People who are interested in controlling information run for office. Then they can control information at its source.

If one is so inclined I daresay you can tell much more about the politics of your local library/librarians by a careful observation of what books they discard into the booksale section over a few months than by looking at what is currently on the shelves.

You daresay. Using this criterion, a book sale containing a plethora of cat books indicates librarians who are anti-cat, or perhaps pro-dog or pro-bird.

Books go in the book sale because:

-The thrill is gone. We bought 5 copies while they were bestsellers and were circulating like mad, and now that the novelty has worn off, we need the shelf space for something else. 4 copies in the book sale. This goes for fiction and for non-fiction.

-The quality of donations varies wildly. Some books are physically not suited to circulate, and some duplicate other items in the collection.

-We need to get the new things. Some libraries are so cramped for space that, in order to put a new book on the shelf, a book must be withdrawn. I know a library like this, and believe me, I don't miss their book sale.

-It's taking up space. This is especially true of fiction. When a work of popular fiction hasn't circulated once in three years, it's time to say goodbye.

-It's outdated. Why would anyone keep Let's Visit the USSR or a space book that says "One day man will go to the moon" in a public library? An academic library might have a use for that kind of thing, though.

-It has literally fallen apart on the shelf. Sometimes it's sheer age, but sometimes nearly new ones fail because books are not as well-bound as they used to be. I come across many that won't stand up to further circulation, but that will survive quite well in the less stressful atmosphere of a home library.

-We've been flooded with donations reflecting a particular viewpoint. Unless the individual or organization doing the donating has included materials reflecting the other viewpoints, we will select the best two or three and send the rest, pristine though they be, to the book sale.

The measure of a library is what is available, not what is deleted. If you find a collection unbalanced, go to the next board meeting.