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?