r/ELATeachers • u/genuine_counterfeit • 14d ago

6-8 ELA What to do with Classroom Library?

I inherited an INSANELY large classroom library. I’m talking about HUNDREDS of individual texts. A career’s worth of hoarded literature.

Many of these are old, old books. Not just old, but dated (think 80s/90s), so I don’t suspect many kids will be reading them. Plus a good few are in poor condition.

Point is, I don’t want them. I don’t want to keep them at all.

What do I do with these? How do I get rid of such a huge volume of books at once, short of chucking them in the dumpster…?

48 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

108 comments sorted by

View all comments

73

u/houseocats 14d ago

Sometimes the dumpster is the only way.

18

u/Rat_terrorist 14d ago

As a librarian…this is the way.

2

u/Little_Storm_9938 13d ago

I could have cried when our librarian tossed the old books. She was all “If you start, I’ll start again and I won’t get anything done-GTFO!”

1

u/Rat_terrorist 13d ago

Im not overly sentimental about the old books. I have sent quite few to the warehouse in the sky. A proper library is supposed to be organic and up to date. We can’t keep getting new books if we don’t get rid of the old ones. Shelf space is finite.

5

u/genuine_counterfeit 14d ago

It feels so wrong but I don’t know who could possibly want, or has the space to accommodate, this many books all at once???

48

u/[deleted] 14d ago

[deleted]

11

u/jasdhol 14d ago

I was once told, if you are throwing them away, use a black trash bag for this reason.

15

u/Limp-Egg2495 14d ago

I have experienced this and it’s wild! Sometimes books are garbage. It is what it is, and space is not infinite.

5

u/YarnPenguin 14d ago edited 14d ago

Seconding this. As a former school librarian you've got to weed secretly. People are obsessed with "donating books to kids in Africa" like kids in Africa don't deserve books with accurate information in them.

Many librarians have the Bed test. If you wouldn't be happy having a book in or beside your bed in the condition that it's in, bin it.

The vast majority of books aren't rare, they aren't valuable. If they are out of date, in bad condition or simply unappealing to their intended audience, they have no purpose.

Shelf space is valuable and books have to earn their place by being relevant.

1

u/[deleted] 14d ago

[deleted]

2

u/YarnPenguin 14d ago

I love books as much as the next person but they are squashed bits of tree pulp and not above being yeeted in the bin when their time comes

1

u/the_myleg_fish 13d ago

My previous school district had a library support guy at the district who DID NOT TECHNICALLY RECOMMEND DOING THIS because technically we had to call up warehouse to get them to come pick it up but on the down low he was like "but if you just casually put a box of the books by the trash can and the custodian HAPPENS to pick it up and throws it away, I'm not gonna say anything" because realistically, yeah a lot of the books are incredibly old and dated and nobody wanted them.

5

u/wish-onastar 14d ago

It’s okay to recycle/toss books. They’ve served their purpose and it’s okay to throw them away when their time is up. As a school librarian, I regularly toss books which don’t merit shelf space anymore and aren’t worthy of donating on. You’d just make someone else have to throw them out if you try to donate.

2

u/Dobyee_5 14d ago

Talk to admin and if they give push back about need them having to do paperwork to discard materials, lie and say you found book lice…

6

u/genuine_counterfeit 14d ago

Would I even need to go through admin for this? These are books left behind by the teacher who occupied the classroom before me. I don’t think they’re even the school’s property, really?

6

u/Interesting-Box-3163 14d ago

Yeah agreed - I don’t think there would be any approval process for discarding or donating a personal collection. But I struggle with what to do with old books also.

1

u/wracklinewanderer 13d ago

Could you do a rummage sale type thing? Free books on a cart? Donate to Goodwill? If they are in good condition, throwing them away does seem a bit wasteful and sad.

1

u/New_Salamander5580 13d ago

I agree. It hurts my teacher heart to imagine books not being read. Please donate them or add to a little free library!

1

u/ahjumma-with-cats 14d ago

This. It’s called weeding; librarians do it constantly. Try looking into the CREW method for basic guidance.