You say “slim”, I say “skeletal”

No, I’m not body shaming. I’m publisher shaming.

We’re busily looking at the collection now that we’ve moved things into place. This requires asking the question “how many books on [topic] do we need?” and “if we have that many books, shouldn’t some of them be more up-to-date?” It’s also an opportunity to see where the gaps really are and to try to both fill those gaps and update things.

It’s really depressing when the only book you can find on a topic is the same one on your shelves, dated 20-30 years ago and definitely needing an update. How can no one have thought it’d be a good idea to update it? Example? Separatist movements in countries. I’d love a book covering a lot of them, but either I get books on different countries (and not all those that have strong movements) or I go without. Or keep the old book that doesn’t have current groups, like what’s going on in Spain. Or Scotland.

I’m also looking at Booklist and LJ and Publisher’s Weekly, and I found a great book that would work for students looking at pandemics. Except this book is, per the review, “slim”. What’s slim? 64 pages. Appropriate for grades 7-10. Nope nope nope. That’s skeletal! Words clearly failed the author the way they’re failing me.

Where’s my sugar daddy?