| Why
Weed Holocaust?
Reports of increased racism and religious intolerance (especially
in Europe) are of concern worldwide. Perhaps the time is
right to review and update your titles on the Holocaust
to make sure our students are "learning from history"
and not "doomed to repeat" it.
Suggested
Dewey Numbers to Check:
Most titles on the Holocaust will be found in the 940.5s,
regular shelving as well as the reference section. You will
also have biographies that should be reviewed. This is a
topic that crosses over to the fiction section often, review
low-circulating titles and replace with higher interest
ones.
Specific
Criteria for Weeding:
Approach
weeding the Holocaust section with three objectives in mind:
preserving primary source materials whenever possible, updating
facts and perspectives on that time in history, and providing
materials that have appeal to today's students.
Titles
that provide primary source information should be retained
if those titles are still physically acceptable. Titles
showing signs of wear from years of student report activity
should be replaced with newer editions if still available.
Titles no longer in print should be individually assessed
and provided some type of protection such as circulation
limits or a change of physical housing.
The
current generation of students is likely to hear information
from the popular press that may seem contradictory to information
in older titles. You should offer a balance by providing
information on new claims of Holocaust denial so students
see the current claims against past documented histories.
Anne Frank is a name that personifies that time period,
update her biography to a newer version that more closely
follows her diary instead of earlier editions heavily edited
by her father.
This
topic often has strong appeal to students. Consider adding
more new attractive titles, even graphic novels. Remember
the filmstrip format is obsolete: discard them.
Consider
Weeding Titles Like These:
- Anne
Frank, a legacy for our time [filmstrip], 1985.
- Anne
Frank : the diary of a young girl, 1960.
- The
cunning of history : mass death and the American future,
1975.
- The
Holocaust in historical perspective, 1978.
- The
Holocaust [filmstrip], 1977.
- Jews
in America today, 1986.
- A
time to remember [videorecording] : a modern overview of
the Holocaust, 1980.
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