Nobody is Going to Miss that Title

Nobody is Going to Miss that Title "A good library is like a good haircut. It's not what you cut, it's what you leave." (Anne Felix, CREW manual) "It is better to have worthless books in the trash than have trash on your shelves." (Melissa Allen, Weed 'em and Reap) Our business is providing access to content, it is not collecting things. (cribbed from Holly Hibner) Less is more. Quantity does not equal quality. Empty shelves are better than bad information. "Lack of funds to replace outdated or worn items is never an excuse for not weeding." (CREW manual) Judge them by their covers. Your patrons do. Library Collection Life Cycle 1. Selection & Acquisition 2. Cataloging & Processing 3. Circulation & Reference Continuous Review, Evaluation,& Weeding 4. Benefits of Weeding Saves space Saves time Enhances shelf appeal Removes clutter What part of "continuous" do you not understand? Why Weed? When Should I Weed? Non-targeted incidental weeding during: Circulation Inventory Shifting Shelf reading is fantastic, but... ...there is no subsitute for regularly scheduled dedicated weeding time. Mark your calendar and make it known! How Do I Weed? 1. Have a Weeding or De-selection Policy 2. The CREW manual provides weeding guidelines, by Dewey range, age of materials, and last circulation 3. If you're automated, run reports for: Circulation (lack thereof) Publication date (distance from current) Focus these by Dewey range and Collection 4. While you're pulling items meeting these criteria, look for other items on the shelf that are screaming out for withdrawal 5. If you're not operating solo, it may be part of your policy that other staff review the weeds 6. When you withdraw something from your collection, withdraw it from all applicable bibliographic databases What Do I Weed? Misleading and/or inaccurate Ugly and worn beyond hope Superseded by a newer edition or title Trivial without discernible value Irrelevant Elsewhere (in consortium, in-state, ILL) C U D O I T Curriculum fit? Used? Damaged? Old? Interest level / reading level? Too many copies? Selected Print Resources Baumbach, Donna J. and Linda L. Miller. Less is More: a Practical Guide to Weeding School Library Collections. Chicago: American Library Association, 2006. Hoffman, Frank W. and Richard J. Wood. Library Collection Development Policies: Academic, Public, and Special Libraries. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2005. ______. Library Collection Development Policies: School Libraries and Learning Resource Centers. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2007. Selected Websites ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom: http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/oif/ Selected Articles Allen, Melissa. "Weed 'em and Reap: the Art of Weeding to Avoid Criticism." Library Media Connection, v.28, no.6, May-June, 2010, p.32-33. Scales, Pat. "When Weeding is Wrong: a Principal Asks for Banned Books to be Removed from the Collection." School Library Journal, v.55, iss.11, NOv., 2009, p.18. Young, Diane J. "Get to Effective Weeding." Library Journal, v.134, iss.9, Nov. 15, 2009, p.36. M U S T I E Shedding Fiction Weeding Non-print Non-fiction Hall of Shame https://imgur.com/a/5LPzM#0 The CREW Method: Expanded Guidelines for Collection Evaluation and Weeding for Small and Medium-sized Public Libraries: http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/ld/pubs/crew/ Awful Library Books: http://awfullibrarybooks.net/ Other Reasons to Weed? http://goo.gl/i2C4Y Any good policy must be: Comprehensible Approved by your board Regularly reviewed and updated Publicly available (on your website or distributable in print) General Guidelines Don't rebind fiction--paperbacks are affordable and book covers move fiction Replace books in poor condition only if literary merit or circ. stats warrant; withdraw the rest Do not replace older worn out titles by popular genre authors Easy Targets Older single title authors (except Harper Lee) Obscure and older genre titles Obscure foreign authors (consult the Fiction Core Collection for guidance) Earlier and lesser works by dead folk Series books when you're missing volumes (especially the first) Duplicate copies of former bestsellers and book club titles Specialized Cases Adult Fiction Withdraw titles that haven't circulated in 2 years Withdraw series with missing volumes if the books do not stand alone Replace worn copies of works of high literary merit with new editions (check the Fiction Core Collection) Graphic Novels Withdraw titles that have not circulated in 1 year Replace worn copies of classics, such as Maus: a Survivor's Tale, with new editions Easy Readers and Picture Books Withdraw titles that have not circulated in 2 years Withdraw titles with racial or gender bias Children's Fiction (Chapter Books) Withdraw award-winning titles that have not circulated in 3 years Withdraw others that have not circulated in 2 years Withdraw titles with biased or stereotypical views of gender, race, people with disabilities, or the elderly Withdraw abridged and simplified classics YA/Teen Fiction Withdraw titles more than 3 years old Withdraw titles that have not circulated in 2 years Replace worn classics (Harry Potter) with new editions Obsolete formats (slides, filmstrips, magnetic tape cassettes, etc.): Excercise extreme prejudice Conventional optical media should be replaced or withdrawn if chipped, cracked, warped, or deeply scratched Music CDs: weed if it hasn't circulated in the last year Audiobooks on CD: weed any fiction title that has not circulated in two years; weed non-fiction according to the guidelines used for print DVD & Blu-ray titles: Weed if it has not circulated in the past year; replace damaged classics if circ. stats warrant Puppets: Wait... puppets? Oh no! We're going to need tiny coffins! Whatcha got? Library Coffins (or what to do with the weeded) Iowa's DPI jokingly advocates that you: Bag and tag for destruction Put a few in each waste basket every day Take them to the dump Take them to another community's dump Tear or break them up and put them in a waste basket Box them up and send them to the superintendent Store them until they are forgotten More practically, you could donate discards to organizations that can make a difference: Your Friends of the Library book sale BookProspector.com (online sales site for FoL groups) The Prison Book Club (www.prisonbookprograms.org) Local shelters, hospitals, or thrift stores Better World Books (www.betterworldbooks.com) Gotbooks.com BookScouter.com (sell books by ISBN direct to used bookstores) Or... Start a giveaway table Make book art Recycle! Hidden Benefits of Weeding Helps identify missing and stolen books Gives constant feedback on collection strengths and weaknesses Enhances your library's reputation Providing access to reliable current information garners public trust Authority is lent to books by their inclusion in libraries Your authority is compromised when books aren't credible or they contain stereotypes or misinformation Barriers to Weeding Psychological Institutional Procedural Judgmental Solutions Brainwashing Adopting sound policies Step-by-step routine Guidelines from CREW