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Value.
They obviously have value if people want to read them (they're popular). Or they could have artistic value. Or document something and it's important to keep them around because the info inside might be important later on.
You can discard any books like Excel 2006 or Windows 8 beginners guide. I'd say they don't have any value anymore. Or like bad cooking books that no one reads anyways.
Also a library might not be an archive at the same time. So you could focus on which books actually have some use for the patrons and judge by if they're being used/read.
And I'd like to add: Selecting books and tidying up to make space for new popular books... And banning books are two very different things. Banning books for grown-ups isn't a good idea. Never, and under no circumstances. Unless it's 1933 and you're the nazis.
Why are you specifying 'for grown ups'? Banning books at all is wrong, if you give them an excuse to do it for children, they'll just do something crazy like classify all teenagers as 'children' so less people have access to books at the most important stage of their lives...
Oh wait, they did that already.
You're right. I specified that because there are things like protection for minors, and I didn't want someone to defuse my argument by arguing about one exception from the rule that could be construed as banning books. And I think that's a fake argument. Obviously you don't read an erotic novel to your 8yo kid. But at high-school age you're pretty much allowed to start making own decisions. At least well-equipped to read about diversity and how other parts of the world work. Or telling fact from fiction or consuming art.
And I think at college lever or once you're officially an adult, there is little to no reason to keep information from you. That's something the nazis did, the Taliban does and other suppressive regimes and dictatorships. And these days we're discussing to do that in the USA, at least to the people who actually have time at hand to read books and learn about the world. Which becomes more difficult once you're older, have a stressful job etc. So that's exactly how to deal maximum damage without going full autocracy on all citizens.
And this kind of behaviour is something I struggle to relate with. I live far away from the USA in Europe. And while we certainly have idiots here, I don't see a major debate on keeping school-kids stupid, by stripping away their access to information. And I mean it's not where someone is from, everyone from the USA I've talked with also wouldn't accept that. I guess I'm just not talking that much to the idiots an bigots.