Library Office Associate Rebel Ruhr is excited to announce that they have finished re-organizing and ordering new books.
“It gives you an idea of what you want to read,” Ruhr said. “Like if a student wants to read horror, they can just go find horror.”
“I am still getting used to the idea of gentrifying the books that are in our collection,” Dana Fontaine, the head librarian said.
“There’s some different research books coming out of different genres. We are hoping to catch some new people’s attention,” Ruhr said. “I am hoping for an increase of students coming in to check out books.”
An increase in students checking out books would be beneficial for the library, but it isn’t a guarantee.
“ There are pros and cons to each setup. I felt a little pressured by other librarians who were showing an uptick in circulation statistics and an increase in readership,” Fontaine said.
“We have kids come in and request different books. We’ll put those on the list. If we see a genre that’s going out, maybe we’ll look into books for there, a lot of its requests, and then getting rid of the books. A lot of it’s the old stuff that’s not checked out anymore or stuff that’s ruined,” Ruhr said.
“We have a selection policy here. We also have a complaint form,” Fontaine said. “ I order ebooks throughout the year. Then whatever money I have left in my budget, I order ebooks or print books at the end of the year.”
The number of new books they get every year can range from 1,000- 3,000.
“Around 1,000 books, we got a lot. We just got done. My list was well over 500 for this last time,” Ruhr said.
“Yes, because we weeded (discarded) about 1,000 books. Just like when you weed plants, good books get more readership/sunshine when all the outdated material is pulled,” Fontaine said. “It also helps me measure what we need more of in the library. For example, I need more LGBTQIA+ books, more romance books and adventure books. I do not need more fantasy since we are inundated with that.”
Ruhr believes that students being addicted to their phones was part of the reason why students struggle to read. Ruhr tries to get those who struggle to get off their devices into reading online books.
“However, there is a way around that. That’s the online books, we have an online library here too. So if they don’t want to get off their phone, but they need to read a book, they can always do that.”
“If it’s a beginner, then we have a whole bunch of “easy readers” that they could check out. We have a whole bunch of Spanish books. I’m trying to go through and genre-file those too, it really depends on what they’re interested in. We have kids that want to learn about the medical field and careers, we have those. Do you want fantasy? Do you want mystery?” Ruhr said.
Some kids just need to find the correct genre or correct book for them to get into.
“Teachers always have them read a certain kind of book and then they just lose interest in it. If you’re forced to read something you don’t like then you come to think you don’t like reading after all,” Ruhr said
There are also a lot of books that have been taken and not returned. This doesn’t even account for the amount that are ruined or discarded.
“I’m the one that puts in the fines every Friday. There’s a lot of books that get checked out and don’t come back, so there’s a lot of money. A few $100 worth of books that are not back yet,” Ruhr said.
“Approximately 1,000 books this year. The fiction needed to be weeded badly. There were books on the shelves that were falling apart and moldy,” Fontaine said. “The library is finally starting to look like a young adult library.”
