LET’S START AT THE BEGINNING: Why is it important that libraries weed?
• To free up shelf space
In most libraries, the shelves should ideally be 75 to 85 percent full. This makes the items much easier to browse, makes it easier to shelve, and, in general, makes the collection look better. But it’s not only looks that matter—it also saves the patron time and frustration. When outdated materials are removed, then newer, more frequently used materials become clearly visible on the shelves. Who wants to search through a dozen outdated or ragged books to find the one they are really looking for?
• Collection development best practices
How better to get a good handle on what you already own and what areas you need to beef up than to weed on a regular basis? It can be invaluable to look at and touch every book in your collection. Weeding increases knowledge of the collection as a whole. The selector can see firsthand what materials are damaged, need updating, or need to be replaced, and also get a sense for what is used (and more importantly when it comes to weeding, what isn’t used) by the patrons.
• To purge outdated materials
Particularly in nonfiction and in reference, there is a real need to have timely information on your shelves. Remember that your library is not a museum—there is simply not enough space (nor is it a library’s mission) to be a warehouse of unused books. It’s also very important to remember that reference material has an expiration date!
Crowded shelves and worn-out books are distasteful, especially to busy patrons. Just as a bookstore will clearance out titles that do not sell to make room for the constant arrival of new books to keep an eye on profits, a library must consider if removing titles that do not circulate may maintain or even increase its budget allocation. How does that work? The budget is often set in relation to the value and esteem in which the community holds the library, which in turn depends to a large degree on circulation figures.
The idea that we are the chosen keepers of the sacred books is at odds with the fact that weeding actually goes to the very core of the librarian’s professional responsibility to offer patrons the very best information possible. To those librarians who feel that weeding goes against what we have been called to do; our duty to protect books and information: I would remind them of the last two of S. R. Ranganathan’s Five Laws of Library Science: Save the time of the reader and The library is a growing organism.
Ideally, weeding is an ongoing process. Many libraries try to follow a weeding schedule that allows for an easy, continual flow to the weeding process. Weeding throughout the year reduces the number of materials withdrawn at one time and keeps your community happy—because the shelves look fresh, and patrons will not see a large number of books leaving the building at one given time. If you haven’t made an effort to weed continually—or even if you have—oftentimes a weeding project may be needed. Specifically, you know you need a “deep weed” when shelf space becomes impossible to navigate or patrons complain about the condition of materials or a lack of current information.
One thing you may or may not choose to designate in a collection development plan is who is actually responsible for weeding the collection. Because few libraries, especially smaller ones, have a dedicated collection development librarian, your collection development plan should spell out the personnel in each department who are responsible for weeding. The best way to handle this is to let those who select materials also be responsible for deselecting them. These staff members should have the expertise and experience with their collection areas, and therefore would be able to make good decisions. Personal and detailed knowledge of the collection can be indispensable when weeding. In addition, first-hand knowledge about the community and the tastes of local users comes in handy. If one person handles all of the materials buying (as is common in smaller libraries), then a committee or group should be formed to cover weeding. Team weeding lessens the burden, and provides for a balanced view of the collection. Final decisions should rest with department managers (or the library director). This should be clearly stated in the collection development plan.
You’ll see this again in chapter 12: Have a solid collection development plan in place. This not only gives you backup by highlighting your reasons for weeding and your timeline, but also gives your staff instruction. On page 16, I offer a basic, easily adaptable sample to kickstart the weeding and retention section of a collection development plan.
There are a number of ways to handle the question of when to weed. Many libraries rely on automated computer reports to identify low-circulating items. It’s easy enough to have those items pulled, reviewed, and decided upon. Some libraries specify (by policy or when space necessitates) that a certain percentage of the collection must be evaluated on an annual basis. There are less formal ways of accomplishing weeding tasks as well, such as having librarian selectors periodically check their areas or have shelvers alert them to overcrowded areas that need weeding. I feel very strongly that all libraries can benefit from having a published schedule for weeding.
A wonderful example of a weeding schedule comes from King County Library System in Washington. KCLS uses the following schedule as a guideline for weeding collections, aimed at a review of the entire collection each year (reprinted with permission).
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000–099 |
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January |
Fiction A-B |
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January |
Youth Graphic Novels |
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February |
100–199 |
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February |
Fiction C-D-E |
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February |
J Series |
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March |
200–299 |
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March |
Fiction F-G |
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March |
World Language |
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April |
300–399 |
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April |
Fiction H-I-J |
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April |
E/J Folk and Fairy Tales |
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May |
400–499 |
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May |
Fiction K-L |
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May |
DVDs |
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June |
Fiction M |
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June |
Large Print |
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June |
CD Music |
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July |
500–599 |
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July |
Fiction N-O-P |
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July |
ABE/ESL |
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August |
600–699 |
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August |
Fiction Q-R |
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August |
Reference |
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September |
700–799 |
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September |
Fiction S |
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September |
Audiobooks (including read-alongs) |
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October |
800–899 |
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October |
Fiction T-U-V |
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October |
E Readers |
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November |
900–999 |
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November |
Fiction W |
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November |
Teen Classics |
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December |
Fiction X-Y-Z |
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December |
Biographies |
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December |
E Board Books |
All major integrated library system (ILS) software has the ability to generate circulation reports. You may be able to run them yourself, or you may have to request them from your vendor, but the records exist—use them! Reports available from your cataloging system are invaluable for weeding. You can sort them by all kinds of criteria, including last checkout date, age of item, and number of checkouts. The numbers will, of course, vary depending on the size and type of library and the intent of your collection, but chapters 2 through 9 offer some general advice. Reports can give you a great overall picture of your collection, even outside of the numbers specific to each item. For example, a report can show you the average circulation rate of items at a particular call number. This will let you know whether you need to take a closer look at the section, or if you need to purchase more in that area, for example.
• Identify Stakeholders: Library administrators need to support and endorse the weeding process. Librarians need to be prepared to weed. Support staff, such as shelvers or IT personnel, may be called upon to create lists and check for circulation of weeded materials not on the lists. Catalogers and other technical services staff will need to assist with updating holdings and the discard process.
• Shelf Read: This will ensure that the area to be worked on is complete and allows you the opportunity to check what may be missing or lost from the collection.
• Pull Visibly Damaged Items: A page or shelver can perform a quick run-through of shelves due for weeding, and pull items that need a closer look purely based on condition.
• Build Weeding into the Schedule: When staff have a clear understanding of a project, they are more likely to get it done in a reasonable amount of time. Schedule time for weeding the same way you would schedule on-desk hours.
• Determine Your Steps: There are important questions to consider. Will you work a literal shelf at a time? Will you work in the stacks or move a truck to the workroom? What will you do with items that need replacing or mending? Where will discards go?
• outdated information (particularly in the 300s and 600s)
• outdated Popular Interest
• repetition or multiple copies
• superseded editions
• tattered or dirty items
• poorly bound items
• dated dust jackets (especially in Youth collections)
• little use or lack of patron demand
• no long-term or historical significance
• space limitations/oversaturation in certain areas
The CREW Method (which stands for Continuous Review, Evaluation, and Weeding), created by Belinda Boon and Joseph P. Segal, offers six general guidelines for judging library material under the acronym MUSTIE. (For more information, see www.tsl.state.tx.us/ld/pubs/crew):
• M = misleading: factually inaccurate
• U = ugly: beyond mending or rebinding
• S = superseded by a new edition or by a much better book on the subject
• T = trivial: of no discernible literary or scientific merit
• I = irrelevant to the needs and interests of the library’s community
• E = elsewhere: the material is easily obtainable from another library
Other common acronyms include WIDUS: (Weed Us!) Worn out, Inappropriate, Duplicated, Uncirculated, Superseded; and WORST: Worn out, Out of date, Rarely used, Supplied elsewhere, Trivial or faddish.
It may sound trite, but don’t be afraid to weed on looks alone. I’ve been in too many libraries where a good one-third of the collection could be replaced based on rips, smells, and stains alone. Who wants to check out a nasty book? This can be an easy way to weed on an ongoing basis. Ask the circulation staff to hold questionable books that are returned to the library. Coach your shelvers on how to preselect tattered materials for a librarian to check.
Wesleyan University completed a massive weeding project from 2011 through 2014, culling some 60,000 volumes from the collection. Staff detailed the project from start to finish on their blog “WesWeeding,” (http://weeding.blogs.wesleyan.edu). One entry to the blog detailed their criteria for setting up initial lists of books to withdraw (reprinted with permission).
Criteria Used in the Creation of the Potential Withdrawal Lists
1. Books published before 1990: Many—not all—scholarly books are most useful, and most used, in the several years just after they are published. Books that are over 20 years old are less likely to be used and are therefore good candidates for weeding.
2. Books added to the library’s collection before 2003: Books added to the library’s collections recently may prove useful, but have not been in the collection long enough to be proved useful or otherwise. We are retaining books added since 2003 so that they have more time to be discovered and used. Why 2003? In 2003 the library migrated to our current online library system, and we know what books we ordered before and after 2003. So 2003 is a convenient breakpoint for this criterion.
3. Books that have not checked out since 2003, and have checked out once or not at all since 1996: Books with one or fewer checkouts since 1996, and none since 2003, may be of less use to students and faculty than books that have checked out more frequently during the same time period. Why 2003 and 1996? As noted above, 2003 is when we migrated to our current online system, and we have detailed circulation statistics for each book since then. We have summary circulation statistics for each book from 1996 to 2002, when we were using a different online system. Before then we do not have online circulation statistics.
4. Books held by more than 30 other libraries in the United States: If a withdrawn book is later needed by a Wesleyan student or faculty member, we will order it through interlibrary loan (ILL). Books held by more than 30 other libraries in the U.S. will be easy to find and order via ILL.
5. Books held by two or more partner libraries: Wesleyan University Library is part of the CTW Consortium, with Trinity College and Connecticut College. The CTW Consortium, with the library at the University of Connecticut at Storrs, share collections through a delivery service. We can be confident that books held by two or more of our partners in this service will be quickly available if needed by a Wesleyan student or faculty member.
How We Combined These Criteria (For Fans of Boolean Logic)
The books on the list of potential withdrawals meet all of these criteria. So, they are published before 1990 AND added to the collections before 2003 AND have not checked out since 2003 AND have checked out once or not at all since 1996 AND are held by more than 30 libraries in the US AND are held by two or more of our partner libraries.
If a book does not meet all these criteria, it is not on the list.
Reprinted with permission from http://weeding.blogs.wesleyan.edu/page/3.
What if you just aren’t sure about a particular title? Ask yourself the following questions:
• Would I be embarrassed if the library didn’t own it?
• Does the book fit the needs of my community?/Does it have local interest?
• Is the author still living and writing?
• If I put this on display, would it go out?
There’s an excuse for everything, and here are some rebuttals to the things that may be keeping you from weeding:
• That’s taxpayer money! It’s more of a waste of taxpayer dollars to keep outdated or nasty books on the shelf. Time is money, too—your patrons shouldn’t have to waste their time searching through your outdated collections.
• But I bought that book myself—I have a personal connection to it! Think of your personal responsibility to the collection as a whole.
• Books are valuable! There is no value in dangerously outdated material or soiled items.
• I’m afraid it will look bad to have empty shelves. Keep your community informed about what’s happening when you weed, and remember that replacement is a key component of weeding as well.
• This is someone’s favorite book! And we’d be happy to ILL it for him.
All staff members, whether they are directly involved in the weeding process or not, should be made aware of the task at hand. It’s important to keep all library staff informed so they can alleviate any patron anxieties. Front-line staff are the ones who work with the collection on a daily basis, and they are the ones who discuss what’s happening with concerned patrons. Staff who are directly involved need to be part of the process, and should have input. There needs to be an understanding, if not an agreement, on exactly what is going to happen to the collection: why the weeding project needs to take place and how it’s going to work.
Staff members who are given responsibility for purchasing should also be responsible for weeding. It’s simply part of the collection development cycle. Librarians who select in an area should have the professional judgment to know when to cull and to update.
It’s important to remember that everyone in the library has a stake in weeding, and will likely be called upon to assist. Therefore it is crucial that the entire staff understands what needs to happen and how it’s going to happen. All library staff need to stay informed so they can alleviate any patron anxieties. If staff is not on board with weeding, your public will never be.
Talking about weeding shouldn’t be secretive or become a painful process. Staff should use positives instead of negatives when talking about it, and should never complain to patrons about the bad materials that were on the shelf previously. (The one exception to this is using the Cart of Shame to your advantage, as mentioned below on page 13.) Instead, they can explain that the library is making room for new materials, making the shelves easier to navigate, and replacing outdated information with current information. In fact, it’s important for everyone to keep in mind that weeding isn’t always about clearing the shelves—sometimes it’s about getting fresh new copies of the exact same titles. More on the subject of public perception is discussed in chapter 11.
In the weeding workshops and webinars I give, many of the same questions pop up over and over again. Here they are, complete with answers.
Depending on what your library’s policies or restraints may be, there are a number of ways to clear out weeded copies. (Academic and school libraries in particular need to check with their administration to make sure they are following proper procedures, and some municipalities may have rules about disposal of “public property.” Although I have never come across this myself, it’s a very good idea to cover all bases and check first!)
• Sell discarded items that have been properly readied (remove barcodes and labels, black out library stamps if desired) at library book sales—ongoing or events.
• Sell online via Powell’s (www.powells.com/sell); B-logistics (www.blogistics.com/); eBay (www.ebay.com); Amazon Marketplace (http://sellercentral.amazon.com). Consider rounding up volunteers or asking your Friends groups for assistance, so that it doesn’t take up too much staff time.
• I implore you: only give away items that are in good condition and up to date. If you don’t want these items, do you think another library really does? If you are discarding items in good condition, such as multiple copies, contact local schools or nearby libraries. You can also check with Libraries of Love, a registered nonprofit that works to create libraries in African schools (www.librariesoflove.org/). In addition, ALA has a great fact sheet on “Sending Books to Needy Libraries” that can be found at www.ala.org/tools/libfactsheets/alalibraryfactsheet12.
• Are there special local recycling days in your area? Does your library have the funds to temporarily rent more recycling bins (this option is probably not as expensive as you may think).
• Use a service such as Better World Books (www.betterworldbooks.com). They’ll pay for pickup; you can donate the books and designate a charity for the profits to go to, or they will sell and give you a percentage of the money. There is a similar service called Bookforward (www.bookforward.net), which sells via Amazon.
• The Austin (TX) Public Library has a website devoted to “green weeding” (http://library.austintexas.gov/green-weeding). Its goal is to raise awareness of carbon-neutral options to deal with books and materials being weeded and discarded from library collections, and to keep books and other media out of landfills. They do this by selling items at their bookstore, Recycled Reads, and exploring recycling options.
Finally, don’t be afraid to recognize that books will just have to go in the trash, like it or not. No one has a use for moldy, smelly, or damaged books.
Absolutely not, if it’s not circulating. If you have a damaged copy and the item is still in demand, then it’s a great candidate for replacement. Lists of award-winners can be useful for collection development but I will state that I never feel that a list of award-winners or an index supersedes common sense and local knowledge.
If you’ve shown him circulation reports and he won’t budge, then why not put the onus on him—if he wants them to be kept, he needs to find storage space for them in his office or his department.
Ideally, you will have a statement in your collection development plan that covers this (see chapter 12 for more detail on such a statement). There is no reason that a library must keep items that were donated or that were authored by locals, though it stands to reason that if there is room in the collection, it is a nice gesture to keep items by local writers.
As noted above, while indexes and catalogs can be useful as a starting point or as justification for keeping items, I caution librarians not to use such lists blindly. Be sure to keep your patrons and your mission in mind when making choices for your collection. That said, for a situation such as this, it may be helpful to consult Wilson’s Public Library Catalog. (The newest edition has been split into Public Library Core Collection: Nonfiction and Public Library Core Collection: Fiction.) It’s a good starting point for non-subject specialists.
Sometimes tough love is necessary. Micromanage, and make staff justify keeping items. For example, if staff insist they need several different sets of similar books, I would pull a couple of them, put them in storage or the staff workroom, and then make staff tell me when they last actually used them and for what. Could they have used something else? It sounds silly, and as I said, it’s micromanaging, but with some people, that’s what you have to do.
If you need to learn to love weeding, you can help yourself by attending conference programs and webinars, reading articles, and, really, looking at the results from your weeding. Also, weed slowly and small, and weed as you go along—then it won’t seem so destructive or overwhelming.
Absolutely—if you have the display space, and it’s not outdated information, go ahead and give it one last chance. You never know what might catch someone’s eye. If it doesn’t go out, then you know you were right to pull it.
I do feel that if the author is still popular or still writing, it is important to keep series intact. You should decide either to keep them all or get rid of them all—don’t weed book five of a series just because that’s the one with the least circs. See chapter 7 for more information on weeding series.
Transparency is key—a “Cart of Shame” works well to illustrate why you’re getting rid of materials. Show her the badly outdated, moldy, and damaged books. The Cart of Shame is, literally, a bookcart you use to store some of your worst discards. Showing people the things you are weeding can be quite effective. I’ve used a Cart of Shame to show staff, boards, and patrons the following:
• The Mongoloid Child: Recognition and Care (1977). Can you imagine a parent of a child with Down Syndrome coming across this book when seeking out resources at the public library? I was horrified when I took this off the shelf.
• A book on housekeeping, circa 1960, which extolled the virtues of having a dishwasher, which would allow the “lucky housewife” to have so much free time!
• A 1978 title on disco dancing, which included a never-used tear-out vinyl record. I actually thought this was a joke item.
• My all-time favorite, the omnibus of Jane Austen titles that was so filthy and disgusting that I had to put it in a sealed plastic bag before putting it on the Cart. It was amazing that anyone would have thought it was appropriate to keep on the shelf, particularly when you consider that just about every Austen title is still in print and very inexpensive to replace!
For more examples, you simply must visit AwfulLibraryBooks.net. Librarians Holly Hibner and Mary Kelly feature examples of actual books recently weeded from library collections, and they range from humorous to horrific. You can learn more about the site and about Hibner and Kelly in an interview I conducted with them for Booklist (www.booklistonline.com/Notes-from-the-Field-Talking-about-Awful-Library-Books-with-Holly-Hibner-and-Mary-Kelly-Rebecca-Vnuk/pid=6139204).
It’s a tough call when your patrons are using the materials and they are in good condition. If it’s a space issue and not a use condition, you might need to tighten up how long you’re willing to go between checkouts. Some smaller libraries use three years as a benchmark. It’s not unusual to go down to two—but even I will admit that’s getting harsh. Think about whether there is any chance you could weed a less-used area and expand the tight section.
More often than not, it’s the patrons who have a more critical eye! Librarians tend to be a lot more forgiving of condition than patrons. You know it’s bad when a patron worries at the circ desk about taking something home because they don’t want to be blamed for the condition the book is in. You can certainly also use a more positive term, such as “worn out” or “well used,” rather than “ugly.”
In a case like this (old material but recent checkouts), it depends on condition and relevancy of information. If it’s fiction, you can feel fine keeping it (or replacing it if it’s tattered). If it’s nonfiction, weigh the accuracy and currency of the material.
Go section by section so that you are able to concentrate on one area at a time. Look to the “Weeding Tips” series on Booklist Online and the CREW Manual, both of which go through the Dewey areas shelf by shelf.
While many libraries mention weeding in their collection development plans or policies (see chapter 12), it’s usually best to leave the nuts-and-bolts to an internal document that staff can use as a guideline while they work.
The following guidelines were written for a suburban library with a collection of 100,000–150,000 volumes. They are meant as a generic document for an average collection. Feel free to adapt them to fit the needs of your library, based on the size of your collection and usage reports.
Retention is based on the likelihood of a historical interest in the field as well as the timeliness of a title and its informational content. Patron demand also has an impact on the retention or replacement of material.
While we document a minimum schedule for weeding below, it is important to note that weeding is done on an ongoing basis as needed, to make room for newer titles and when materials that are in poor condition come to our attention.
Specific timetables for different sections of the collection are detailed in this plan. In general, the schedule is as follows:
Annually: 000–Computers, Large Print, Adult Mass Market Paperbacks, 900–Travel
Biennially: 300–Legal, College, Investment, Medical
Every three years: Reference, 000, 100s, 500s, 600s, AV
Every five years: Fiction, 300s, 700s
Every six years: 200s, 400s, 800s, 900s, Biography
Multiple copies will be purchased to meet patron demand. After initial demand has passed, most duplicate copies will be removed from the collection.
The fiction collection should be evaluated and weeded every five years. Once an individual title is no longer popular, the library should not retain more than two copies of a specific title. Titles that have not circulated for seven years will be considered for weeding.
Once an individual title is no longer popular, the library should not retain more than one copy of it. With a few exceptions, the library will retain only the current edition of a title.
Because of rapid changes in this field, the computer collection will be weeded at least annually. Other titles in the area should be evaluated every three years. Titles that have not circulated in five years will be considered for weeding.
Special emphasis will be placed on self-help materials, which will be weeded every three years to maintain currency, and topics in demand for school assignments, which will be weeded every four years.
Information in this area is usually not time sensitive; therefore weeding of this area should be every six years. Titles that have not circulated in five years will be considered for weeding.
Current information is crucial in this area. Tax guides are kept for seven years. Multiple copies are weeded out after the current tax year. The college guides and test preparation books are kept up-to date by standing order plans. Titles in the legal, personal investment, colleges guide and test preparation areas need to be evaluated every two years, and will be considered for weeding if they have not circulated in three years. All other areas should be weeded every five years. Titles with the exceptions noted above will be considered for weeding if they have not circulated for five years.
This area should be evaluated every six years, and titles that have not circulated for five years will be considered for weeding.
This area should be weeded every three years. Titles that have not circulated in five years will be considered for weeding.
This area needs to be evaluated and weeded every two years. Currency of information is particularly important in this area of the collection, and in general materials over five years old will be weeded. The rest of this collection will be weeded on a rotating cycle, each section evaluated every three years.
This collection should be weeded every five years. Titles that have not circulated in five years will be considered for weeding.
Information in this area is usually not time sensitive; therefore weeding of this area should be every six years. Titles that have not circulated in five years will be considered for weeding.
Information in this area is usually not time sensitive; therefore weeding of this area should be every six years. Titles that have not circulated in five years will be considered for weeding.
Travel guides are kept up-to date by standing order plans, and guides that are published annually will be weeded every two to three years.
This area should be weeded every six years. Titles that have not circulated in five years will be considered for weeding.
Due to space considerations, the collection should be evaluated and weeded every year.
Paperbacks will be weeded continuously, although tattered copies with high circulation will be reordered for the collection.
An essential consideration in retaining online database products is patron use. Subscription databases that do not show substantial use (considering the cost of the product) over a year’s time will be replaced or removed.
All AV collections will be weeded on an as-needed basis, and titles that have not circulated in three years will be considered for weeding. Items in poor condition are evaluated and removed from the collection or replaced if warranted.
Titles are kept for varying lengths of time, though the majority are retained for the current plus three years. Usage is continually evaluated, and titles not used are weeded so that new periodicals may be acquired. A patron survey may be done on individual titles on an as-needed basis, with a comprehensive survey completed at least once every five years.