Weeding, Weeding, and Wedding Some More

Whew!  There's nothing like weeding books to wear a Media Specialist out, unless it's administering a state test all week.  Yes, this week is state testing in my county.  The mornings will be filled with testing, testing, testing.  So my afternoons will be left to open checkouts. I decided to use the time I would normally devote to planning lessons to cleaning up the shelves, but I couldn't wait so I started weeding last week.  It seems like weeding has been my theme this year.  I have weeded so many books that I am afraid we won't meet the minimum number of books per student required by the state if I keep going.  So, fingers crossed, I think I am done for a bit.

Here are some pictures of all the weeding I've done this year. 

I began the summer weeding any books that had hand written spine labels,

a sure sign that the book was waaaay past its prime.

I ended up with two tables full of books which I offered up for grabs to teachers.

Most of the books went unclaimed, but some found a new home in a classroom.

Here is a small stack of books that I weeded last week.  I've also weeded a few more smaller stacks throughout the year, but didn't think to take pictures of those stacks.

All told, I've weeded almost a thousand books this year.
Here are the official stats of how much I've weeded this year:

I've come across some real doozies during this whole process.  Here are some of my favorites.

Something about the title of this book makes me giggle.  I hear it THOSE people in Washington! *eye roll*

Um, yeah.  Who wears white gloves any more?  Too funny!

While I am sure there is some good information in this biography about Johnny Cash, I am sure that there is a much better, updated biography to replace this one.

Ditto for this biography about Dolly Parton.

Gotta love the hairdos in the book, though.

The pictures in these books from the '70s had me rolling.  

I am sure I had friends who wore these clothes when we were growing up, but they seem too funny now.

And here's a great one from Mr. Rogers.

Here's a great one for Earth Day.  Love those '90's white jeans!

Here's a whole set of some groovy books, at least they were groovy at one point in time.  The last book might raise some eyebrows today with the picture on the front.  Time to update the 700's.

Love that you can see what groceries looked like back in the '70s on the cover of this book.

What struck me looking through this book was how short the dresses were.  I am sure that I wore short dresses, too, but wow!

This book reminded me of School House Rock....

...complete with retro cartoons!  But I am not sure today's patrons would appreciate them as much as I do.

This book about obedience had me wondering if the author was comparing children to dogs. Hmmm.

There were a few more, but I think you get the jest of it.  I think I might have to submit some of these to Awful Library Books.  LOL

Maybe it's because Earth Day is quickly approaching or maybe it's just because I am a Book Bug, but I feel bad that most of these books won't ever be used again and have been looking into ways to reuse or repurpose these books.  Here are some ideas I've come across in other blogs as well as on Pinterest.

Saw this cute idea on Bookshelf  for a Book Nook made out of weeded library books.

Craftberry Bush has a cute idea for making a pumpkin from an old book.  I've also seen apple variations of this same concept.

Rock Star Diaries shows how to make a book tree from an old book.

I enjoying making my own greeting cards, and this idea from Sweetly Scrapped for making envelopes is genius!  Thank you notes for parent volunteers would look great in these.

You can find more ideas for reusing old books on this post on Cathy Nelson's Professional Thoughts.  The art that students at her school made from old books is amazing!  She mentions Dianne Cordell's Pinterest board.  I also saw that Fran Bullington has a similar Book/Craft Ideas Pinterest Board.  I started following these boards and hope to begin my own board of similar ideas soon.

So where do your weeded books end up?