Collection Management Program – Weeding – November 29, 2007

Two weeding standards that most libraries follow
MUSTIE
• Misleading or factually inaccurate
• Ugly (worn beyond repair)
• Superseded by new edition or better book
• Trivial (no discernible literary or scientific value)
• Irrelevant (your collection no longer has a use for the item)
• Elsewhere (available though ILL or branch holds)
CREW

• Continuous
• Review
• Evaluation
• Weeding

Depending on the subject, it seems recommended to remove books between two to five years. Specific guidelines can be seen at this website: http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/ld/pubs/crew/guidelines.html
It is especially important to keep up with subjects like science and technology which are constantly changing.

Some ways to keep up with changing information are:
1.    by using RSS feeds for news sites
2.    joining listservs such as YALSA-Bk or PUBYAC
3.    sharing what you find out with your fellow librarians

It is especially difficult to get rid of books just because they are worn out or ratty looking, but remember, if you wouldn’t check out a book because its beat up, neither would a teenager. I make use of circulation staff and pages in this process. If they see that a book is too beat up to be any use, they put it on my desk. If they see that its beat up and very popular, they fill out a replacement order form and delete it immediately.

It’s a good idea to occasionally do a quick browse of the teen section. If you see books that are in really bad shape, get rid of them right away. Once a year you should do a major weeding.

The best way to start weeding is by going to the LAS homepage and requesting a report.
You can request a dusty book report and narrow it down by sections, such as 53H3 (teen hardcover) or 53P3 (teen paperback).
According to the site:
This report lists all items that have not circulated since a certain date. The report is sorted by location and then call number. It includes detailed information about each item. It lists title, author, barcode, number of circs, and lots of other useful information.

You can also go directly to the section and wand each book in, to show the last time its been out. This is a good idea if you want to narrow in on a specific area of non-fiction because then you can see what other books you own on that topic.

Remember to keep in mind when you are weeding that it is not bad ordering choices but rather fickle teen tastes that are forcing you to weed that book you thought was great.

Reasons to weed:
1.    Space – No one ever has enough space, but an area that is crowded and crammed is a lot less appealing than an are that has room to breath.
2.    Condition – this is the easiest and most obvious reason to weed. If the book is in horrible condition, get rid of it!
3.    Accuracy – if the information in the books people are checking out is inaccurate, it can mean bad grades on papers, or worse (in the case of medical information)
4.    Tastes/Timeliness – Teens tastes change. If people aren’t interested in DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince anymore, don’t waste the space. If the book covers have teen with teased up hair and stone washed jeans, get rid of it.

Weeding is good for the soul. It makes the library more attractive and people will be more likely to browse if they see lovely spacious bookshelves.

If you are worried about getting rid of certain books, create a “Save Us” display. Let teens know that you are planning to get rid of the displayed books and that they need to save them. If the books still don’t go out, you know that you were correct in thinking to weed them.

What tools can you use to determine what to weed?

As with many other things, I always rely on my email lists for help. Two good email lists are PUBYAC and YALSA-BK for getting help directly from other librarians.

I also go to Library Automation Services site. They have many reports that you can download. The main one that is handy is the dusty book report, although there are a couple others that may be of use.

Report 0017 – Dusty Book Report
This report lists all items that have not circulated since a certain date. The report is sorted by location and then call number. It includes detailed information about each item. It lists title, author, barcode, number of circs, and lots of other useful information.

Sunlink Weed of the Month – http://www.sunlink.ucf.edu/weed/

Western Massachusetts Regional Library – Weeding the Library Collection – http://www.wmrls.org/services/colldev/weeding.html

Collection Development Training for Arizona Public Libraries – http://www.lib.az.us/cdt/

Some reasons to weed:

1. Space – No one ever has enough space, but an area that is crowded and crammed is a lot less appealing than an are that has room to breath.
2. Condition – this is the easiest and most obvious reason to weed. If the book is in horrible condition, get rid of it!
3. Accuracy – if the information in the books people are checking out is inaccurate, it can mean bad grades on papers, or worse (in the case of medical information)
4. Tastes/Timeliness – Teens tastes change. If people aren’t interested in DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince anymore, don’t waste the space. If the book covers have teen with teased up hair and stone washed jeans, get rid of it.

“”Something” is not better than nothing if what you have is outdated or inaccurate.”

This appears in Arizona State Library’s online article, which can be found here. This should be every librarian’s motto when weeding. Think about topics such as menopause treatments or cancer treatments. Would you trust information on these topics in a book from 1980? While we don’t usually order books on these topics for the teen section, think about topics we do cover: sex education, space, geography and popular music. Information is constantly changing. Should they use inaccurate books, the information could give them an F on their paper or a big “L”oser sign from their friends.

One of my favorite examples of books needing to be weeded is when I found a book on space exploration from 1955(ish). They showed pictures of what space suits might look like if we landed on the moon. Which we did in 1969.

This is why we need to keep up with changes, especially in science. Good ways to keep aware of changes are: by using RSS feeds for news sites, joining listservs (such as YALSA-Bk or PUBYAC) or sharing what you know with your fellow librarians.

I think this also holds true with books that are falling apart. I would rather have no Harry Potter than a Harry Potter that will disintegrate if I look at it funny. This would be a great time to enable your circulation staff and your pages. In my library, if they see a book that is falling apart and they don’t think it should go out anymore, they put the book on my desk. If its something that is obviously still popular, they fill out a replacement form and delete the book.

Its good to occasionally do a quick walk through of the teen area. If you notice any books that are visibly falling apart, have a couple of replacement forms with you and get rid of the books right away. A good point of reference is if you wouldn’t want to check the book out, teens probably aren’t going to want to check the books out either.

WEEDING WORKSHOP (from J meeting April 14, 2004)

WEEDING WORKSHOP
“Something is not better than nothing if what you have is outdated or inaccurate.”

AGENDA
· Why we weed
· Why we don’t weed
· When should we weed
· Weeding process
· What to do with the materials
· Information (printouts) available from LAS

NOTES FROM READINGS

Look at the goals of the collection first:

·to provide books exhibiting a variety of stories and illustration styles to accommodate the varying interests ad comprehension levels of the intended audience
·to maintain a complete (as possible) collection of standard, award-winning authors and illustrators, replacing titles as necessary
·to achieve and maintain a physically attractive collection by replacing popular and standard titles as needed and weeding titles that have outlived their personality

WHY WEED?

·Save shelf space
·Save search time
·Circulation increases as remaining items are more visible
·Collection quality improves
·unreliable information is gone
·Librarian actually doing the weeding becomes reacquainted with the weeded area
·rediscover new or forgotten resources
·Collection development

WHY DON’T WE WEED?

·Not enough time
·Don’t like to throw anything away
·What if someone needs what I just discarded?
·No money to replace weeded items
·No materials left on shelf
·What if it is valuable?
·Admits to making a mistake when the item was ordered
·Status of a “large” collection

WHEN SHOULD WE WEED

·Once a year
·When new items can’t be shelved
·Every time an item is returned
·check for wear, rips, markings

WEEDING PROCESS

·Review weeding policy
·Create a plan
·ideally collection should be weeded every year but time and personnel may make this difficult
·break library down into sections and determine order in which to read
·Review criteria for section to be weeded

Criteria includes:
· circulation
· physical condition of item
· interest level
· format
· duplicate copies
· reading level
· quantity of books of that type of subject
· new editions or better books available
· content of material

MUSTIE

· Misleading or factually inaccurate
· Ugly (worn beyond repair)
· Superseded by new edition or better book
· Trivial (no discernible literary or scientific value)
· Irrelevant (your collection no longer has a use for the item)
· Elsewhere (available though ILL or branch holds)

Ephemera = trivial = features characters created to sell a product

Gather necessary supplies:
·shelf list or computer printout
·pen

·paper slips to mark items:

bind

mend

discard

donate to….

promote

book sale

replace/new edition

check for other locations of title (within library)

change catalog number

·Read the shelves
·Look at the section as a whole and then item by item
·evaluate overall appearance
·note general appearance of collection
·examine item by item
·Check for availability elsewhere
·Check standard indexes
·Dispose of item
·Pull records of item/delete from database
·Confirm item deletion from database

Follow-up:
·replacements
·updated editions

WHAT TO DO WITH ITEMS

·Keep but mend
·Increase circulation of item
·displays
·change call number
·relocate within library
·use plastic bags to put items in dumpsters
·Be aware of public relations (Sacred Cows)
·save examples of most blatant material that should not be in the collection
·Book sale
·Give away
·Destroy
·remove cover/identifying labels so that the item doesn’t make it’s way back to you
·use pictures from books for displays
·Last Copy in System should be sent to?

DO I REALLY NEED IT?

OTHER RESOURCES

The CREW Method: Expanded Guidelines for Collection Evaluation and Weeding for Small and Medium-Sized Public Libraries by Belinda Boon; Texas State Library, 1995

CREW = Continuous Review, Evaluation and Weeding
· First figure refers to years since the book’s latest copyright date (age of material)
· Second figure refers to maximum permissible time without usage (years since last circulation)
· Third refers to the presence of various negative factors (MUSTIE)
· X in any category means factor is not applicable to specific subject

Guidelines are given for each Dewey classification.

WEEDING RESOURCES

Boon, Belinda. The CREW Method: Expanded Guidelines for Collection Evaluation and Weeding for Small and Medium-Sized Public Libraries.
Austin, TX: Texas State Library, c1995.

Gwinnett County Public Library. Gwinnett County Public Library Weeding Manual.
2nd Edition. Public Library Association, c2002.

Slote, Stanley. Weeding Library Collections: Library Weeding Methods.
4th Edition. Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited, Inc. c1997.

“SUNLINK Weed of the Month Club.” www.sunlink.ucf.edu/weed/

“Weed It! For an Attractive and Useful Collection” prepared by Karen Klopfer.

Western Massachusetts Regional Library System. www.wmrls.org/services/colldev/weed_it.html

“Weeding.” Arizona Department of Library, Archives and Public Records.

Collection Development Training for Arizona Libraries—CDT.
www.dlapr.lib.az.us/cdt/weeding.htm

“Weeding the Collection.” Idaho State Library. Alternative Basic Library Education.
www.lili.org/forlibs/ce/able/course4/01index.htm

the MUSTIE method thanks to Stephanie A. Squicciarini

M: Misleading

U: Ugly

S: Superseded

T: Trivial

I: Irrelevant

E: Elsewhere, as in.may be obtained Elsewhere

Weeding Policy

Every library should have a weeding policy, which is usually kept in your policies and procedures handbook at your library. If not, many libraries have begun putting their collection development policies right online for patrons to see and libraries to use. Many policies are short and open for interpretation, which can be good and bad. Sometimes things can backfire on you, like it did at the Fairfax County Public Library. They even got an article in the Washington Post.

Needless to say, it is extremely important to have a good solid weeding policy and staff that understand and support it.

Western Massachusetts was much quicker than I am, and they have a whole list of sample policies from around the United States. Illinois also did some work for me, and they posted links and books that they used in their workshop. Librarians rock!

Here’s a sample policy:

The library strives to maintain a collection that meets the needs of the community. In doing so, a regular and systematic weeding of the library’s materials (including books, periodicals, pamphlets, audio, and visual items) will improve the efficiency and vitality of the library’s resources. Weeding has been shown to increase the quality and use of a library’s collections.

Materials listed in Public Library Catalog, when pertinent to the collection and in good condition, will be given preference for shelf space. Materials whose contents are still of value but have worn out or have fallen into disrepair will be repaired or replaced if possible. If new editions have been released, newer editions will supersede older copies. Materials not actively used but occasionally needed will be weeded. Patrons can use ILL services to obtain them. Items will be searched intra-system before going to ILL.
Materials no longer suitable for the collection will be withdrawn and recycled, discarded, or sold.

Criteria for weeding:
1. Appearance: Books of antiquated appearance which might discourage use; badly bound volumes with soft or shoddy bindings; poorly printed works including books with small print, poor illustrations or paper which is translucent; are candidates for weeding. Also, worn out volumes whose pages are dirty, brittle, yellow or missing; and those with frayed bindings, broken spines, or dingy, torn, or dirty covers.
2. Unnecessary titles: Examples of titles which are no longer needed include duplicate titles whose popularity has waned; inexpensive reprints; older editions of currently held works; highly specialized works whose information is included in other materials or subjects of little interest.
3. Poor Content: Materials which contain dated or incorrect information; poorly written or performed works; or items which have been superseded by newer, improved edition.
4. Age: Items which have not circulated in ten (10) years, and/or out of date items.
5. Specific Classes of Materials: Items which should not have been purchased in the first place; and historical items containing inaccurate information or unfair interpretations.

Collection Management Program

I will be giving a presentation, along with some other librarians, about collection management. We each chose different aspects of collection management: review sources, ordering process, weeding and graphic novels. We set it up this way mostly because there were four of us presenting, but also because we felt that these were important factors to keep in mind when looking at your collection.

I chose to do weeding, because recently due to space issues, I had to do quite a bit of weeding. I hope you like it! (Not weeding. No one likes weeding.)

Uses for this blog

Originally I created this blog for my presentation on blogging. As you can see, it has gone unused for a long time, and it has gotten… (looking) 20 hits in its lifetime, which was sometime in January 2007. On the other hand, it has gotten 1,000 spam hits.

Then I thought, why let a perfectly good blog go to waste? If I created the blog to be used during a presentation, why can’t I continue to use it for presentations? Obviously, by my hit record, no one will use it besides me (except after my presentation) so what’s the harm? I’ve had this discussion before, so I know that librarians love handouts, however in this age, blogs are pretty useful too. SO, with that in mind, I will post all my findings here AND give you guys a hand out. Just because I love my fellow librarians, so much!

Social Bookmarks

Links are as old as the Internet. Well, maybe not so much…

In the past, people would save their bookmarks onto their computer. They had links at work, links at home, and links written on scraps of paper from when they were surfing at an Internet cafe in Spain. Then if their computer crashed or the pieces of paper got wet, everything would be gone.

Then came social bookmarking. Now that many people spend more time in front of their computers than in real interaction, we have come up with ways to socialize virtually. There are the normal ones: emailing, chatting, blogs, dating (and socializing) sites and gaming. But now people are coming up with more creative ways to socialize. A few of these are by using bookmarks, music, pictures and videos.

Some of the many reasons why you may want to join the crowd and create your own social bookmarks are:

1. if you use multiple machines, you can easily keep track of important bookmarks.
   1. this is good for libraries because then you don’t have to create separate link lists on each computer. You can just create an account on one bookmarking site and collect the bookmarks in one place. Then you have one bookmark on each computer that leads to your on-line list.
2. Creating a list of links on your own website/blog can get lengthy and look sloppy. Many of the bookmark sites organize your links without fuss and they look tidy.
3. Its really easy to add links. Just click on the button you add to your Internet tool bar and add a description, some tags a category, and your done!
4. You can see what bookmarks other people have on similar topics.

About Blogging

First off, its easy peasy!

Its just like typing a word document, except the whole world gets to see it. Some blogging software requires you to know a little HTML, but its pretty easy to pick up and handy to know. Here is a nice basic cheat sheet of HTML codes from Webmonkey. Some of the very basics:

• Paragraph:

<p>blah blah blah
blah blah blah
blah blah blah</p>

• line break:

<br>blah blah blah</br>

• Bold:

<b>blah</b>

• Italic:

<i>blah</i>

• Underline:

<u>blah</u>

• Email:

<a href=”mail to: ckyle@libraryweb.org”>Cathy’s email</a>

• link:

<a href=”http://www.libraryweb.org”>MCLS website</a>

Its very important to close your codes with </> because otherwise the whole thing will be bold, italic, or a link.

Many of the more advanced blogs don’t require you to know any of this, but as I said, it can be useful.

Personally I like wordpress because for someone with a lot of blogs, its easy to manage them all. An unfortunate side affect of blogs becoming more reliable and easy to use is that there is always one that’s better than the one you are using. This is what happened to me and why I went from blogger to edublogs to wordpress.