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One of the books my sister got me for Christmas was a former library book, from a Catholic school in Texas (odds are it passed through a few resellers between them and me, though). One thing that intrigues me is that the "due date" bookplate in the back shows a flurry of activity in the course of two months and then nothing.
I've located the school and determined they still exist and still have a library, but their only contact info is a phone number, and I don't want to bother a main office secretary with something so trivial. Especially since it's entirely possible that no one working there now knows the answer. ;)
Due dates show it was almost constantly checked out in March and April of 2003 (the book was published in 2002), but no dates after that. It's in very good condition, and clearly was popular, so it wasn't ditched for being worn out or never read. I'd guess, in fact, that the due date plate is the second or even third one to be used, since there's a bit of a stamper mark off the edge of the plate that doesn't line up with anything on the plate.
So, why did it only circulate for at best a single year? I have three plausible guesses, in order from what I think are most to least likely.
Possibility 1: It was on a required reading list in 2002-3, but not afterward, so they bought many copies in 2002. They purged most of their copies and kept only one or two residuals. What little information their webpage has does include a required reading list, so it'd make sense that books on that list would get more copies so long as they stayed on the list.
Possibility 2: It was circulated for more than a year, but over the summer of 2003 they decided to stop stamping due dates (the book also has a barcode, maybe they shifted to email reminders of due dates).
Possibility 3: There was a shakeup over the summer of 2003 and they either had to downsize the library a lot, or someone decided that certain books were no longer appropriate (the book is "The New Adventures of the Mad Scientists' Club", and it involves a certain amount of tweaking authority figures).
I know at least a few school librarians read my LJ, any other possibilities suggest themselves to you?
I've located the school and determined they still exist and still have a library, but their only contact info is a phone number, and I don't want to bother a main office secretary with something so trivial. Especially since it's entirely possible that no one working there now knows the answer. ;)
Due dates show it was almost constantly checked out in March and April of 2003 (the book was published in 2002), but no dates after that. It's in very good condition, and clearly was popular, so it wasn't ditched for being worn out or never read. I'd guess, in fact, that the due date plate is the second or even third one to be used, since there's a bit of a stamper mark off the edge of the plate that doesn't line up with anything on the plate.
So, why did it only circulate for at best a single year? I have three plausible guesses, in order from what I think are most to least likely.
Possibility 1: It was on a required reading list in 2002-3, but not afterward, so they bought many copies in 2002. They purged most of their copies and kept only one or two residuals. What little information their webpage has does include a required reading list, so it'd make sense that books on that list would get more copies so long as they stayed on the list.
Possibility 2: It was circulated for more than a year, but over the summer of 2003 they decided to stop stamping due dates (the book also has a barcode, maybe they shifted to email reminders of due dates).
Possibility 3: There was a shakeup over the summer of 2003 and they either had to downsize the library a lot, or someone decided that certain books were no longer appropriate (the book is "The New Adventures of the Mad Scientists' Club", and it involves a certain amount of tweaking authority figures).
I know at least a few school librarians read my LJ, any other possibilities suggest themselves to you?
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