QUINCY – It may sound counterintuitive, but public libraries across the country routinely “cull” their collections. Although recycling or repurposing is strongly encouraged.
At the request of Muddy River News, Quincy’s Public Library provided us with a list of culled items that were the subject of discussion over the summer by some members of the QPL Board of Trustees, who took issue with the appearance of empty shelves, particuliarly in the history section.
Published meeting minutes indicate that 1,300 deselected items were then restored by the then Library Director Kathleen Helsabeck. A short time later, the board placed her on administrative leave and then recently voted to change it to unpaid leave. Her salary was $83,220.80 annually, according to Natascha Will, who was named Interim Executive Director. The board approved a bump in Will’s pay to what Helsabeck was making as of the time Will was appointed interim at a special board meeting on July 19.
Will provided MRN with a copy of what’s called CREW: A Weeding Manual for Modern Libraries.
The CREW method has been used for decades, according to Jeanette Larson, who wrote an introduction for the manual contained in the Texas State Library and Archives Commission in Austin, Texas.
It is directed towards small and medium-sized public libraries as a way to weed out outdated and no longer useful material from their collections.
Originally crafted by Joseph P. Segal and Belinda Boon, the general information remains the same, but now contains considerations for changes in technology.
“Almost universal access to the Internet has affected every aspect of library public service,” Larson wrote. “Many works that were available only in print are now available in electronic formats.”
Larson says no librarian has enough time, space, or budget to ignore the need to weed.
Factors such as condition (dirty, warped, and bug-infested) and relevancy ( no circulation within the past 3-5 years, duplicate copies, former “hot topics”) figure prominently in the process. But Larson acknowledges that “libraries are experiencing increasing scrutiny from the public and funding sources, and may be required to justify their discard practices in more detail.”
Comments from Helsabeck supporters speculated that deselection may have been a factor in why she was placed on administrative leave over the summer.
Citing personnel matters, the library board has refused MRN’s attempts to find out if deselection was a factor. At times, our phone calls are even disconnected.
Larson, however, blames the scrutiny for why some librarians needlessly hang on to inventory because “someone may request the item.”
Weeding also includes e-books and nonprint media such as DVDs and videocassettes.
QPL provided a paper printout of 900 titles in the history collection, since those weeded items were the focus of what was discussed in the June and July board meetings.
The selection of the titles resemble a real alphabet soup of mystery novel proportions, including:
“The Fires of Vesuvius: Pompeii Lost and Found”
“The Zookeeper’s Wife”
“Giants: The Dwarfs of Auschwitz: The extraordinary story of Liiliput Troupe”
“Patton’s Panthers: the African-American 761st Tank Battalion in World War II”
“China: A History”
“Gaza: An inquest into its Martyrdom”
“Frommer’s Scotland 2019”
“Rick Steves’ Spain”
“Killing Lincoln”
“Fodor’s New York City”
With no clear context or detailed complaint contained in the meeting minutes provided on the QPL website, it appears the newly released documents offer no specifics on what missing titles were the issue.
Helsabeck has not responded to our request for interviews.
The director at the helm now, Natascha Will, said no report was ever created when it comes to the books that were restored.
“Items in good condition were moved to the Friends of the Library storage area for book sales,” she wrote in an email to MRN. “At the time, the former director, another staff member, and I manually reviewed boxes in storage, pulled library-owned materials, and returned them to Technical Services for reprocessing. We tracked counts of items recovered but did not create a title-by-title list.”
MRN will continue to reach out for specifics from board members because we have received your emails that, as a taxpayer, you feel you have the right know this information.
The QPL board has a special meeting scheduled for Tuesday, September 9, 6-8 pm.