Why Weeders Have Nightmares

"A good book can wait for a reader hundreds of years. Once lodged in the Library, it is unexpensive & harmless while it waits."--Ralph Waldo Emerson (Emerson in His Journals, p. 553)

Pity the poor librarian whose duty it is to weed. Then (wouldn't you know it) along comes a reader who asks for the title that the librarian has just, after much delay and procrastination, sent to that library in the sky. If there is an afterlife, maybe this is one of the punishments for librarians who were too zealous in their duties.

Books That Weed Themselves

For those who didn't know there was a part 1, this is part 2 of my commentary on HarperCollins' decision to put a cap of 26 e-book checkouts for libraries.

From the optimist's viewpoint, this is a Good Thing.

Librarians will no longer have to weed books. They'll disappear automatically after 26 checkouts.

Nor will librarians need be concerned about building a collection for posterity; the only place an old capped title will hang on is through the publisher. And when the publisher goes out of business or loses interest, the title is good and gone, unavailable from that guardian of culture, the library.