Thursday, June 3, 2021

What is the Life Cycle of a Library Book?

 Do you ever wonder about the life cycle of a library book? Frankly, I never gave this question much thought until I came across an article on Book Riot titled, The Life Cycle of a Library Book by Abby Hargreaves.

After reading the above mentioned article, I quickly learned that the life cycle of a library book isn't so straight forward as 'no two library systems are the same' on how they determine the life cycle of a library book.

The Life Cycle of a Library Book article covers how book titles are selected, how books are acquired, cataloged, and labelled before even reaching the hands of librarian patrons.

Once it’s on the shelf, the customers can have at it. The number of times a given book is checked out is dependent on the book’s popularity and condition. Some books, despite going out dozens of times, remain in good condition and continue to circulate for many more dozens of times. Other books only make it out the door once before needing replacement. And still others never go out at all.

How library books finally leave circulation happen in a variety of ways too. So click on the top link to read the full article.

6 comments:

  1. It's also interesting to see how different libraries tackle different books. My old library would get me any book if they could get their hands on it, borrowed them from other libraries etc. And they had lots of classics. My new one tries to get rid of books as quickly as they get them in and only have the very newest ones. Which I find very sad.

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    1. It is very fascinating to learn how each library deals with acquiring and disposing of older books!

      Our county's library system had an interesting way of disposing their older books. I remember in the summer of 2019, they gave away thousands of free library books at one of their library locations over the course of a few days. These books had been withdrawn from the library for one reason or another. I don't know if this free giveaway was a one time thing or not... Or if it was an annual event that stopped during the pandemic. I hope they offer this free book giveaway in the future.

      I blogged about my experience visiting this library book giveaway. It was awesome to attend. See the following link:https://captivatedreader.blogspot.com/2019/07/thousands-of-books-given-away-at-contra.html

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    2. Oh, thanks for that link, I'll have a look.

      I knew a library who wold regularly sell their older books for next to nothing. I have no idea what our library here does with them. I'll have to ask.

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    3. I know our library has sold donated books through their FOL Used Bookstore to boost funds for public library.

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  2. One of my daughters got her Masters in Library Science and spent a few years working for the Houston Library before she went on to other things. Because of her experience, I'm always interested in learning about the workings of the library.

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    1. Cool! I think I should have become a librarian!! Like you, I am interested in learning about the inner workings of the library.

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