Cleaning out its stocks each semester, the Bush Memorial Library ensures that the books they offer are up to date and congruent with students and faculty’s interests and needs.

“Our goal is to make sure that the collections we purchase and retain in the library reflects the curriculum Hamline offers and to dispose of weeded materials,” Associate University Librarian Amy Sheehan said.

Books that haven’t been checked out since July 2001, published before 1990 or damaged are marked to go. Selections that are chosen to be taken out of the library’s stock are tagged with a white sticker and placed sideways on the shelf, according to Sheehan. Some of these books include “History of America” and “Flemish Literature since 1830.”

Both faculty and staff have a say in what gets the axe. Notices have been sent out to faculty regarding which titles will be leaving. If the books are still relevant to the faculty, they are able to ask for it to be kept.

Students are able to go into the Bush Library on the third floor and see all the books that are slated to leave. Sheehan encourages all students to look through the shelves and tell library staff if they believe that a selection that has been slated should be kept.

“We are always interested in input, if [students] are enrolled in a major and [are] not finding the types of books that [they] need in order to be successful in [their] major, please let us know because we’ll be happy to take those into consideration,” Sheehan said.

After the books have been marked and checked, they are then shipped to Better World Books, which is a second hand market that helps find libraries and schools that need more inventory. Hamline receives a portion of the profits that are made to buy updated books for Bush Library to replenish the stock.

Some of the slated books are donated to Books for Africa, a non-profit organization. Books for Africa collects and distributes books to students all over Africa.

Damaged books or out dated textbooks that neither organizations want are shipped to a recycling facility.