What I never learned… the fine art of weeding

Of course I took the collection development class. Of course I learned about children’s literature. I took every class my school offered on the subject, and have not stopped studying it since. But no one ever taught me how to weed an antique book collection! For the past few weeks, I have been weeding a rather large collection of children’s books that have gathered dust on the shelves at our headquarters building for nearly 25 years. We’ve never needed the space before, so the collection has truly not been seriously weeded in that amount of time. Needless to say, I am finding books that have a last circ date in the 90’s (and some even longer than that!) Titles such as “Chouchou” by Francoise (the 1958 story of a little donkey who has had a hard life), and Margaret Wise Brown’s “Steamroller”, which is my new favorite Christmas book, featuring Daisy, who gets not a doll, nor books or candy for Christmas, but a steamroller which goes out of control and squashes flat anything (and anyone) in her way. Those are just some of the gems. Who has seen the wordless book, “Rolling Downhill” by Ruth Carroll? How about a circa 1940 reprint of Randolph Caldecott’s “Sing a Song for Sixpence”? Most of these books have never even heard of an ISBN. I am finding books that need to be removed because of content, such as “Picnic at Babar’s” for the racist portrayal of the natives in Africa, and the controversial “Five Chinese Brothers” by Claire Bishop. So, library school, where art thou when I need you? What do I keep in a back-up collection in case someone wants to study these books? Some are the last remaining copy in the province, but are they really worth keeping?  I used to think weeding was easy, but this task has me continually scratching my head and searching the internet for help.  This is a daunting assignment, but my years of reading and my solid background in children’s lit, learned at the feet of the great Anne McConnell, are keeping my head above water. So far.