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Weeding, sometimes called deselection, is a standard practice by library workers. It is the systematic evaluation of materials in the collection that leads to discarding books that are no longer appropriate. Public and school libraries are not designed to be warehouses. They are thoughtfully curated to the needs of the community in which they serve. Weeding makes the collection easier to browse, ensures that it is up-to-date and that it is relevant to its users — having 16 copies of The Catcher in the Rye in varying degrees of torn apart when the book hasn’t been used in a school curriculum for a decade is a sign of poor library management. Two or three good-condition copies would be more than enough.
Public and school libraries should have their own policies governing their weeding process. This might include assessing items according to the CREW/MUSTIE method, assessing for things like Misleading/factually incorrect material/poor content; Ugly/worn beyond repair; Superceded/there’s a new edition or a better book on the topic; Trivial/of no discernible literary, scientific, or cultural merit; Irrelevant to the needs or interests of the library community (this, in particular, explains why some books are readily available in one library but may not be in a library in another community — the example of Catcher in the Rye fits here, as a school which still uses the book in the curriculum may indeed have a need for those 16 copies to remain on shelf); and finally, Elsewhere/the material is easy to obtain from another library for those seeking it out.
These days, I find myself at my local branch just about every other day of the week, dropping off the stack of books I just finished and picking up hold items that have finally come in.
By this point, everyone there knows me. In fact, a library staffer once called me just before a holiday weekend to let me know some hold items of mine had arrived, even though I would have received an alert email the next morning. “I had a feeling you wouldn’t want to wait for them,” she said. Bless this woman.
So I appreciate a good book set in a library. I appreciate libraries, period. In honor of libraries, check out this list of fun novels set in these grand palaces of reading.
Historical fiction set in Nigeria features a wide array of possibilities, showing as it does a varied scope of periods and cultures. After all, the country we call Nigeria has boasted a lot of indigenous pre-colonial states since the second millennium BC. It also houses over 250 different cultures, including Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, and more. With this in mind, it’s hardly a surprise that Nigerian historical fiction is thriving, especially because the country is the most populated in Africa and one of the most populated in the world.
The Nigerian Civil War, which took place between July 6, 1967, and January 15, 1970, is one of the most covered periods in Nigerian historical fiction. However, the books highlighted in this post reach back to pre-colonial times as well. Indeed, you’ll get a sense of a lot of Nigerian history by making your way through these novels (plus one play). But it’s not just history you’re getting here. You’ll find human nature, love, grief, fun — the whole array of human emotions.
This roundup includes both classics and newer books, so there is something for everyone. Sit down, grab a mug of your preferred beverage, and dive into historical fiction set in Nigeria.
