Singer Sewing Book
The Complete Guide to Sewing
Hutton and Cunningham
1969
Note the “groovy” cover. Sewing books probably have a long shelf life in terms of content. Mechanical machines still work the same way they did 50 years ago. Yes, there are more bells and whistles, but fundamentally sewing is pretty much the same as it was decades ago. Knitting, needlepoint, and other crafts that have been around forever also can have a long shelf life as well. Weeding is usually condition or low circulation. The obvious other time to weed is when the book just looks out of date due to fashions. This really depends on the title.
If it’s about the fundamentals, and it holds up to library traffic, you can probably hang on for longer than other craft books. When these books start offering more style than substance, then they need to be weeded as tastes change. My feeling is there are 2 distinct types of crafters in public libraries: Total beginners that would not know a seam ripper from a pair of scissors, and expert level folks looking for something “different”. Of course every library is different. Get your shelf list out and identify those books aimed at beginners and see how those circ numbers track against more project driven / fashion driven books do. It might be interesting.
I want to weed this one based on the home decorating in the last picture below.
Mary
