One of our displays this month is “Endangered Books” — books that are at risk of being removed from the library’s collection because they haven’t been circulating. Some of them have never even been checked out!  

It got me thinking about the life cycle of a library book. Usually, the only thing people see is the books on the shelves, but how do they get there, and where do they go when they’re old?

It all starts when we’re ready to order some new books — typically, 5-10 books on a topic, or some new titles from a popular author. Once we order the books, they come in the mail and go to our cataloger, Shawnna. She checks the books against existing books in the catalog and either adds ours or makes her own listing. She designates a shelf location for the item, puts a call number on it, and stamps it.  

Then, it’s ready to get covered! We all help out with covering the books (although some of us are better than others…. we mostly just let Shelby hand people tape at this point). We cover the dust jackets of the hardback books, and the cover and spine of a paperback book. There are ridiculously specific tools to do all of these jobs, including pre-cut, folded pieces of plastic and special tape that’s strong enough to withstand even the stickiest of kid hands. Then, if the item is brand new, we put that familiar yellow “NEW” tape on it, and check it in.  

This is the part you’ll recognize. The books go on the shelf! There are so many books that we couldn’t fit them all on the shelves, so it’s a very good thing you all help us out with that. Sometimes the books fill a hold at a different library, so we add the sticker that says where they go and place them in a bin to be shipped out later. Sometimes, they fill a hold for someone picking up a book here. In that case, we add a sticker saying who it belongs to, and put it on our hold shelf. 

Most books get shipped and checked out and checked in and sent back over and over again countless times throughout their lives, but some books haven’t been checked out in over a year — and some have never been checked out at all. That’s when we run the numbers and make a list of things that fit those categories. Those are the items on our “Endangered Books” display.  

We find all of those books and give them a thorough once over. Sometimes the book is too damaged to save, so we unfortunately have to get rid of those. They have led long, long lives and brought joy to a lot of people. Most of the books that we remove from our collection get a second life as a donation to the Friends of the Library! Those will end up in our book sale nook or at the big book sale the Friends put on once per year. And sometimes, people even buy books from the book sale and donate them back to us when they’re done!  

Every stage in a book’s life has its own joys. The brand new, freshly covered ones are super satisfying to shelve. They’re clean and crisp and have so much potential. And at the end of their library lives, the books show all the love they’ve received over the years. The best part is that we get to see it all.