School libraries, like most public libraries, routinely discard old books to make room for new ones. This is an unfortunate, yet necessary, concession to the fact that new books are being published all the time, yet shelf space is limited. Ideally classics, as well as older books that still have a high readership, remain on the shelves after these purges occur.
A public high school in Ontario, Canada, discarded roughly half of the books in the school library over the summer, reportedly including every book published prior to 2008, or just 15 years ago. This followed a directive from Canada's minister of education to make school libraries more inclusive. Inclusivity, unfortunately, generally means excluding something, in this case older books containing older ideas.
As the library now has many empty shelves, shelf space was obviously not the reason for discarding so many books.
The statement went on to say that older titles can remain if they are "accurate, serve the curriculum, align with board initiatives and are responsive to student interest." All this vague language suggests that only books with approved points of view will be allowed. In other words, not inclusive at all.
Consider some of the books published before 2008 that have long been found in high school libraries and in high school curriculums: To Kill a Mockingbird, The Catcher in the Rye, 1984, Animal Farm, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Flowers for Algernon, Pride and Prejudice, Great Expectations, Little Women and Treasure Island. Canada, no doubt, has its own classics from before 2008 that have often been read by teenagers. Even the Harry Potter books were published before 2008, as were those Judy Blume books once so controversial.
After an uproar by parents in the school district, the education minister reportedly ordered the school to end the practice of discarding books arbitrarily by date. But by then the shelves were already empty.
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