Health 610s

This section contains the family medical guides and the medical dictionaries. I'm not putting them on a cart behind the desk because it is obvious by their condition that they are used a lot and that people know they are there.

I think we should update the ones that have newer editions such as The American College of Physicians Complete Home Medical Guide, Mosby's Medical, Nursing & Allied Health Dictionary, etc.

There are a couple of other family medical guides (Cornell and Johns Hopkins) which are in the 616s. I would like to get these with the others in the 610s.

The only items I think should be discarded here are the old 3 volume International Dictionary of Medicine and Biology which is 25 years old, and the alternative medicine career book, which is 10 years old and which is covered in our online Ferguson's Career Directory.

Health REF 362s

Yes, there's a lot of junk in this section. Take a look at the cart. Everything on the bottom shelf I propose throwing out, either because it's outdated, or available online.

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On the left hand side of the top shelf are items that to me are iffy--no updates for most of them, but still widely held by both academic and public libraries, and containing unique information. I'm proposing that we keep them for the time being, but if any of you think they should go, I wouldn't argue.

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We should continue to get the latest edition of the Self Help Group Directory as a standing order. It is useful and inexpensive.

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Of the 3 books of stats, Health United States has a 2009 ed for $72; Health Care State Rankings has a 2010 ed for $82.75. Statistical Record of Health and Medicine has no update that I could find. Do we want to get these updates? Most of the material here probably could be found online, but I think the real value is in the arrangement, and the ideas it provides of the availability and sources of stats, which then can be looked up online.

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The group of small items in a rubber band are old statistics for child abuse and welfare in New Jersey. The statistics online only go back to 2006. Do we want to keep?

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And finally, the AHA Guide. This is a standing order at about $335. Is it worth it?

Publications of the Princeton Regional Schools

The library receives a random selection of publications from the Princeton Regional School System. I (Gayle) am trying to decide what we need to keep, what should be cataloged and what can be discarded.
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Currently we have the PRS Policy Manual, updated every now and again, shelved behind the reference desk. This item is in the catalog.
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We also have the School Board Meeting Minutes in a binder on the same shelves. This binder is arranged by month and can hold up to three years worth of material. Earlier years I have in a file cabinet and the other day I found 2004 and 2005 in a box on the magazine shelves. How long should be keep the minutes? Should they be cataloged? Should the back years go in the Princeton Room? Be discarded?
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We also get titles such as the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for Fiscal Year xxxx, though I can only find two years of this. They are currently uncataloged. One copy was found behind the reference desk and another in a box on the magazine shelves. What should we do with these? Catalog them? Princeton Room? Vertical File?
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All feedback is welcome!!

More Weeds (Ref 360's)

This section contains quite a few items that haven't been off the shelves for years, and probably should be discarded. There are so many of them they are on a separate cart. Basically if you have any strong feelings about any of the items on the discard cart, or any of the items in the non discard cart, let me know. I'm flexible.

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Some questions: Kristen, look at Earth Works. Do you think this is worthwhile for readers advisory?

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Bloodletters and Badmen and The Encyclopedia of American Crime: they are both really fun to browse, but do we need them both? On the other hand, where else are you going to find stuff like this.

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Crime in the United States: We have 2002-2005; 2008-2010. What do you think about keeping them all? This is all online, but I found it difficult to get to. Try getting to some of the tables and see if you have as hard a time as I did.

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TheStreet.com Ratings: (Property/Casualty, Health Insurers, Life and Annuity Insurers): These come out quarterly. I think we should keep at least one previous issue, because since I have been prominently displaying them on the counter top, they can disappear. Also, there is a set that includes 8 titles (Elder Care Choices, Variable Annuities, Medicare Supplement Insurance, etc.) that is in Consumer REF. I have them displayed in the same place. Maybe we should think about having them all catalogued in the same place?

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The Social Security publications: We certainly don't need all those. particularly for both ref and circ. They are all standing orders. I propose we discontinue Social Security Handbook, which is the most expensive, and limit CCH Social Security Explained and CCH Medicare Explained to one reference copy. Or do you think, with everything online, we could limit ourselves to the two small CCH publications?

Reference 350's

I'll bet if I asked most of you what's in the Ref 350's you'd have to look it up. I would have. Anyway there's not a whole lot here, and what is here is not used much, but most of it is nice to have. A lot of it falls in the category of "We are a library--where else are you going to find this stuff."

The discards:
New Jersey Budget and Budget in Brief - All online
Government Agencies - too old (1983) , no update and info can be found elsewhere.
The Presidency A to Z - Really don't need this with the two volume Guide to the Presidency plus it's 10 years older.
United States Government Manual - this is a standing order that I think we can do without. It's only about $40 but I can't remember when I used it last. This info is readily available online and is much more likely to be up-to-date.

On the other hand, the Washington Information Directory I think we should keep. Take a look at it if you haven't for a while--the value here is in the arrangement of the information. It is much easier to get a composite picture of a government department here than it is from the comparable website, even though the website has tons more information.

The Harper Encyclopedia of Military History is a gem, and the military biography titles do not really overlap. Webster's American Military Biographies seemed extraneous until I realized that it had some very different entries than the 3 volume set, like women, for example, plus spies, scouts, etc.

Let me know what you think.

The Weeding Continues

Rather than reviewing the next Dewey section, I am putting up for your consideration a number of large sets we have throughout the reference collection. What should we get rid of and what should we keep. What is worth the space it takes up and what isn't. There are some I think should go, but others of these I'm very opposed to tossing (we are a library, after all). In the interest of not prejudicing your opinion one way or the other, I won't let you know at this point what my thoughts are. I want to know what you think.

Here they are:

Contemporary Authors

Contemporary Literary Criticism

Dictionary of Literary Biography

Short Story Index

American Writers/British Writers

Readers Guide

Book Review Digest

Book Review Index

Current Book Review Citations

NYT Index

Art Index

Thomas Register 2003

As always, this is not only a weeding exercise, it is also to let you know what we have and where it is. If you have forgotten all about a particular set, or never knew we had it in the first place, hm...... What does that say about it's current usefulness.

346 - 349

This is the last of the 340's and it is a large section. A number of items I just discarded because they had already been updated by something else. And, as in the previous section, there are a number of things, particularly the Nolo books, that need to be updated.
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Some new additions here. When we discontinued the WestLaw NJ database, we got new printed materials from the New Jersey Practice Series that will be updated on a regular basis. This set includes the 8 volume Wills & Administration, the 3 volume Landlord Tenant, the 3 volume Family Practice (all with forms), and the 7 volume Legal Forms. Our WestLaw rep said this would replace the green New Jersey Forms Legal and Business, which we are no longer updating. It costs about $550 per year. The rep said that we would no longer need it with the new stuff. but I'm willing to reconsider if you think we need it as well. Otherwise this will be discarded.
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A couple of items that came automatically with our new WestLaw package: Neighboring Property Owners and West's New Jersey Law Finder, which is like the 3 volume NJSA index, only not as good.
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As you know, we are discontinuing the USCA, but are continuing the NJSA and NJAC. So we need to get rid of the entire USCA, because it is of little use without the updating service. It is also useless to offer it to another library, because the great expense and value of this is the updating service. So it goes.
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The other sets on that back wall that are probably of little use to us are West's New Jersey Digest (brown set, covers cases pre 1954) and the 2nd edition (red set, covers cases since 1954 to 2004 when the updating stopped). They were donated to us by a law firm in 2004 without the updating service. They actually do have some value, although I have never used them, nor have I been asked for them. They give specific cases that have been decided on various topics, for example, under "Eviction" Chelsea Hotel Corp v Gelles, 1942 ruled that an eviction of a tenant by the landlord suspends the obligation of tenant to pay rent..." and so on. Hmmm....what do you think?
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Take a look at the Supreme Court material on the middle shelf. Should we get rid of any of it? I couldn't decide--I thought each had value.
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Getting rid of the USCA, and relocating the NYT index and the Book Review Digests will make a lot of room on that back wall for our new legal reference section. Specific sections would be immigration, wills and estates, family law, landlord tenant. Let me know of other possible sections. Sections will be color coded rather than recataloged. Also, I'm going to be checking catalogs for face out shelves, etc.
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Any ideas here also would be appreciated. Since we are through the 330s and 340s I think we can go right ahead with our plans for those two areas.

343-345

This is a pretty simple section, and the decisions seem to be pretty clear cut to me--update all the Nolo and code stuff to the latest editions. Discard anything that is outdated that has no new edition (all those are on bottom shelf of the cart).

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The tax stuff (Federal Tax Compliance Guide, Lassers) are also in this section, but shelved over with the tax forms.

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Just a couple of notes: I am trying to add websites where publications can be accessed online to catalog records, for example the New Jersey Driver Manual, and Domestic Violence. I also did this for Martindale-Hubbel even though we discarded the actual volumes.

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As we go further into this section, we are finding titles that we would like grouped together that have different call numbers, for example Social Security Explained is here, but other social security stuff is in 368.4; there is more living will stuff in 346, etc. We will find more of this in the next section. Rather than recatalog, I am leaning heavily toward shelving together by color coding. Many libraries are doing this--it also makes changing our minds about how things are displayed much easier. Janice is in full agreement.

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Your comments, please.

Ref 340 - 342.99

This section seemed really large, but without Martindale-Hubbel, it is quite small. Martindale-Hubble has to go. We have the 2007 ed and it would cost over $1000 to update. Plus the entire thing is available online, including the legal digests. Here's where they can be found: http://www.martindale.com/ The legal digests can be found here: http://www.martindale.com/legal-library/ (in the "Search Legal Library" box type New York Law Digest--it is a little sticky, but it does work)

I'm also recommending that we discard the old Burton Legal Thesaurus. We had a newer one at one time, but it is gone.

I am recommending that we update Black's Law Dictionary (there is a new ed for $85), and all the Nolo titles (there are new editions for all and they are very affordable).

I am recommending that we keep everything else. The three constitutional law books have a lot of the same cases in them, but not all. Encyclopedia of the United Nations and International Agreements will never be used much, but it was donated by one of the authors, a local person, and it is an expensive set.

Let me know if you think we should discard anything else.

Ref 330-340

There are some major decisions to be made here.
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The top shelf is what I am recommending keeping. Several questions here:
-Small Business Taxation is from 2001. There is a 2008 ed of a similar title available for $150. Worth it? Keep the 2001? Too advanced for our audience?
-Essentials of New Jersey Real Estate is the 2000 ed. There is a 10th (2008) ed available for $47. This is kind of like a study guide. Should it be in circ if we do get it?
-Harris New Jersey Manufacturers Directory is a standing order at $150. Cancel standing order?
-RMA Annual Statement Studies - this is latest ed. No longer published in print--online only at $305
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The 2nd and 3rd shelves is what probably should go. Some highlights:
-NJ Business to Business Directory and NJ Small Business Directory - we had studied this a while ago and found it riddled with errors, and the standing order was cancelled. The eds we have are 2007--time for them to go?
-Wards Business Directory - 2004 edition needs to go
-Corporate Affiliations - 2007 ed. To get a new ed would cost over $2000. I don't think we need this and OneSource. Should we toss the 2007 or wait another year?
-Directory of Top Computer Executives - This was a donation. 2007 ed probably too old to be reliable for this type of info.
-Economic Report of the President - All online
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Let me know what you think. Also, anything else that's on the cart and not mentioned here is fair game.

Rethinking Some Subscriptions

Every fall Jenny and I go through the magazine list to see what we might want to consider dropping due to price and use issues.

The first is an old friend that I never thought we'd ever want to be without--the NADA user guides. When I saw them in the list of subscriptions, I realized that I hadn't used either of them once all year, and even had a hard time remembering where we were keeping them (behind the reference desk). Combined the price is $159. All this info is online. In fact, I found out the rough trade in, average trade in, clean trade in and clean retail prices of my 2002 Acura adjusted for high mileage in about 30 seconds.
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The next title is R&D, subtitle "Technologies & Strategies that Enable Research and Development." It's $117 for 6 issues. I know we have an audience for the scientific magazines, such as Nature, Science, Bioscience, etc., but this one maybe not. Take a look at it.
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The next one is TDR: The Drama Review, subtitle "The Journal of Performance Studies." It's a whopping $199 for 4 issues. It is very academic--too academic? Too expensive? On the other hand, nearly all the larger public libraries in NJ have it.
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Let me know what you think. If you wish to keep them, by all means, speak up.

330-332

We have started the 330's. This is a huge area so I am breaking it down into sections.

Discards:
Business Information - outdated
Encyclopedic Dictionary of Economics - outdated
Economic Indicators Handbook - outdated
County Business Patterns (all) - outdated
Handbook of U.S. Labor Statistics 2004 - outdated and very easy to get on the web
Occupational Projections and Training Data 2006-07 - newer ed on web
O*Net - better on web
Wall Street Dictionary - 1999 - outdated
Thomson Bank Directory - 2006 -too many changes in banking world since then
Savings Directory - same as bank directory
S&P Stock Reports - we discontinued the subscription back in the spring
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Wall Street Acronyms.... 1992 - outdated
Investment Statistics Locator 1995 - outdated

Possible updates and other questions:
Employment, Hours, and Earnings States and Areas 2008 - Cancel standing order? Easily findable on the web.
Summer Jobs Worldwide - This area is no place for this--never seen. Where else can we put this, or cancel standing order?
Encyclopedia of Banking and Finance and Palgrave's - both early 90s, but still valuable? Palgrave's has no update; Encyclopedia of banking has 2002 ed for $425 which I don't think we want.
Directory of Obsolete Securities 2006 - we can get 2008 for about $110 - worth it since new ed is $2500?
Handbook of Fixed Income Securities - 2005 - move to circ since it's a textbook?
Credit Repair - update with 2009 ed for both ref and circ
McGraw-Hill's Interest amortization tables -1993 -can update to 2006 for $4?

REF 310-329

This is a big area, and I am discarding more than I'm keeping. The cart behind the desk is what I am recommending we keep. The two carts in my office I am recommending for discard. Since there are too many discards, I will not list them here, but only mention the notable items.
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Cities of the United States (4 vols) - based on 1990 census data, it is too old. This information is readily available in other sources and on the internet.
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The political dictionaries are all from the early 1990's so they are being discarded. I am purchasing a 2nd ed (2001) of the Oxford Companion to Politics of the World for $17, and also Safire's Political Dictionary 2nd ed (2008) for $9, so that will update that section cheaply.
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Who's Who in American Politics - we have 95-96. 97-98, 99-00, and 01-02. We discontinued the standing order in 2002, so I don't think we need these older volumes. I am considering resubscribing to Marquis Who's Who online. That would take care of this stuff anyway.
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The Congressional Staff Directory, and the Congressional Directory, are not that old, but are not of much value since they are for previous congresses. We discontinued these standing orders since this information is all on the web.
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I can update America's Top Rated Smaller Cities to 2006-07 for $3.50. Statistics Sources can be updated to 2005 (29th ed) for $32 or 2007 (31st ed) for $88.
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Now take a look at what is being kept. We keep Statistical Abstract, not because this information is unavailable on the web, but because it is very handy in its arrangement and extremely user friendly. The same goes for such titles as County and City Data Book and Places, Towns and Townships (which can be updated to 2007 for $16).
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Don't forget the wonderful 5 volume Historical Statistics of the US. Also Congress and the Nation, (back to 1945) which is a historical record of each numbered Congress, and CQ Almanac, (back to 1973) which is a complete record of congressional action for each year. Since the main value of these two titles is historical, I am adding these as I find used copies cheaply in Amazon.
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There are a couple of small, older New Jersey titles that I am recommending for circ. They are on the middle shelf of the cart, on the right.
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I am open to any recommendations and disagreements. If there are items you want to keep or if there are things you think should be discarded, let me know. But, most important, familiarize yourself with what is here.

304-306

We are racing along at a snail's pace through the 300's! I am going to have to step this up and streamline.

As stated in my last blog, I am going to leave on the cart everything I am recommending that we keep, since, even though culling the reference area is important, more important is being familiar with what we are keeping. What I am discarding or transferring to circ I am just going to list here. (Also as stated in my last blog, I am rethinking what I am transferring to circ and will be doing a lot less of this.)

Discard: Ref 304.6 Cen/Uni - All the paperbound 1990 Census stuff (8 vols)

Ref 304.6 Fed - Federal Population Census catalog of microfilm copies (4 vols)

Ref 304.6 Mat - Atlas of the 1990 Censes

Ref 304.63 Vit - Vital Statistics of the United States, 1990 (2 vols)

Ref 305.409 Han - Handbook of American Women's History (1990) - (have the 2nd ed)

Ref 305.8 Afr - African-American Almanac, 6th ed. (already deleted from cat; Ju has 7th ed)

Ref 3035.8 Sta - Statistical Record of Black America, 4th ed (based on 1990 census)

Ref 305.8 Who - Who's Who Among Black Americans, 92-94; 94-95 (ordered 2007 ed for $1.98)
Ref 305.8 New - New Jersey African Americans and the 1990 Census

Ref 305.868 His - Hispanic American Almanac, 1993 (ordered 2007 ed for 59 cents)

Ref 305.868 Sta - Statistical Record of Hispanic Americans (based on 1990 census)

Ref 305.8924 Ame - 2004 American Jewish Yearbook (ordered 2007 ed for $5)

N.J. Ref 306.09749 Rut - Images III; A Report on the Quality of Life in NJ, 1985

These are on a cart in my office if you want to look at them.

Reference Inventory - 300's

The 000s, 100s, and 200s were easy, but now we come to the massive 300 area. What we are covering here is the 300-304 area, and boyoboy is there some obscure stuff here.
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The discards and those that I am transferring to circ are clearly marked on the cart. Just some notes:
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The International Library of Afro-American Life and History, although dated in appearence and language, is still very interesting, so Terri and I thought it should go into circ, along with three NJ titles on various aspects of the people of New Jersey.
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Those books I recognized when I saw them, but the International Encyclopedia of Communications from 1989 I must confess I have never used or even seen. Given that, is this something that we should discard? I haven't decided. Let me know what you think.
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Go back to the shelves and see what I have left--all the symbols books, the 5 volume set Encyclopedia of Sociology (2000), the 3 volume set Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace & Conflict (1999), Encyclopedia of Terrorism (2003), and more.
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Remember, the point of this inventory is not only to discard unused items, but also to remind ourselves of what is there. Let me know what you think--I'm open to any suggestions.

Reference 200's Inventory

After going through all of the 200's, there are some books that I think should be discarded and some that should be changed to circ. Each category is labeled on the black book cart. Some exceptions:
The Routledge Dictionary of Religious & Quotations should be recataloged to the quotations reference area.
The Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches was a standing order which I have cancelled, although we will keep the 2009 for the time being.
The Catholic Almanac we cancelled as a standing order in 2006. These older editions should probably be discarded.
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Let me know if you disagree with any of these decisions. Also, let me know if there is anything on the shelves that you think should be discarded. I am open to any and all suggestions.
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Also, take a look at some of the items there that you may have forgotten (or never knew about) such as the wonderful How to be a Perfect Stranger which tells the visitor exactly how to act in any house of worship; the Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, which steers the user to every usage of every word in the Bible; the excellent Encyclopedia of African and African-American Religions; the great mythology titles; and Islam: A Guide for Jews and Christians.

Reference 100 Review

I have just finished going through the Reference 100 shelf. All my recommendations are in red.

It's a relatively small area that is made up largely of multivolume sets, all of which I think we should keep because they are classics in the field and widely held, although I'm not sure spending the money on the available updates is a wise use of our funds. They are:

Encyclopedia of Philosophy (8 vols, 1967 with 1996 suppl; 3770 holdings) - There is an 8 volume 2nd ed which is available for $1162 and was published in 2005 to wide acclaim, but Booklist warned "don't be too quick to retire your first edition..."

Encyclopedia of Occultism & Parapsychology (2 vols, 2001; 838 holdings) - Still in print

Encyclopedia of Psychology (Kazdin, 8 vols, 2000; 2324 holdings) - Still in print

Encyclopedia of Psychology (Corsini, 4 vols, 1994; 3631 holdings) - 2001 revision available for $1200

Encyclopedia of Human Behavior (4 vols, 1994; 1445 holdings) - Still in print

Encyclopedia of Human Intelligence (2 vols, 1994; 1422 holdings - no update, no longer in print

Encyclopedia of Ethics (2 vols, 1992; 1797 holdings) - 2001 update available for $820

Encyclopedia of Bioethics (5 vols, 2004; 1624 holdings) - still in print

Single volume works (these are all on the cart):

One Hundred Twentieth-Century Philosophers (2001, 724 holdings)

Encyclopedia of Learning and Memory (1992, 1465 holdings) - no update

Encyclopedia of Sleep and Dreaming (1992, 1680 holdings) - no update

Astrology Encyclopedia (1994, 1593 holdings) - updated with 2nd ed in 2003 which is no longer in print

Oxford Dictionary of Psycyology (2001, 2346 holdings) - 3rd ed, 2009 is available for $18--I recommend that we purchase it.

Mental Measurements Yearbook (13th ed., 1998, 286 holdings) - 18th ed will be out in the fall for about $200. Tests: A Comprehensive Reference for Assessments in Psychology, Education, and Business (4th ed, 1997, 996 holdings) - 6th ed, 2008 is available for $69 - I recommend that we update one of these and discard the other, probably Tests because it is less academic and more accessible to our customers.

Secret Language of Birthdays: Personology Profiles for Each Day of the Year (1994, 1243 holdings) - no update--just a fun book you probably forgot about or didn't even know that we had.

Animal Rites: American Culture, the Discourse of Species, and Posthumanist Theory (2003) - an extremely academic book that would be better off in circ.

Recommend discard:

Biographical Encyclopedia of Philosophy (1965)

Animals in Research: A Resource Guide (1995)

Let me know what you think. These are just my recommendations; I'm open to anything you have to say.

Editor & Publisher Market Guide

This yearly publication contains a lot of useful information, yet the last three editions, which were still on the shelf when the 2009 edition came in, look untouched. It costs about $170 per year, which, granted, is not a whole lot compared to some of the titles we have reviewed. But think of it as eight $20 bills and a $10--are we throwing this amount away every year?

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The strength of this volume is the large section of market data for US cities that have daily newspapers. This includes, in addition to population and number of households, principal industries, number of banks and amount of deposits, railroads, shopping centers and retail outlets, colleges and universities, names of newspapers and other data. Although much of this information is available on the internet, the convenience here is the collection of these various pieces of information for each city. The sections on Population, Ages and Ethnicity, Housing, Income and Retail sales are more easily found online.

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It also includes Metropolital Statistical Area (MSA) rankings for such things as population, income, cost of living, high school graduation rates. quality of life, retail sales.

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Is this useful enough, and do we get enough requests for this type of information, to justify the price?

Fulltext Sources Online

Fulltext Sources Online is a two volume publication that is updated twice per year (We keep it behind the reference desk). It costs $285 per year.

We just received the new edition, and the July edition, which it replaces, looks untouched by human hands. Whenever I see this, of course, I question whether we should be getting it.

It lists 41,234 publications whose full text can be found in 25 aggregators (like Ebsco, Factiva, JSTOR, Newsbank, etc). It is arranged alphabetically by title of publication, with subject, geographic and language indexes.

Significantly, 36,417 of the entries include URLs, and of these 13,035 contain free archives. This is noted by a special symbol within the entry. Blogs, radio programs, TV transcripts and newsletters are also included and noted as such in the entry as a document type.

Definitely this is a useful resource. But do we get asked for this kind of information enough to justify the price, or do most patrons want to know what we have access to here in the library (which can quickly be answered by our E-Journal magazine list which can be found here http://nc9gr8gh9t.search.serialssolutions.com/ ).

United States Code Annotated (USCA)

I need your opinions quickly on this. The USCA subscription costs us nearly $2500 per year to keep it up to date. It is all online here http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/ and here http://www.gpoaccess.gov/uscode/index.html (although I do find the online hard to use). Do we use the paper edition enough to justify the expense?

I have no plans of getting rid of the NJ Statutes or the NJ Administrative Code. I think we should keep these despite being also online.

The WestLaw pricing for this stuff is very complicated. We pay approximately $300 per month for the WestLaw database, which no one ever uses (and probably never will). However, since we subscribe to that, we get all our print subscriptions at half price, which actually nets us some savings. However, if we cut the print USCA, the database will actually start costing us money, which we cannot justify. So, clear as mud? (Told you it was complicated).

Let me know what you think as soon as possible, since we have to make a decision on this by Friday 1/30.