This is a very disturbing story. Approximately 8,000 books were removed from the shelves of Mitchell Middle School in Racine, Wisconsin.
Initially, librarians expected that 2,000 books would be “weeded,” but the number grew to 8,000, including “books on the Holocaust, Hiroshima, the Bible, the Koran, and Beowulf. In the end, over 8000 books were removed from library shelves.”
The Racine Education Association says the district plans to “weed” tens of thousands of books from public school library shelves that were copyrighted before 2000 or that are not aligned with the curriculum.
“While this is being passed off as business as usual, some librarians, who have been around since the 90′s, have never seen this happen. They want to know why is this happening now.
“One teacher said it’s quite suspicious that a parent of Pearson Publishing just happened to give a list of recommended books to buy recently. “The REA/REAA presence at the Board of Education meeting comes after repeated efforts by school librarians and by the union’s leaders to get RUSD to explain why it has ordered the purge and why it refuses—thus far—to halt the weeding until alternatives can be developed by the school librarians,” according to a statement released by the union.
Eick said the librarians are at a loss on how the books will be replaced. “There is not nearly enough money to buy enough books to replace what has been lost,” Eick said.
According to Eick, the union is demanding that:
● RUSD stop the “weeding” of our school libraries and reverse damage done to library collections.
● RUSD implement an appropriate policy with certified librarians taking the lead. ● RUSD provide children with access to a wide variety of quality literature and information.
● The Board to exercise responsible stewardship of the community’s educational resources.
See more at: http://wisconsindailyindependent.com/8000-books-removed-from-racine-public-school-libraries/#sthash.VVo5L1g6.dpuf
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“Initially, librarians expected that 2,000 books would be “weeded,”
This suggests that the librarians knew that at least something was happening. Did they know who would be doing it? Why did they allow even that much? Why should any “weeding” at all be done by anyone other than librarians?
I read that part – it really doesn’t answer any of my questions. The “Racine Unified School District” is an entity. I’m looking for the specific person or persons responsible – who made the decision, who is actually carrying out the work, etc. Also, I’d like to know how much the librarians knew of this in advance.
. . . 8000 books!!!! That’s more than weeding. That’s deforestation.
Agreed!
I want to see the list of the “Weeded” books and I would like to know precisely who is doing the “Weeding”.
Is “Weeding” the new term for “Book Burning”?
“Weeding” is a routine task qualified school library media specialists carry out. It is part of collection development.
http://www.ala.org/tools/libfactsheets/alalibraryfactsheet15
Done properly, the library media specialist consults with teachers on matches to curriculum, reviews circulation records to identify titles that are rarely checked out, reviews older non-fiction titles for accuracy (important for science, technical subjects, and modern history), and reviews books for wear to determine if rebinding or removal is called for. This is a complex task that calls for professional judgment and the specialized graduate education that school library media specialists possess. It should also be a school-based process.
As I understand it, what happened in Racine is that there were schools who were in transition between library media specialists and central office staff and possibly retired specialists came into the libraries to make the decisions instead of waiting for the new library media specialist to make the decisions. The controversy relates both to role and the quality of the weeding decisions.
Stiles, you know your stuff. The school system should have given a grace period to the schools receiving new librarians. A librarian knows his or her school, students(the main benefactors), staff, and community. That “data” is critical to collection development which includes weeding. The library collection is an organic thing. It relates totally to the school and community where it is housed.
I would think that the ALA will be all over this. It’s rather like Germany leading up to WWII.
Thank you, Stiles. While I am aware of what “weeding” is intended for, I wonder if censorship is cloaked as “weeding” in some instances.
RE – based on the titles which were removed (those with current, not pre-2000, copyright dates) it appears that certain hot spot topics were selected for removal.
Flerp!
Weeding is one thing, purging is another. A typical high school library collection has about ten thousand books. At an average of $25 a book, that amounts to $2,500,000. A library replacement budget is a few thousand dollars. You do the math.
$25 per book? Where are they getting them from, Raytheon or Lockheed Martin?
Depends on the title, hardcover, reinforced binding, etc. School library collections are not composed only of mass market paperbacks.
Tim, you would be surprised at the cost of books, especially nonfiction titles. Just look at the price of books at Barnes and Noble. And libraries often buy books with reinforced bindings (at a greater cost) so they last more than a few readings. Then the books need to be preprosessed and catalogued prior to being placed on the shelf. This adds to the total price. It all adds up. And reference books cost even more.
Please note that textbooks often cost more than $100 a piece. Just note the college textbook bills of $500+ a semester (and many of those books are either used or “paperback”).
You are assuming that the librarians had the power to say no. Think about it. Teachers are fired for criticizing the reform , so what do you think would happen to a librarian who refuses to weed the books they are told to weed?
“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”
George Orwell, 1984
I’m sorry, but that book has probably been weeded.
Funny response MJL 🙂 … and yet …
This is just one of many stories from the last few months about the Thought Police Shock Troops marching out from behind the smokescreen of unregulated charters, privateers, and corporatization of public schooling. The Koch Brother Curriculum leads the pack but there are others. Isolated, each story gets lost but together, they represent a hidden agenda emerging from the Austerity infection let loose by the Plutocrats upon USA education. Trust the librarians to keep their ears to the ground because book burning is a favorite past time of all totalitarians. Pearson is playing with matches and they are building a big burn pile.
Yep, education is the civil rights issue of our day. Taxpayers paid for all those books that are being weeded and censored. The collection should represent diverse viewpoints representative of staff students and the community. This appears to be censorship magnified. Perhaps a petition with signatures is in order. It appears that Pearson has found another way to profit from CC-replacing library books disguised as weeding.
if they burned them, it would be too obvious…
Weeding should be ongoing in a library, and every library should have a collection management plan that explains how that should happen. Books become worn beyond repair, are icky with age and non-use, have outdated info, are replaced by newer versions.
My concern here is that there appears the librarians are not the ones doing the weeding. They are the trained professionals most in-tune with the collection. I would really like to know who is doing it and what’s really behind this sudden huge attempt at clearing the shelves.
One step short of Fahrenheit 451.
Yup!
Which was probably “weeded out,” too.
“Book burning” hits the U. S. The first time I remember reading something by Dr. Ravitch was back many years ago when she brought to our attention that people with an agenda got on the book selection committed in both Texas and California, went through the books for adoption and if they found one sentence or so which did not correspond to their belief system it was not adopted. As Texas and California are such huge buyers of text books the companies could not afford this kind of “selective process” so text books became innocuous not saying much of anything that might possibly construed as controversial. Ergo, text books were not compiled by scholars but by people with their own agenda.
Where does this all end? How can a democracy survive with such bone headed, myopic, short sighted usurpation of scholarly findings and people who find “education” to be a gold mine to be picked bare supplant scholars?
Sounds more like Roundup than “weeding.”
You always make my day!
All books with a copyright before 2000 were weeded or are still being weeded. What a fiasco. As if nothing good was written before 2000.
What happened to one of our rights as American citizens–freedom of the press? I can understand that objectionable matter like pornography should be kept out of our schools. When books are ordered by school librarians, books are picked with care. Public schools are struggling with budgets and maintaining materials. Who gives Pearson the right to tell districts what reading material is acceptable for the students? I am abhorred by this power monopoly. Instead of the Public School System, it should be renamed the Pearson School System. Citizens, wake up!
The librarian in our school does a great job of weeding – if she has any doubts about certain books, she will email the department to ask our opinions about the books – she also asks us if we want any old copies for our classrooms. For example, we have old poetry & literary anthologies in the English classrooms!
It sounds like this “weeding” or purging of the library shelves is more a removal of “offensive” or “controversial” materials. The Bible and Koran are taught in the World History class as are other religions. I had both in my library and they were often checked out. The Holocaust is another unit. Holocaust books are always popular.
And while books written prior to 2000 might not be appropriate on the science shelf (such as books which still list Pluto as a planet), the copyright date is not as important in other areas. You wouldn’t want to weed out biographies such as The Autobiography of Malcolm X. In fact, The Autobiography of Frederick Douglas is on the CC reading list. In fact, most of the books listed were written prior to 2000. Are we to chuck novels by Louisa May Alcott (Little Women), Beverly Cleary (Beezus and Ramona), Anna Sewell (Black Beauty), Jules Verne (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea), Charles Dickens (Great Expectations), Mary Shelley (Frankenstein), etc., just because they are “old”. I guess the classics don’t contribute to college readiness.
It’s one thing to weed, it’s another to remove titles to reflect a philosophical agenda. And a new librarian would have only removed worn out titles, since she would not have known the needs of the student body or faculty until the following summer.
Some of my favorite science books written before the year 2000. Almost all are readable, all or in part, by high-school kids, and all are very much worth reading today.
Galileo Galilei. Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems. 1632
Michael Faraday. A Course of Six Lectures on the Chemical History of a Candle. 1861.
Charles Darwin. The Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals. 1872.
Charles Darwin. The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms, with Observations on Their Habits. 1881.
Edwin Abbott. Flatland. 1884.
The Evolution of Physics: The Growth of Ideas from Early Concepts to Relativity and Quanta. 1938
George Gamow. One Two Three . . . Infinity. 1947.
Noam Chomsky. Syntactic Structures. 1957.
Noam Chomsky. Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. 1965.
James Watson et al. Molecular Biology of the Cell. 1963.
Isaac Asimov. View from a Height. 1963.
Isaac Asimov. Adding a Dimension. 1964.
Isaac Asimov. Of Time and Space and Other Things. 1965
Robert Jastrow. Red Giants and White Dwarfs. 1967.
J. B. S. Haldane. On Being the Right Size. 1985.
Of course, one could make a much longer list. But the point is that this rule that material written before the year 2000 can be tossed is incredibly ignorant. Removing the classics listed above would be completely indefensible.
Bob, stop making me feel illiterate.
Bob, you are bringing back some great middle school memories for me with that title list. Sigh.
Flerp, if YOU consider yourself illiterate, there is no hope for the rest of us.
Tim, wonderful! I have very, very fond memories of reading some of these books when I was that age. So, I know just what you mean. I recently ordered used copies of all of those old collections of Asimov’s essays. They were, for me, as a child, a candy store. So many, many wonders! Great that you feel the same.
Thank you Robert for mentioning these. All libraries should contain Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring and let’s add Darwin’s Origin of Species to your list. Both are influential tomes written way before 2000.
Silent Spring was weeded.
Ellen,
Was one copy of Silent Spring weeded and ten remain?
If you want, here is a pdf: http://faculty.uml.edu/sgallagher/silentspring.pdf
Thank you TE. I now have downloaded my own copy of Silent Spring on my iBooks. And luckily, many of these classics are available for free on the internet.
But no, I’m sure they don’t have multiple hard copies of that title.
Ellen,
Your welcome. Almost all “information” is available on the web. The link I provided was the third entry in a google search.
While you don’t know if there were multiple copies, you also don’t know if there were five copies of the book. It seems to me that this radical uncertainty about the facts of the mater should make those that are uncertain hesitate to criticize those that are on the ground.
TE – I base my comments on my expertise after years of being a librarian. I really looked at the discard list and came to quite a few conclusions, too numerous to mention. That, plus the articles gave me a pretty good picture of the collection. Whereas some titles might have multiple copies, not every book would be purchased in duplicate. I have a pretty good idea which books are which.
Also note that the librarian was appalled at the empty shelves. That tells me they weeded all those pre 2000 titles and not just one copy.
This time I can’t give them the benefit of the doubt.
TE, it is still the case that many schools have a thousand kids and one moveable cart with 20 iPADs on it. Continuous access to online texts is FAR from a reality yet.
Very true Robert, but how much do you know about the collection in the schools we are discussing here?
TE, Tim posted a list of the books “weeded” from this collection, and clearly, this was one of those district-level blanket decisions, and people who knew what they were doing undertook the “weeding” process. And this kind of thing is quite common. Folks who have spent a lot of time working in public schools have encountered this kind of crap before.
So true, Robert. TE – we can tell from the weeded list and sheer volume of books that this purging was beyond the normal discard of outdated or worn materials.
It’s a microcosm reflecting what is currently happening to education as we know it.
Robert,
My point is that it is difficult to judge the weeding without knowing what was left behind and what the acquisition plans are like.
One of my biggest concerns is that the librarian wasn’t involved in this process as far as I can tell. The librarian has the best sense of how teachers in the school were implementing the curriculum, which books the faculty and students have interest in, even if they are only used in the library, and where the school is headed for the future. No, we don’t know the plans for replenishing in the future, but any ‘weeding’ of the collection should be led by the person most qualified to do this: that school’s librarian.
Lisa,
The news reports are not very clear about this, but apparently two school libraries were initially weeded without the librarian’s involvement, though they were brought into the process after there were complaints. Other school libraries in Racine were apparently weeded by the school librarians. I am not sure if the 8,000 books are from the whole district or even a single school library.
As chance would have it, I had coffee this morning with a former resident of Racine and long time public library director (not in Racine, but another state). She expected to weed about a thousand volumes a year from the library, though depending on the state of the collection to start, that might be a much higher number.
Books written before the year 2000?
That is an INSANE criterion, especially if it is applied by people who are not experienced librarians, ones who know Percy Shelley and J.S. Mill from Dean Koontz and Ann Tyler.
Well, on the plus side, I suppose that does eliminate anything by Milton Friedman or Friedrich Hayek.
(Kidding! – Yes, students should be able to read books even by those monsters.)
The Ayn Rand books would also be out.
Agree on the insane part.
They said with a copyright before 2000. While I don’t agree with this purge, could it be that a book of Shakespeare printed in 2003 would still be kept? I’m just asking.
Often wonderful titles that are older simply aren’t available in newer editions or not represented by newer editions in a given library. This is clearly a criterion conceived of by philistines. And the criterion of frequency is also completely batty. So what if a book is checked out only twice in three years? Perhaps it is on an esoteric, scholarly topic. Perhaps the two people who checked it out got a LOT out of it. Are we now supposed to encourage students NOT to pursue topics of esoteric scholarly interest? Perhaps the library should be purged of all books that are not in the Twilight or Hunger Games franchises. SINCE WHEN WERE APPROPRIATE TOPICS FOR SCHOLARLY PURSUIT DETERMINED BY HOLDING POPULARITY CONTESTS?!??!!!!!
$#&$&#*$#*&!(*%$#&*&*()()(!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes, reissued titles with a more current copyright would be safe (if not removed for other reasons). But an identical book, with a different cover, sitting on the shelf, but published earlier might get tossed even though it was in good condition. Supposedly, our current students do judge a book by its cover and will select newer books over older ones.
The main point is there are not enough funds to replace all these “discards”, so that spot on the shelf will remain empty.
Oh, I totally agree that this is appalling and that books may not have been reissued. I was just wondering how this would work. I saw a post on BATs from the someone in this school in Racine who said that they lost more than 3/4 of their collection. It’s horrifying.
Ellen T Klock, I respectfully disagree. I am an elementary school librarian. Students want the new stuff and unfortunately when they pick up a wonderful classic sometimes they see a page with a large block of small print and it turns them off. A library is not a repository for vintage books. Students want to see illustrations and larger font. They are much more visual now then back in the day as they say. If we know our patrons we will do what is right for them. Sometimes a spot on a shelf is a good thing.
Ellen T Klock, I reread your post and decided to rescind my concerns.
Granted funding is beyond dismal but a crowded shelf of unread books gives the impression that new books aren’t needed. If I have multiple copies of unpopular books I will weed them. “Just in case” isn’t really the best policy anymore.
The article linked to by poster Tim indicates that the budget for new acquisitions is about $300,000 a year.
TE – I find that hard to believe. Even $30,000 is an exceptionally large budget. Even a start up library wouldn’t get $300,000.
Ellen,
The quote is
“As part of the weeding process, Tapp said schools are always given funds to replace books that are removed during the process, noting that over $300,000 was available to libraries last year to add to their collections. She said even more could be available this year.”
The source is http://journaltimes.com/news/local/unified-union-librarians-willing-to-meet-on-book-weeding/article_d4ac1bed-880c-5bc4-abab-510a2ec791d8.html
I live many hundred of miles away from Racine, as do, I suspect, everyone who has posted about this, so I must depend on news reports to learn a version of the facts.
TE – the $300,000 is for the entire district, not just one school. And it doesn’t say if that money is strictly for library books or includes data bases, periodicals, supplies, or even textbooks, classroom collections, or book sets.
Ellen,
If you look at the news reports, it is very unclear if the 8,000 books removed were from a single school or the entire district. This is the problem with trying to judge what others are doing from a thousand miles away.
TE – from the downloaded file, there were 4800 books weeded from Case High School between 7/11 and 7/20/2014. You must admit, that’s a lot of books. 100s of boxes of books.
Ellen,
That is 4,800 books over three years. Without knowing the state of the collection before 2011, the size of the collection, or the budget for the library, it is impossible to know if that was too many or too few books removed.
No, TE, that is 4800 books removed from 7/11/14 to 7/20/14. They must have been tossing books right and left into those boxes.
In addition, does equipment have to come out of that $300,000, too.
Ironically, Robert, many of those weeded titles were updated versions of the classics, republished in the late 1990’s, but not late enough to make the 2000 cut off. So close, just a year or two off.
Robert, I’m with you on the usage policy. See my comment below.
Robert – Libraries are rated by the average copyright date of the collection. By getting rid of these old books, the library will get a higher score.
This is the libraries version of standardized testing.
Ms Cartwheel Librarian,
I agree that students might be turned off by some of those older classics, but does that include The Great Gatsby and The Crucible?
And what about contemporary fiction? Shall we tell our YA authors that their titles no longer appeal to the students in our schools? Should authors like Gary Paulsen, Avi, Lois Duncan, Robert Cormier, Caroline Cooney, Larry Yep, Nancy Farmer, Sharon Draper, Julia Alvarez, and Rodman Philbrick be told to find a new profession? Their books were not considered current enough to stay on Racine’s shelves.
So not just Hawthorne and Hemingway are being tossed to the side.
When our SCHOOLS start making anti-intellectualism (e.g., “Ugh, classics”) into OFFICIAL POLICY, then we have achieved the nadir:
http://www.theonion.com/articles/nadir-of-western-civilization-to-be-reached-this-f,2812/
A few years ago, I reviewed the most popular elementary mathematics textbook program in Japan. Two things immediately stood out: The books were a fraction of the length of U.S. books because they contained NONE of the distracting “special features” of U.S. textbooks. In other words, they didn’t interrupt the development of a concept every couple lines to include a text box to say that math is used to create special effects in Ninja Turtle movies. And second, they ASSUMED that math was interesting and worth learning IN AND OF ITSELF. In other words, the authors of the program were not anti-intellectuals who thought of their subject as something unpalatable that had to be buried under tons and tons of features to “make it interesting,” and kids weren’t being told, continually, but the subtext of the text, “This is really boring crap that we have to dress up to make it interesting to you.” Math wasn’t treated as the awful-tasting medicine that has to be coated with grape chewables. Our texts, in contrast, have five special features and six different types of mini-exercises or activities (Think, Pair, Share! Connections across the Curriculum! Your Turn!) on every spread. No wonder our kids think math awful. THAT’S WHAT WE ARE TEACHING BY THE VERY FORM IN WHICH WE ARE PRESENTING IT. And no wonder we have “an epidemic of attention deficit disorder.” Our texts, in contrast to the Japanese ones, appear to have been written by gerbils on methamphetamine. The guiding design principles seem to be “And now for something completely different” because “As everyone knows, learning is boring.”
cx: “kids weren’t being told, continually, by the subtext of the text, “This is really boring crap that we have to dress up to make it interesting to you.”
Students who are “turned off by” older classics do not know what they are talking about. If a book is a classic–if it has persisted over time–there is a reason for that. There is a reason, for example, why people have read Shelley’s “Alastor” for 200 years now. 200 years before PETA, Shelley was a vegetarian:
“he would linger long
In lonesome vales, making the wild his home,
Until the doves and squirrels would partake
From his innocuous hand his bloodless food.”
Young women of his day thought of him as a glamorous, romantic idol:
“And virgins, as unknown he passed, have pined
And wasted for fond love of his wild eyes.”
He dared to think unconventional, “dangerous” thoughts:
“He eagerly peruses
Beyond the realms of dream that fleeting shade,
He overleaps the bounds.”
He embodied the idealism of youth, the pursuit of truth that is reborn in generation after generation, and he honored ancient wisdom embodied in myth and poetry:
“And all of great,
Or good, or lovely, which the sacred past
In truth of fable consecrates, he felt
And knew.”
And he painted stunning scenes:
“His wan eyes
Gaze on the empty scene as vacantly
As ocean’s moon looks on the moon in heaven.”
But a volume entitled “Alastor, or the Spirit of Solitude,” copyright 1816, would be precisely the sort of thing that would be culled by these illiterates.
Lord forgive them, for they know not what they do.
And, of course, Shelley created much of the idiom that developed into the popular love song. He was the original of which “I Shall Always Love You” by Whitney Houston or “Come Away with Me” and other such pop tunes are unknowing imitations. His voice is the lofty, original moutain spring that has served as the source of a mighty river.
we could do worse, as English teachers, than to take to heart Matthew Arnold’s injunction:
“I am bound by my own definition of criticism: a disinterested endeavour to learn and propagate the best that is known and thought in the world.”
Oh, sorry. That was written in 1864, so it’s too old for the Racine libraries.
cx: And, of course, Shelley created much of the idiom that developed into the popular love song. He was the original of which “I Shall Always Love You” by Whitney Houston and “Come Away with Me” by Norah Jones and other such pop tunes are unknowing imitations. His voice is the lofty, original mountain spring that has served as the source of a mighty river.
The main point, Robert, is that if the goal is to have the students be college ready, then they need to read at least some of the books on the suggested list of titles for the college bound, many in the “classics” realm. A lot of those books were among the discards.
Ellen,
We have no idea how many copies of those titles remained in the collection or if there were plans to replace those very same titles with new purchases.
TE – I examined the list of discards and with 4800 books weeded from one library, I can assure you that the vast majority won’t be replaced. Although I haven’t seen the list of what remains, that particular amount of items discarded would be between a third to a half of the average HS collection. Certain subject areas were especially hard hit. The complaint from the librarian that the shelves were half empty confirms my suspicions. And, don’t forget, I’m familiar with MANY of the titles removed.
Yes, there were quite a few which should have been weeded or discarded, but no where near 4800.
Obviously, you don’t believe that fellow school librarians know anything about school libraries or that the libraries in Racine are unique. I find it offensive that you can’t take our word that this purging is not a common practice. 4800 (the computer number generated at the bottom of the discard list) is quite a bit larger than the thousand titles (which seems a lot for a yearly weeding of a school library) your friend recommended. And $30,000 split between five or six libraries is between $5000 and $6000 or about 250 to 300 books each.
At that rate, there would be no books left on the shelf within ten years.
You do the math.
Ellen, I speak from an elementary perspective where one of my most important goals is to get students to read and hopefully LOVE reading. Self-selected reading materials rarely include the really old stuff. I don’t weed everything because I know my kids.
I have and promote My Side of the Mountain, The Giver, The Narnia Chronicals etc. The Great Gatsby and The Crucible are taught in English classes where most students read them. After that exposure they may then go on to find related books on their own. Having a go-with movie never hurts either.
Again, this is a “know your patrons” situation which is a librarian’s job, not an administrator’s.
To fellow school librarian – Mrs Cartwheel Librarian,
I see your point. A cross section of books need to be available, especially those of high interest to the kids. I can assure you my library was full of those books. I used to visit the local public library and Barnes and Noble to see what kids were reading so my book order could reflect their interests. I also was in a high school book club where we discussed current trends and made recommendations. Unfortunately, many of those popular titles were also weeded and replacing older titles will take away from purchasing newer ones.
Also to consider, if the high school is offering AP Literature, many of those weeded “classics” should be available.
TE to Ellen . . . should be “you’re” welcome. Not “your.”
Unfortunately, WordPress doesn’t have a correction feature that allows posters to correct their typos.
Where was the “Wisconsin Daily Independent’s” follow-up story? The weeded books will be reviewed by librarians before anything is actually recycled or donated.
http://journaltimes.com/news/local/unified-holds-weeded-books-for-librarians-to-examine/article_2fd9b829-5108-5bbd-8cb3-475aa52bf2e6.html
Crisis averted. On to the next outrage!
“The district announced the decision on its Facebook page Thursday, ***after*** librarians and other district staff and parents decried the “weeding” of books from these schools, where staffing changes had briefly left the libraries without a librarian to consult during the process.” [Emphasis added]
Looks like CYA to me. Anyway, what’s the sense in having non-librarians remove thousands of books and then having actual librarians go back through the removed books to see which ones need to be put back?
The process has been for the district to make the initial culling and then have a librarian review the list. Hopefully this newspaper will investigate further and find out historically how many titles the librarians ask to have reinstated, and how that compares to whatever happens with this current batch.
No, the process has previously been for the librarians to do the “weeding”. From the article: “Librarians have previously said weeding of library collections is an ongoing task that has always been the responsibility of the librarian….” Sounds like this time the district took it upon themselves to do so in the hiatus between librarians.
Your willingness to accept the district’s word and dismiss this as a non-issue is telling.
I’m not accepting only the district’s word for it, but also the executive director of the local:
http://journaltimes.com/news/local/unified-union-librarians-willing-to-meet-on-book-weeding/article_d4ac1bed-880c-5bc4-abab-510a2ec791d8.html
If you want to double down on the concept that this was a conspiracy, it’s your lookout.
“…but the difference this year was that at least two libraries, Case High School and Mitchell Middle School, were weeded without the presence of a librarian.”
Yes, and those are the schools whose library shelves suddenly seem to be empty. If the absence of a media specialist was so “brief” why was the purging, er, I mean “weeding” done during that specific period? There was no other possible time to do it when there would be a librarian available?
I encourage you to contact the principals, the union director, and the newspaper report to find the answers to your vexed questions–contact information for all the parties is easily Google-able.
Tim, come on now, 4800 books is not culling, it’s raping the collection.
However, I want to thank you for the links. It has been very informative.
Forgive me if I don’t take the articles at face value. I’ve been there and I know how the system works.
Tim, I’m sure that the damage was already done. Hopefully something from the collections can be salvaged.
I guess that eliminates Shakespeare, Plato, Ghandi, Mother Teresa, and all those pesky people that lived and wrote before the year of enlightment 2000. Again the stupidity of the reformers their lack of culture, education, commonsense, decency, coupled with their willingness to lie, hide the truth, PR everything and threaten anyone who disagrees, really is scary stuff. Book Burning next?
Let the indoctrination begin:
He Alone who controls youth owns the future:
Adolf Hitler
Who is weeding thousands of books from school libraries…..?
Why the dictator wannabee Bill Gates & Co of course
We are watching history in the making. A democracy of “obedient children” overtaken by a dictator who has used his personal power and wealth to manipulate public opinion via propaganda and deception and create emotional contagion on a national scale.
This story does not have a good ending.
Here is the official record of the titles that were weeded from the high school. Bob Shepherd, you should probably make sure you are sitting down when you open it, or have someone spot you.
Click to access Case-WeedingLogReportJob512818.pdf
I understand the German Student Union and Kunstschutz used to keep similarly fastidious records.
When is National Book Burning Day? I have hundreds of books to contribute to the bonfire. How did they come up with the magic year 2000?
I have no idea.
This district will spend $18,183,664 on “Libraries and Instructional Support” in the 2014-2015 school year, or about $921 per student. That seems like it should be plenty to purchase new books, including new copies of works published before 2000.
Tim, we don’t know what Libraries and Instructional Support means. I’m positive it is not all for books.
And why should the librarians have to replace perfectly good books which were erroneously discarded when they would rather spend the money on new titles.
$#&*&@$#)(!#(_)!#(*()$&*#&*!@!!!!!!!!!!
Bob Shepherd: if I read your comment correctly, you said something like—
First the weeding then the burning followed by Heinrich Heine:
“Whenever they burn books they will also, in the end, burn human beings.”
Did I read that right, or have I been spending too many lost and lonely hours doing my CCSS ‘closet’ reading with not enough flashlight batteries to keep the darkness at bay?
A little ‘illumination’ would be appreciated.
😎
Thank you, Krazy.
Of course. Yes. Exactly.
My God, Tim, worse than I could have imagined. Sickening!!!!!
Hard to attribute to anything other than poor judgment or no judgment.
Willard: They told me that you had gone totally insane, and that your methods were unsound.
Kurtz: Are my methods unsound?
Willard: I don’t see any method at all, sir.
This district once had an excellent collection of books. I’d like to see what was left.
well said, Ellen!
Although this is an older post, I hope it goes viral. I’ve mulled this post all day, and all I can think about is Robert’s warning a few months ago about the CCSSO (I believe) being encouraged to use copyright to say what is or is not common core-aligned. While this weeding of pre-21st century books happened in Wisconsin, it reminds me of some of the bizarre choices utilized in EngageNY modules (without copyright permission, may I add) such as “realistic” but controversial passages from Friday Night Lights (f-word) and the urinating werewolves in the St. Lucy’s Home for Girls excerpt. Is this a back door effort at imposing which works fit common core or is it merely carelessness? Is this tactic coming to a suburban school near you?
Nimbus – the reading selections proposed by the CCSS concern me as well. Another example of the uninformed making decisions for the majority.
Just because you’ve once read a book, doesn’t make you a literary critic.
Let’s have a good old-fashioned book burning. Wouldn’t that be such fun?! (All sarcasm intended). It reminds me of a scene from an Indiana Jones movie where the Nazis were burning books in the public square. What a sad, sad commentary on our society. Was there any public rstionale for this wholesale removal of books?
The National Council Teachers of English needs to know about this as do any English teacher organizations, International Reading Association, etc. There is power in numbers.
Just now filed a complaint with NCTE (National Council Teachers of English).
And free, public screenings of the film “The Book Thief” should be shown in every village, town, ‘burb & city all throughout the U.S., to remind us all what a book burning looks like. Never again!!
Absolutely! I am still haunted by the book burning scene.
What does “was available – weeded” mean? Did the district have other copies or access to electronic versions?
I’m asking because I really do not understand this! If you scroll the list of titles to the end of the document (on p. 539), it says 4,793 “weeded” & 7 “deleted”.
Was available- weeded means that the book was in the library and it was weeded as opposed to lost or damaged or just deleted. I’m guessing someone just forgot to check the box that indicates weeded for those 7 deleted titles.
From looking at the weeding log, it looks as though no thought went into the weeding. For instance in addition to the many classic titles, I noticed a number of old Caldecott or Newbery award winners which were weeded as well as a large number of books published 2000 or older but purchased in 2010 and sooner some even as recent as 2013-2014. However, it’s hard to tell if there were several copies of the title and they were leaving one on the shelf. I often do that with older books. For instance I had 5 copies of each Harry Potter title and weeded 3 of them this year.
Weeding is necessary to make room on the shelves, but you need a trained librarian who knows the collection, the curriculum and the students before you can weed appropriately. In this case, it’s apparent that didn’t happen.
Flmlk,
As you observe, volume condition and the number of copies of the books is not noted in the list, so perhaps there was some thought put into the weeding.
Even worse than having a non librarian weeding a collection in front of them is a bunch of folks who have never seen the collection, the number of duplicates, the condition of each volume, the capacity constraints on the library, or know anything about the budget for purchasing new books decide that they must have done something wrong.
TE, you do have a point. Some of those titles might have been damaged or been duplicates. However, there were a lot of books recently purchased which were chucked with the older volumes. Since they claimed to be doing a purging, we are reacting to the numerous classical or popular titles eliminated from the record.
I know I am from the outside looking in, but from my experiences as a librarian, this removal list was very upsetting.
Ellen,
Titles eliminated or just copies? Damaged books that will be replaced? Very hard to tell from this list. How on earth do you conclude that the students in Racine have no access to books that reflect fifty years of civil, women’s, and human rights? I have just seen a list of the weeded volumes. Have you read through the catalog to see what is actually in the collection?
TE – I just perused the first half of the discard list and noted that several sections were thoroughly weeded – fiction, folk and fairy tales, Ancient Civilizations, The Renaissance, Reference Books, Literary Criticism, Poetry, and Plays. There was a special emphasis on science fiction and fantasy. Please note that some post 2000 books were discarded, especially on topics such as Islam and Contemporary Issues (like the death penalty).
I stand by my statement based on my observations, although I am curious to see what exactly remains in the collection.
Ellen,
Without knowing the collection, how can you make any judgement?
Flmlk, for example, reported weeding 3 copies of each Harry Potter book. Of course, 2 copies of each book remained. but you would not know that from the list of culled books. All you would know is that 15 books had been lost from the collection.
I have a hard time believing that 8,000 books in a single library were duplicate copies and/or damaged. For a middle school, 8,000 books is nearly the entire collection.
Threatened,
Do you know the size of the collection in Racine?
TE – has it completely escaped you that the librarians in Racine themselves (who presumably know their collection) were appalled?
Dienne,
Has it escaped your notice that we have no idea about the state of the collection, the size of the budget for replacement of books, the physical space, or that the books were being retained until the librarians could go through them?
Not everything that happens in any public school district in the United States is part of a giant anti-school conspericy.
TE – is ignorance a conspiracy?
There are too many people with big heads who think they know it all, but are clueless, that are making decisions which effect the rest of us.
Ellen,
I would choose ignorance, and no doubt I would be right virtually every time.
TE – believe it or not, we agree. I think that most people have drunk the kool aid. They see a problem and they latch on to individuals who have a “solution “. The fact that this “solution” is not viable does not enter their consciousness.
Our goal is to find a way to over ride this original reaction. Currently their eyes are open wide shut, so perhaps they need a “cornea” transplant so they can actually see what is really happening to our education system.
Even intelligent people don’t have a clue.
We have our work cut out for us. Readers, join us in spreading the truth.
And a thank you to Diane for helping me to see – my “surgery” was a success.
BTW, TE, while you were on vacation, I decided to help you out by going through your office. I noticed you had three copies of CAPITALISM AND FREEDOM, so I threw two of them out. And your copy of THE ROAD TO SERFDOM was pretty ragged, so I threw that out too. On the other hand, your MARX-ENGEL READER didn’t look like you ever read it, so I pitched that too. And you didn’t need all those books published before 2000 did you?
I’m sure you’ll appreciate all that extra space on your shelves for all those new books you plan to buy. No need to thank me.
Dienne,
I don’t believe I have copies of either book in my office or my home.
Dienne – loved it, but too close to the truth.
(I once had a principal who purged teachers’ file cabinets over the summer so they could “start fresh”.)
http://teachforamerica-detroit.thegivingeffect.com
There are companies that specialize in “charitable giving of books.” One says that the libraries get up to 50% of the money they make in sales of books and they also give books for charity. I wonder who gets these books they are weeding and what are they doing with them?
On the prairie –
Selling those books is a no no. Since they were purchased with taxpayers money, they legally can’t be resold. Technically they should have the covers torn off and thrown out, but often they are given to the classroom teacher for their collection.
Ellen, selling of the books is legal, as is the selling of old textbooks or surplus furniture. The proceeds just go into the district coffers.
Lisa, it’s legal if the district sells the books, not if the librarian or a third party sells them for individual profit.
And the five year rule is bogus. Circulation at the high school level is a trickle of that in the elementary and middle schools. Sometimes the students look at a book during their free periods (especially nonfiction) or use it for research and never check it out. That doesn’t mean that the collection is narrowed to a few thousand regularly used titles. There needs to be a wide selection of books, not a preconceived notion on what a given child in a given year will want to read. That would be a private collection. A library should have a diverse choice.
And speaking of diversity, did the weeding include any books with minorities or homosexuals in the text? Did books mentioning abortion remain on the shelf?
They’ve just eliminated fifty years of civil, women’s, and human rights. Not only is CC one size fits all, it has narrowed the curriculum into a tiny bubble, excluding any “miscellaneous” items which could cause controversy.
And this new educational plan is supposed to make us ready to compete in the modern world? Only if we time travel back to 1950.
Just looked back at the list & noticed that it is for Racine Case High School, not Mitchell Middle School (which is the school mentioned in Diane’s column)… so I’m not if this info still works. (We don’t know if the high school’s librarian weeded those titles or someone else.) Regardless, it is still a chilling thought that someone other than librarians weeded, removed, deleted, torched (whatever!) those books from the middle school.
According to the article, there was no librarian at Chase HS either.
Follow the money and connections. (1) Follett is a (the?) main provider of books to school libraries. “As the nation’s largest supplier of books, reference materials, digital resources, eBooks and audiovisual materials to PreK-12 schools, Follett Library Resources…” [http://www.follettsoftware.com/follett-companies] (2) It is also involved in providing software. The Director of Marketing for Follett software is Michael Campbell, whose previous job was VP/Director of Marketing for Pearson Canada. [http://www.follettsoftware.com/press.cfm?vPress=1090] (3) Follett sells many Pearson products. [https://www.fes.follett.com/index.cfm;jsessionid=5830da909866d7b21347]
This brings back memories of my uncle who was on the Board of Education of Kanawha County, WV back when the “Kanawha County Textbook War” happened.
“The Kanawha County Textbook War was arguably one of the top three non-catastrophe events in West Virginia history. It also ranks in the top echelon of conservative history in America. The Kanawha County Textbook War has generated multiple articles, research papers, chapters in books and entire books.”
http://www.insectman.us/testimony/textbook-protester-truth/pertinent-points.htm
“The Kanawha County textbook controversy set the stage for some profound changes in the political landscape and in American education…Before the 1974 protests, conservative and fundamentalist parents sensed they were powerless…The success of the anti-textbook forces in Kanawha County gave conservatives around the country a new sense of confidence…In just a few short years the movement had gained so much momentum and influence that presidential candidate Ronald Reagan was pledging to support many of the goals of the protesting parents. Kincheloe, Joe L. Understanding the New Right and Its Impact on Education. Bloomington, IN: Phi Delta Kappa Educational Foundation, 1983: 7-8.
“Armed with this new confidence, fundamentalist parents challenged boards in all sections of the county…These challenges, with few exceptions, were not led by irrational extremists but by conservative, reasonable people operating from a philosophically consistent position. A dominant theme in the battles was the right of parents in a democratic society to control was is taught in their schools. In most cases the issues surrounding the controversies were quite similar to those in Kanawha County… Kincheloe, Joe L. Understanding the New Right and Its Impact on Education. Bloomington, IN: Phi Delta Kappa Educational Foundation, 19837-8.”
Just as other educators are, school librarians are undervalued these days. This is a deplorable situation but at least there ARE librarians in these schools. So may districts throughout the country have weeded the librarians and often closed the libraries. It shows ignorance and the power of the almighty dollar.
‘Weeding’ is part of collection development for a school library media specialist. Collection development is a graduate level course for LMS certification. Each school has its own unique collection based on a number of criteria. But it is not to be done by untrained, unqualified people using one single list provided by educational corporations. This is the problem that I see going on. As a professional life-long LMS I’ve seen this nonsense before. Admins or parents or misguided staff get lists and work their mischief. This is why we need strong district-wide library media programs staffed by qualified, certified LMSs. I could go on and on about the abuses I’ve seen committed by people who have zero training in collection development. One admin I knew wanted the collection to be nothing but books on the various accelerated reading lists (a misnomer if there ever was one). It makes my blood boil.
The Nazi book burnings have returned via Common Core indoctrination !