Subjective views of damaged books

I continue to be amused by the highly subjective nature of judging book damage employed by many different librarians.

"Oh! It has a pink stain on one of the pages! And yellow highlighter all throughout! This book is RUINED!!!"

No, no it isn't. As Ranganathan's first law states, "Books are for use". You're a librarian, not an antiquarian bookseller. There is a difference. I used the heck out of good library books all throughout my undergrad and graduate school careers...they endured coffee mug ring stains, my cleaning my fingernails with the pages; I even spilled a shot of whiskey on one...(had taken the book to a bar as it was more interesting than many of my fellow patrons)...the "kids" had just started to arrive at 11pm-ish and we older barflies were preparing to shuffle on out and home when some jerk bought everyone a round of shots including me. The bartender put the shotglass on my book and it left a little whiskey ring on the cover.

It was after that, and still feeling intoxicated walking to work the next AM, that I decided it was a bad idea to go out M-Thurs in library school and saved my partying for the weekends. *cough*

The point is, books get USED...used for education hopefully but also to prop open a door, or look pretty on a table, or something to set one's drink on, etc. They do not have to remain in pristine condition to be perfectly functional, usable. The sooner some librarians disabuse themselves of this notion and embrace the reality of the life-cycle of a book, the better. Ranganathan knew what he was talking about, his laws aren't just flowery, feel-good rhetoric; they have practical, philosophical import. They're not something you learn for the SLIS Intro to Reference Services final then promptly forget once you land your first library job...they're meant to guide your actual practice of librarianship.

Anyway, Cracked spine, pages falling out...THAT is a ruined book. If it can't be reasonably repaired with a minimal expenditure of funds, or if the cost to repair exceeds the cost to replace, that is when a book should be withdrawn, no question.

But, how about, say, water damage that warps a paperback front and back pages? Well, the responsible parties should be fined, yes, but withdraw from circulation? Is is still legible? Then no.

I was asked to have a look at a book by a librarian who was convinced she would never have let the book leave her library in that condition so the damage MUST have occurred when it was out on loan. I had to laugh when I saw it because I knew OUR copy in OUR library looked much more ragged and had already been sent out via ILL on multiple occasions. It's a very popular title, and a shame this librarian would consider restricting access to it because of such, to me, quite minor blemishes (stained pages). I've decided to defer the decision on this to my immediate superior when she gets back from vacation. I had suggested we could bill the library we last sent it to, but actually viewing the reported "damage", I had changed my view, since it was far less worse than I'd been led to believe over the phone. I'm glad I'm able to defer this matter to a superior for inspection, and plan to keep my opinions mostly to myself.