Why are some library books taken off the shelves even though they are still sought after?

Question

and who be the powers that be, dudguy13. Thats quite poetic?

Answer 1

Various reasons. First, wear and tear on the copies is a big factor. Sometimes replacement copies are not available at all. With scientific books, new discoveries might make a book out of date, these books are often removed to make room for copies with accurate information. Occasionally, some librarians feel a certain book is not appropriate for their library; they will remove a book to avoid controversy.

Answer 2

In school libraries if a parent or group of parents think a particular book is "inappropriate" for their child to read, they will kick up a stink with the school board to have it removed from the school library. Then, if none of the other parents want to get involved, and say that they have no problem with a particular title, or that they feel that the title is not only appropriate but neccessary, the school board may vote to take that particular book out of the school library.

If there is more than one school in a particular district, all copies will be taken out of all the schools in that district, even though the children of the protesting parents don't go there.

The same types of people often get a power rush if they are successful, and try to do the same things at public libraries. This is why it is important to stay informed, and fight censorship. You might not like a particular book, but that does not give you the right to deny it to someone else.

Answer 3

Well, as many say, there are alot of reasons. To break it down to the best logical assumption, you have a person (often a degreed librarian) who is in charge of weeding out and adding in books in a certain subject area.
First, there is the question of what type of library is it?
The four I know of are Academic, non-profit /non-public, for-profit (corporate) and military/government. There are more, no doubt. Each library devotes their collection development towards their users. They also have a standard for how useful a book is. Some measure how many times a book is checked out, while others look at condition. All books are sought, even if only by the author. (Yes, I think alot of authors like to check and see if a library has their works).
But simply put, each of them have a measure, or standard to use in pulling materials for withdrawal. You might check the next library booksale, because alot sell their withdrawals there.

Answer 4

There are many reasons books are withdrawn from library collections but the top three are underuse (they don't go out enough), damage (usually stemming from OVERuse, or vandalism), or becoming outdated (for non-fiction and reference works).

Libraries also frequently have problems with storage: too many books on the shelf. When that happens, we "weed" the collection by several criteria, but the above three are tops.

Generally was don't toss stuff if we can't get another copy for our patrons. So check with your library to see if you can interlibrary loan the material you're looking for.

For the record, members of the American Library Association, which is probably a majority of professional, degreed librarians, fight against censorship and shun the withdrawal of materials for reasons of "inappropriateness." There are of course exceptions, such as the problems the Miami-Dade County library system is having with the Cuban community over children's books about life in Cuba under Castro. But these are rare, and most librarians are in full support of the First Amendment right to free expression of ideas.

In fact the ALA has a nearly-universally-accepted "Freedom to Read" statement, attached.

Answer 5

I'm not sure I completely understand your question. Are you referring to books that get banned for inappropriate content? If so, you might be interested in the ALA's list of most frequently challenged books.

As other have mentioned, though, in many cases it's just a matter of shelf space, and needing to make room for the new books that come in. You might want to keep an eye open for your library's book sales -- that's where all those "removed for lack of space" books are likely to end up.

Also, a lot of people don't realize this, but in many areas libraries have formed cooperatives with other libraries in their area, so that their patrons can check out books from any library in the cooperative. Where I live, for example, I can get books not just from my city's library, but from about 20-25 libraries in my county. AND I can have them shipped to my library for me to pick up there. AND I can search and order them online. Check with your library and see what kind of services they have, and where you might be able to get a book that they no longer have on the shelves.

Answer 6

>>I've had the same problem in the area where I live too.
So I asked the librarians,
>>some books were damaged..
>> some lost (aka. ppl not returning them)..
>>Recent overhaul of Public library's data banks by local council deemed that quite a few of the books were deemed as having inappropriate content so were removed from shelves....

Answer 7

well more and more authors come on the scene the more space is needed and not only that the same authors have new stories to show off. the trend is for more sports books for example than any other subject they thats the library assistants have to accomodate that.

Answer 8

Because the powers that be in literature dont think there "appropriate".