Garbage Clean-Up

2 old slow computers are to be replaced before June

Library book cart, 4 in this library and only 1 is used

Recently weeded teacher resource collection

Boxes of books to be taken to board office for recycling

Improvement/Rational - For the past 3 years I have been focusing on making the library a great fun place to be with only doing additions as this is something the students and staff see as a positive. However this year I decided it was time to start deleting. In January I deleted 2,000 books from the non-fiction and reference sections. This past couple of weeks I weeded out the teacher resource section. After spring break I will be weeding the easy reader section. The reason for this are plentiful. The information in the books are old and out dated or the books are ugly/broken/damaged.

I did not and do not plan to stop there. I also tossed out 6 old computer work stations that were so old they did not turn on. Three old filling cabinets were also tossed out as they were empty. Next up are the 2 computer searching stations (top photo). The second photo has a photo of the one book cart that gets used. There are 3 others and an empty book shelf sitting in a back resource room in the library that will be removed. These carts, the shelf, and the 7-8 boxes of weeded teacher resource books (bottom photo - 47 boxes went out in January) will be collected in the next 2-3 weeks (hopefully over spring break).

Improvements - For this section, we are looking at purchasing 2 new computer searching stations. Each computer costing about $1,000 as they will be Macs to work with the rest of the Macs in our school and school district. My principal has already ordered these 2 searching stations and they should be installed before the end of the school year. 

Communication Plan - When I first started weeding and tossing out cabinets there was full support from almost all the staff and students. There was only 1 teacher that did not like the weeding idea. So I let her take the ones she wanted and this kept her happy. The rest of the staff are younger, they realize materials get dated. They are happy to have me buy new ones of they search on the net for the same ideas. I also stressed the importance that the younger kids were having troubles moving the books on the full shelves around and the older kids had to search through too many resources to find the up to date ones. 

As for the new computers, the students and staff already respect the computers as they use them nicely in the computer labs. There will not be any issues there. 

I cleaned out the back office room with the shelving cabinets and the staff loved it. We have a new principal that has been doing a lot of this around the school this year, so I had the support to do this. So, getting rid of the 3 unused book carts and empty old book shelf won't be a problem as the staff are used to seeing this happen this year and instead they will like how the back book room has more space to move about in it. 

Challenges - There are no challenges for garbage clean-up to come up. As long as the new computers work from the start it will be fine. When I weed the easy reader section I will come up with a criteria and put the kids to work to de-select the books and put them in a pile. Then I will go through those books again to double check that this book should be tossed out.