Fairfax County Public Library has thrown out 2,888,982 books and other items in nine fiscal years!

In the last nine fiscal years, the Fairfax County Public Library system has discarded-- "thrown out" in common parlance--nearly 2.9 million books and other items--music, videos, magazines, e-books, etc., according to their own Collection Overview shown below.   That's a discard rate of 859 library items every day, seven days a week, 365 days a year for nine years!

Books in dumpster at FCPL TechOps in mid-2013

The Collection Overview provides a break out of these discards by branch with the larger regional libraries shown in the upper part of the table.  For example, Reston Regional Library (RR) has discarded 220,958 items over this nine-year time span, the most of any of the County's library branches.  The County's two new branch libraries, Oakton and Burke Center, began operations in FY2008 and FY2009 respectively, hence their reduced levels of discards.

"TechOps" at the bottom of this list is essentially a clearinghouse for library materials coming to, circulating within, or— in this case—going out of the library system.  Even though data on its activities covers only six years, it leads the library system in disposing of nearly 350,000 library items in that time frame.  We don't know how many library items it discarded before FY2009.

The number of books discarded in FY2014 dropped substantially from preceding years--and more than half from FY2013--because of citizen complaints to the Board of Supervisors.  The Board directed the Library administration to institute a more diligent procedure before discarding books.

In response, the Library administration adopted a policy calling for multiple levels of review.  According to FCPL, there are basically three legitimate reasons to discard a book or other library item:

• It is unused for two years or more.  
• It is too worn to be usable.
• It is "inaccurate."

In fact, the “multiple levels of review” actually involves one person documenting the discard and specifying the reason.  Two reviewers look at the document list and sign off on it.  These reviewers rarely, if ever, actually examine the books--or even have time to do so.  In effect, the decision is made by a single person. 

As for the standards:  

•  Unused for two years.  By "unused," FCPL means "checked out," and that overlooks the large number of materials--especially large art books--that are read in the library branch, but not checked out.   Books that haven't been checked out in 24 months are put on a "dead" list.  Librarians are told to cull the books from the "dead" list for transfer.  The books are packed up in boxes according to the category, i.e., adult fiction, young adult fiction, etc., and the category in the box (not the book titles) are listed on the library's computer database.  Other libraries can request transfer of those boxes of books.  Those boxes not requested are discarded after 10 days on the database list.  The two-year standard itself is extremely short, especially in the face of national norms that keep materials on the shelf for five, not two, years before being considered for discard.
• Worn out books.  Books that have been checked out 50 times are put on a "grubby" list.  A librarian checks the list and has the discretion to leave the books on the shelf if they are not worn.  Anecdotal evidence in one branch is that this new discard/transfer policy is creating four times the numbers of discards than before it was implemented.  Members of the Friends of the Library and Fairfax County Library Advocates group say that most of the books discarded can be repaired easily, which some have done.  Photos of books retrieved from dumpsters indicate that many discarded books are not badly damaged.
• Inaccurate books.  It seems highly unlikely, in fact, nearly impossible, for a librarian or assistant to determine the accuracy of a book or other item if they are throwing them out at a rate of 40 per day per branch.  Besides, who believes that a librarian, even a well-trained and experienced one, can accurately assess the validity of a book or other item across all the disciplines that these non-fiction materials cover including natural, physical, social, computer, and formal sciences (decision theory, systems theory, logic, mathematics, statistics, and more) and engineering?  

The situation is aggravated by the fact that FCPL shifted to a “floating” materials inventory process in FY2014 meaning that individual libraries no longer “own” the books they receive initially and materials lent out may be returned and kept elsewhere.  Because the floating collection produces net receivers and net losers, collections in the branches become unbalanced.  In some branches there is a glut of books and without shelf space, books have to be transferred.  In these branches, there is a substantial risk that the library system’s discard policies are more loosely enforced with a disproportionate share of materials being discarded by net receivers.  

Still, with the number of discards cut in half last fiscal year, it appears the more rigorous discard policy may be at least having some effect.  But we have reason to worry:  FCPL has not published its annual Material Collection Inventory report for FY2014 although the fiscal year ended months.  It claims there have been delays because they are trying to re-vamp the inventory reporting because of the library's shift to a "floating" book system, but the count of discarded books is just that, nothing fancy required.  Count and report the number of discards by branch and add them up. 

Maybe more importantly, FCPL is throwing away material that you have paid for and often with insufficient reason.  At a bare bottom estimated average price of about $10 per item (item prices range from paperbacks at about $6 to special printing hardbounds in excess of $100 each), the County has thrown out about $29 million worth of items taxpayers have paid for.  In fact, $29 million is more that the County has spent on the library in every year since FY2011.  In short, they have discarded more than a full year's worth of spending in nine years.  (Last year's FCPL General Fund expenditures were about $26 million.)

In a meeting with Board Chairman Sharon Bulova and senior County executive and library staff on Friday, January 9, 2015, the Advocates provided a road map to the Chairman as to how the Library can be restored to its former high standing.  The first step, which can be taken immediately and requires no expenditures of funds, is simply to stop destroying books for no good reason.  A policy decision to return to the industry standard of a review after five years rather than two years would slow the hemorrhaging and allow an objective review of broader materials discard policy options.  The Advocates also encouraged the Chairman to not further disproportionately penalize the Libraries with budget cuts, to move to hire qualified employees to fill the over 60 long term vacancies and to ensure the next Director of Libraries Services is someone committed to rebuilding the Library.  We await the Chairman's decisions.  

It is our public library whether it is in Reston or Burke Center or Kings Park.  To protect it, all of us must contact our Supervisor and make sure they understand the importance we attach to our public libraries and the remaining two million items it retains. 

 

 FCPL Collection Overview, Discards by Fiscal Year

Library Branch
	FY2006	FY2007	FY2008	FY2009	FY2010	FY2011	FY2012	FY2013	FY2014	TOTAL
CE	23,031	30,075	32,386	25,878	36,369	18,908	12,096	4,831	3,916	187,490
CH	21,644	23,215	18,889	22,733	25,444	25,983	22,954	9,464	6,610	176,936
FX	25,049	22,339	15,975	14,567	19,637	21,431	15,584	8,283	4,060	146,925
GM	35,783	28,313	20,788	26,356	18,695	20,062	17,420	9,578	2,967	179,962
PO	31,904	44,795	25,656	23,360	21,111	23,957	28,065	13,494	3,756	216,098
RR	30,107	28,761	24,995	27,948	39,125	31,317	25,080	8,675	4,950	220,958
SH	21,264	18,130	14,942	11,873	17,154	14,521	13,320	11,021	3,312	125,537
TY	21,883	35,455	17,170	20,208	20,558	23,577	21,104	11,269	4,199	175,423
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BC				1,900	3,666	6,980	7,527	5,992	1,090	27,155
DM	12,258	25,618	15,422	13,283	14,490	4,014	3,076	2,135	2,111	92,407
GF	8,737	7,445	6,685	10,051	6,788	7,625	4,264	5,596	1,236	58,427
HE	8,782	13,279	9,231	10,996	6,638	7,484	9,793	3,244	2,639	72,086
JM	12,975	15,761	10,026	10,361	9,596	8,029	10,658	10,087	3,924	91,417
KN	15,128	17,795	11,384	10,272	11,056	12,767	10,084	5,613	2,153	96,252
KP	14,874	21,127	14,919	17,614	14,739	12,088	12,129	6,953	4,966	119,409
LO	12,893	16,500	12,539	11,381	6,885	8,882	5,995	2,392	2,510	79,977
MW	9,960	14,084	14,483	10,006	2,360	2,183	5,256	1,507	2,039	61,878
OK			846	2,336	3,913	5,916	9,453	4,301	2,371	29,136
PH	17,307	23,346	25,142	22,107	17,671	15,641	16,172	2,941	2,457	142,784
RB	17,638	15,592	16,503	13,907	1,865	2,845	4,072	2,067	1,598	76,087
TJ	21,958	14,790	15,815	13,529	3,116	2,664	6,146	3,199	1,947	83,164
WW	13,406	13,672	9,130	9,334	8,419	12,513	7,714	3,642	1,731	79,561
Totals	376,581	430,092	332,926	330,000	309,295	289,387	267,962	136,284	66,542	2,539,069
TechOps				12,550	23,131	21,588	14,644	185,345	92,655	349,913
TOTAL	376,581	430,092	332,926	342,550	332,426	310,975	282,606	321,629	159,197	2,888,982