Library to trim about 300,000 books from collection

The Calgary Public Library wants to reduce its book stocks by about 300,000 in order to free up more space in the buildings to run programs.

Thesurplus books will be cleared out before the end of the year. They will be sold through a re-seller.

Calgary Public Library CEO Bill Ptacek told CBC Radio's Calgary Eyeopener that part of the motivation for culling the collection is a big change slated for the New Year.

Its not a well-kept secret that in January the library is going to be free, theres going to be no charge for cards, he said.

Thats expected to result in a big spike to the number of card holders, currently at about 400,000.

When all these new people come into the library we want to make sure they find really good collections, he said.

Librarians will systematically go through all aspects of the collection, looking for anything that is old and worn, or outofdate, Ptacek said.

I know it seems counter-intuitive, but the idea is youve got to take out all the stuff that isnt being used, and make sure that what you have on the shelf is really useful, really relevant.

When libraries have too many books, their collections actually get used less because visitors have a hard time finding what theyre looking for, and the spaces start to feel unwelcoming, said the librarys service delivery director MarkAsberg.

They actually appear more like storage facilities for books, as opposed to a place for people to connect with information and each other, he said.

The Calgary Public Library has 2.6 million items in its collection.