As the new librarian at the Sara Cecelia Krakowski Memorial Library (SCKML) at Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center (PJTC) I am charged with the unenviable task of removing old, worn, dated and unwanted books from the shelves to make room for new books. This is a pictorial example of what I have to go through:

“The Spark and the Exodus:

by Benedict and Nancy Freedman

It was a gift to the library before 1955

and the last time it was borrowed was in 1963.

This is still a good idea for the SCKL

According to the historic bookplate

it was:

“A gift from Oswald Trilling

in memory of Samuel Nimitz.”

I decided to put this book in the archives but to leave its card in the catalog so that if any one looks for it in the next decade it could be, with effort, found and read again. None of the books that were put in the archive a decade age have ever been looked for.  Is it time for some existential angst?