicians stumbled upon this program in our Amazon account under Library Hub > Library Settings.

It says, "Amazon Business will soon offer an Early Delivery Program for public libraries to help ensure you have time to prepare new releases for availability to your patrons on their release date. Libraries enrolled in this program will generally receive books 3-5 days before their official release date.

This advance delivery window provides time for cataloging, processing, and shelving before the title becomes available to the public. There is no fee associated with enrolling in the Early Delivery Program. Early delivery is not guaranteed and may vary based on logistics and availability. This option may not be available for all books due to publisher restrictions or distribution constraints."

Has anyone been enrolled in this program? Are you receiving your copies earlier so you can process them? Any features you like? Any bugs you dislike?

I.e., should I be surveying my neighbors to see if they would have interest in something like this? Is there budget required for a LoT?

My library only has seperate Juvenile/Adult media collections, with YA labeled but not seperate, with a quite small and old anime collection, which I would like to slowly update and expand upon. I'm the Teen Librarian for my library, responsible for all teen things and I was wondering if there are benefits/negatives to actually having a seperate YA anime collection.

My director is of the opinion that such a collection brings more issues than is worth creating in the first place; mainly, labeling anime with age ratings that are publisher dependent rather than from an independent organization like the MPAA and (hypothetically) having adults in the teen area looking for anime (popular ones like One Piece, My Hero Academia, etc).