A Continued Conversation Regarding Books

This comes from lifecollage and before that, aroraborealis 

The question is: are books sacred? As a professional book handler, is this more/less the case? Well, I whole-heartedly agree with my dear friend and colleage lc that not always.
However, in my particular world I deal more with institutional records (financial, correspondence, annual reports, committees, membership, auxiliary group activities making up the bulk of this sort of thing)-- I see a lot of duplication, material not created by the group/person and a lot of material that had a very fleeting value at the time, but after 5, 15, 50 years, none. There is nothing I love better than to be able to take 15 boxes of odds and ends and bring it into a lean, useful, searchable 7 or 8.
At my particular library/archive, the bulk of our "new" acquisitions are archive and measured by box number or linear foot. One collection can take up as much as 20-30 linear feet. Or 0.25, depending. However, with more and larger collections coming in, we swing around back to the question at hand- we must cull out many books in order to have room. The titles we're not keeping haven't been checked out for decades, and some never. Our collection policy has radically changed. Those listed under general knowledge or US/World history, for example, are so out dated that they're historical in and of themselves. They aren't the books people are clamoring to review. And really- do you really need over 100 biographies about Lincoln? I don't think so.  We do end up sending most of our unwanted volumes to 3rd world countries. I think the only ones we recycled outright were the Atlantic Monthlys with the disintegrating bindings.

I, on the other hand, unlike lifecollage , avoid writing in books. But if they're your book, so be it. Just don't stick post it notes on 16th century text, OK? 'k. Generally speaking, I think that my archive-particular colleagues share my opinions about only keeping the best.

And now- back to baking cookies!
 

Soooo much going on today!

• Dim sum with ahf and caulay. I'm now be-tights-ed. I really hope I will be with it enough to get pics of the tie-dyed ones I plan on wearing on Tuesday. Why do I know Tuesday? Because I'm headed down for a quick familial NYC trip, and I've packed them already.
• So, NYC trip. My parents arrived today, so since I have the week off, a few days with them made a lot of sense.
• The new computer is all set and ready for travel now that the meta data in iTunes transferred. I rate as much as possible, so that meant a few thousand re-ratings... and I sort of like knowing how many times I've heard a song. I'm a nerd that way.
• There was also baking. I did the cholesterol cookies to take with. The pound cake is already bagged and ready. If the Poughkeepsie crew show up (mom's younger sister and her family) then they will be greatly appreciated.  But that's 4 pounds of dough. D'oh!  /Homer
• Relatedly, I fear the apple pie I baked earlier this week is not going to be eaten before it goes weird. Someone should ping the guys and help them out on that point.
• Oh- and I bought a new stove today. My parents had been goading me to get a new one for a while. Dad's gift to me is some money to go towards the bill. Sadly, I don't think my landlord will reimburse any, but hey. No more hot spots. Smooth surface. And, to be delivered on Thursday. It's an electric setup since there was no hookup for gas. The current range is older than (a) god. Dunno which one, but a god.
• While I was at the mall for that I acquired Glee soundtracks! I'll get the actual Glee season eventually. I want to see if they plan on packaging the 2 halves together.