Tending my garden

I've spent my morning weeding the reference collection here. Actually, weeding and consolidating the reference collection. Because the collection had been split into two seperate sections. And nothing was in order, despite the call numbers plainly marked on the spines. So it wasn't like LC numbers A-K on one side of the library, J-Z on the other. No, it was more like "this pile of outdated material on this side of the library, that pile of outdated material on the other."

So I spent about two hours pulling old materials and then re-shelving the few I kept, in order, all together. This is what I pulled:

• The Encyclopedia of Banking and Finance 1949 ed., 1962 ed., and 1973 ed. (for some reason the call number had been covered up with white out on the 1973 edition.)
• 2 copies of Roberts Rules of Order. I left two on the shelf, which is more than generous, considering I've seen a copy on the shelf in almost everyone's office.
• 3 different Dictionaries of Philosophy.
• 4 copies of the 2nd edition of Fowler's Modern English Usage. The second edition was published in 1965. Yeah, modern.
• One copy of The New Fowler's Modern English Usage." This was published in 1996, so it's not exactly out of date, but I left a copy on the shelf, so we should be good.
• The Columbia Encyclopedia (In One Volume). Let me tell you, it's a big effing volume.
• A 1977 Cassell's Italian Dictionary, whch is to be replaced by the Italian volume in a set of language dictionaries found by one of the researchers here published in 1962. Why am I exchanging a 1977 edition for a 1962 edition? I honestly couldn't say.
• The Glossary of Typesetting Terms. Yeah, typesetting.
• 3 copies of Strunk and White's Manual of Style. One copy stays in reference, one copy goes to the circulating collection.
• 4 Turabian Style guides. I felt bad culling seven copies of something, so I left four on the shelf.
• The 1984 Government Printing Office Style Manual.
• 3 copies of a 1957 Dictionary of Contemporary American Usage. This lists "Negro" as the proper term for African Americans.
• A 1996 Swiss Stock Guide. I would have kept it had there been a run of Swiss Stock Guides, but there was not.
• Two State of the World Atlases and an Atlas of the World Economy that still include the USSR.
• the 1993 CIA World Fact Book. Now entirely available online, and (slightly) more up to date.
• A Standard French and English Dictionary that only translates French to English, and does not include voume two, which would (hopefully) translate English to French. Similar situations with an Italian, German and Spanish Dictionary.
• A 1957 Black's Law Dictionary. I imagine some terms have been added or updated since then.
• A copy of the Qur'an. Had there been also a Bible or any other religious book, I would have let it stay in reference. However, the lack of any other remotely religious based text had led me to decide to re-shelve it with the circulating collection.
• And last, but certainly not least, eight copies of Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. I left three on the shelf. That's a lot of dictionaries.

On a not unrelated note, I'm thinking of writing an at-work exercise guide for librarians.