Weeding outside of my garden...

I love to weed in my library.  It is not unlike tending a real garden in that when you weed, you make room for the other plants to blossom and grow.  So too, in libraries, we define it as "the removing of materials from a library collection in a systematic and deliberate way. It is an ongoing part of collection development, a planned and thoughtful action that will ensure library materials are current and enticing."(1)

When my colleague Carol called me and told me she was having some difficulty weeding some Russ Leadabrand books, I told her to set them aside and I would come and take a look.  Russ Leadabrand was a Pasadenan, educated at Columbia U., University of New Mexico and USC and returned to Pasadena to write for the Star News as travel editor.  His books were my companions in the seventies when I worked at Pasadena Public Library.  They were filled with local history and I loved choosing a drive for a Sunday or an area to explore in Southern California from one of his series of books called Exploring California Byways.  And, these books were published by the Ward Ritchie Press, another landmark name in fine printing in Pasadena and Southern California history. 

I couldn't let them go...although they haven't circulated in years and many libraries in the area have copies of them.  Students would quickly snap them up for the price of a quarter.  I selected some for my home library for purely emotional reasons.  Sadly, they are stamped DISCARDED on the front covers, where the barcode was formerly placed. 

Often our faculty cannot discard works they studied thirty years ago.  Although they have to be weeded, I do understand.  Russ Leadabrand's books represent authors and people I studied in typography and history of the book courses at UCLA.  I was in awe of Ward Ritchie, Jake Zeitlin, and Lawrence Clarke Powell. They were masters of the book, of the written word.  They feel like old friends.  I wish I had known them.  Holding these books close is the next best thing...

Worldcat

(1) California Department of Education