But this is important for "historical reasons"

It seems like every few months Awful Library Books will get a flurry of angry comments, emails, etc on how a certain title would be important for "historical preservation" or in a study of history.  History buffs, collectors and other lovers of the odd item seem to bristle at the concept of weeding.  If my tolerance is low, I will roll my eyes and whine to Holly about the more humorless elements in society.  No matter how many times we say that community standards and a library mission trump any comment made by a couple of cranky public librarians in Michigan, the comments still come.

As librarians, I wonder if we aren't communicating to the user effectively on our collection missions.  My small library is not New York Public or the Smithsonian. It isn't even the same as the library ten miles away in a different town.  Our library collection mission is supporting popular materials.  We also have a strong genealogy collection which does include some preservation. I would imagine that many libraries, even very small ones, attempt some preservation of materials in local history collections.  However, that scope probably does not include a career book for women from the 1970s. Does it have significance in a historical context?  Probably, but that isn't what my taxpayers have hired me to collect or maintain.

The point of my little tirade is that I am happy to suck it up when civilians don't understand public vs. academic vs. archives missions.  I do get frosty when I have to explain it to professional librarians.  Understanding the scope of a library's collection is the one of the basic concepts for anyone that manages a collection.  For public librarians, I suggest another step.  Think of a regular patron that would enjoy the book or find the information useful.  If you can't think of anyone then maybe you need to think about weeding! 

Mary

PS. When was the last time you read or reviewed your library mission or collection statement?