Invasion of the alien library materials

A noted author of science fiction and fantasy for young adults speculates on things to come:

Look to the skies! Things are landing! What can these alien things be?

I didn’t ask for them. I didn’t plan for them. How many are coming? Will they take over my world?

But even if they are friendly, is there room for these refugees far from home, crowding our aisles in tattered raiment, shouldering our planned for guests aside as they make rude room for themselves?

Where will they live? How long will they stay? Will they be in and out before I realize it—leaving nary a footprint?

Or will they squat on my shelves forever like unwanted relatives who refuse to take the hint and leave, until I carry them kicking and screaming to another library and dump them in a book drop in the dead of night to be rid of them? [editor's note: No.]

Will they be different—wearing foreign labels? Will they be troublemakers? Will they take space away from our good library materials that have lived here all their lives?

Oh, look! One approaches. Where can I hide? Too late. It sees me.

Wait. It seems to be well dressed and has a smile. It speaks.

“Hello. Hope you don’t mind if I rest here a while? I’ll fit right in. I’m just like anyone, really. Well, maybe a little more attractive to people, actually. Don’t worry. I won’t be here long. Someone will soon take me home. I’m very popular.”

Hmmmm! It’s not so scary after all. It looks just like other materials I’m used to.

It sat down politely on the shelves and fit right in, just like it said it would. Oh, look, someone’s coming along and picking it up. It’s going home with someone already! And she’s still taking along some of our old friends

Humph! I suppose those aliens are all right. A bit full of themselves though.

Alien items on our shelves

Peeps watching the skies for floating items

Stay tuned

While you are weeding

In my last post I indicated that the items listed on the reports should be weeded, unless you have a good reason to keep them. And with that good reason, all you need to do to retain them is to check them out and check them back in.

For the Reading List titles that appear on your weeding report, however, let me be a little bit clearer. You probably have multiple copies of the titles that appear on your weeding list. I don’t want you to have to examine barcode numbers on the backs of each one to pull a particular item. Many are probably missing anyway. Please look at the list of titles, and consider which titles on your RL shelves are not circulating well. Which do you own too many copies of? And while you’re over there looking at them, which are ratty and worn out? Weed all of these.

Weed before floating

Thanks to Cathy Greulich, the weeding reports for the item types that will begin to float are now in your branch statistics folder.

These item types are: A & J audio books, Large Print, Reading List, non-express DVDs, videos.

To access and print these reports, go to Outlook, then to Public Folders, then to All Public Folders, then to LIB, then to Branch Statistics, then to your branch’s folder.

These reports are organized by item type and are grouped into Adult and Juvenile collection reports.

The reports only include items added in 2006 and before, for which the last activity date was 2006 or before.

These items should be weeded from your collection unless you have a good reason to keep them.

If you want to keep them, get someone to check them out.*

The floating item types will suddenly seem to grow in numbers on your shelves, since these items will no longer go in-transit (and sit in tubs).

Cathy Greulich will provide a report this week on the percentages of each of these item types that are currently in-transit.

If your shelves are 95% full and 10% of the items for the system overall are in transit, you will want to weed vigorously. Weeding items from these lists will make room for new items and will reinvigorate your collection.

Some of the items that appear on your report may be missing. Please just note these for yourself. You do not have to mark these missing.

*Everything that fits our profile for these reports (items added in 2006 or before and no checkouts since 2006) will be deleted from the database in three months.

Delivery dilemma... or disaster?

These books are waiting for homes (if they are new) or to go home (if they are in transit). Please send us your tubs so that we can send some books to you!