Hello Caroline,

 

We certainly weed the stock regularly and take off items which are tatty or have not been issuing. We find we issue very few hardback fiction titles.

 

We rely on donations for our leisure collection. We used to have some books from the public library but this stopped a few years ago. We did not have much choice about what was supplied but could request some titles of subjects. Our leisure library is for both staff and patients. We have a trolley round which goes round the ward on two afternoons a week run by volunteers. There is quite a high loss of stack from this so I reluctant to buy brand new books as I have visions of them going there as the first issue and not being returned. This does mean we struggle with large print books.

 

Relying on donations can lead to an eclectic collection. It is quite a small collection. We are very strict about the quality of books we will add.  We receive quite a number of donations and always say that they must be in good condition. We sometimes ask people to bring a few in if they have a large amount of books to donate. They do not always listen to us though.  The definition of good condition has become very good or really good condition but it is always open to interpretation. We do become somewhat frustrated when having said all this we end up with five boxes of old and tatty book from someone’s loft or garage. We have talked about it but cannot find a solution as people will interpret what we say differently. They hear what they want to hear and think we will provide a good home for their books. We send them on to Anybooks.  I think they are often reluctant to throw books away and like the idea of them being used by the hospital. They may have been good or expensive books when purchased but are often out of date by the time people decide to pass them on.

 

We receive some books which are really good, only read once and popular titles.

 

We are about to start a book exchange when we will use some of the donated books that are in reasonable condition but not good enough to add to our collection. This was a suggestion from a member of staff who did not want to donate books but thought she would do so if she could exchange the books for different ones. We had something similar in the previous NHS library I worked in as there was no leisure section as part of the library. We have not started this yet. It will save us taking them to charity shops or to the wards which sell books to raise money.

 

I hope this helps if only to know many of us share the same experience.

 

Kind regards,

 

Alison

 

 

Hello,

 

We have recently  found that we have had a combination of  a large amount of donations and some new stock for our fiction section.

This has made us reconsider our current fiction collection and whether we need to revisit taking some of our older less issued books of our shelves.

I was just wondering what other libraries weeding procedure is?

I was also wondering what condition you accept Fiction donations?

We had one donation recently that was foxed but in my days at public libraries we would only accept brand new condition books.

I am presuming how strict this is is all dependent on the frequency of new donations/new stock at the library in question.

Caroline Hornsby
Knowledge & Library Assistant | Education | Field House Education centre
Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
T: 01274 36 4130
M: Twitter @BTHFTLibrary
http://www.bradfordhospitals.nhs.uk

 

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