This fellow who hadn't lived in his hometown since graduation 40 years previous stopped by the public library to use our fax. He asked if a particular science fiction title that he'd enjoyed when he was about 10 was still in the collection. It was about on par with a Miss Pickerell book except it was for boys. We didn't have the book so he couldn't look at the bookcard to check for his name.
Books in the children's section get wear and tear. Picture books are so big, they're just asking to have their pages torn by small hands. Paperbacks are popular with kids who like to read on their own and they don't last. Beloved older books stay in print for generations. The illustrations are the same and the type fonts are the same, but the bindings, paper and ink have most likely changed in reprintings.
There was an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal about lead content in children's books and the ramifications a new law could have for libraries. I would bet you that any kids' books in your house that you've kept from childhood -- yours or your children's -- are more likely to have lead in them than children's books in libraries. The public library's copy of The Carrot Seed isn't 60 years old, even though it looks like it could be. You kept your favorite books and the library keeps them, too. Except that the library has replaced its copies because the originals fell apart, were lost, or were dropped in the bathtub.
Publishers stopped putting lead in inks by 1986. Any children's book that your library purchased that was actually printed before that time was used up by kids or their dogs long ago. Or else it was something that no matter how long it rested on the shelves, it just wouldn't grow. And it got weeded.
Books in the children's section get wear and tear. Picture books are so big, they're just asking to have their pages torn by small hands. Paperbacks are popular with kids who like to read on their own and they don't last. Beloved older books stay in print for generations. The illustrations are the same and the type fonts are the same, but the bindings, paper and ink have most likely changed in reprintings.
There was an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal about lead content in children's books and the ramifications a new law could have for libraries. I would bet you that any kids' books in your house that you've kept from childhood -- yours or your children's -- are more likely to have lead in them than children's books in libraries. The public library's copy of The Carrot Seed isn't 60 years old, even though it looks like it could be. You kept your favorite books and the library keeps them, too. Except that the library has replaced its copies because the originals fell apart, were lost, or were dropped in the bathtub.
Publishers stopped putting lead in inks by 1986. Any children's book that your library purchased that was actually printed before that time was used up by kids or their dogs long ago. Or else it was something that no matter how long it rested on the shelves, it just wouldn't grow. And it got weeded.