Weeding

• Weeding


  The process of removing materials from the active collection for withdrawal or transfer
• Withdrawal


  The physical process of pulling materials from the collection and removing the location on the descriptive records from the catalog
• Other terms for weeding


  • Deselection
  • Pruning
  • Thinning
  • Culling
  • Deaccession
  • Relegation
  • Deacquisition
  • Retirement
  • Reverse selection
  • Negative selection
  • Book stock control
• Librarians are uncomfortable removing materials from collections even if the decision is not to dispose of them but to transfer them to storage
• Manley: 'Next to emptying the outdoor book drop on cold and snowy days, weeding is the most undesirable job in the library. It is also one of the most important.'
• Baumbach and Miller: 'Simply put, weeding is selection in reverse. It is deselection. Weeding is the act of reevaluating items in the collection and removing any that are inaccurate, out of date, misleading, inappropriate, unused, in poor condition, or otherwise harmful to students. It is something all librarians and library media specialists must do regularly if they want to maintain the best possible collections for their school communities. It is a professional responsibility that cannot be taken lightly.'
• Libraries did not give much attention to withdrawals until late in the 1800s. Library materials were so scarce and valuable that the emphasis was on building collections, not culling them.
• As the number of books in libraries increased and space grew more limited, withdrawing and discarding items in public and school libraries became more common.
• In 1893, Harvard librarian Justin Winsor oversaw moving 15,000 volumes to storage because of space constraints.
• Reasons for weeding


  • To maintain an active library collection of current interest to users
  • To improve services and collections
  • To make more effective use of the library's space and staff
  • To assure continued quality in the collection
• A library should have established criteria, documented in a written policy, guiding weeding and withdrawal decisions.
• Most common criteria for weeding


  • Circulation
  • Physical condition
  • Accuracy of information
• Successful weeding


  • Clear purpose
  • Sound planning
  • Sufficient time
  • Careful consideration
  • Appropriate communication with administrators and constituents
• Effective and timely communication with users, governing authorities, and library staff is critical.
• Ideally, libraries review materials in the collection with the same regularity that they add them.
• CREW (continuous review, evaluation, and weeding)


  A technique that recommends establishing guidelines for weeding each part of the collection, building weeding into the year's work calendar, and combining inventory review with careful consideration of each item in the collection for discarding, binding, or replacement
• A withdrawal project is often a discrete project, forced upon the library by circumstances.
• Reasons for a withdrawal project


  • Critical demand for more space
  • Need to review a portion of the collection prior to compacting or shifting it
  • Inventory or collection analysis project
  • Project to reclassify materials
  • Physical disaster
• Planning a weeding project should include comparing the costs of the effort with the costs of doing nothing.
• Costs associated with weeding

  • Staff time to review materials
  • Revise associated records
  • Move materials
  • Shift remaining materials within the space
  • Educate users
  • Retrieve materials if moved to storage
  • Obtain them from elsewhere if later requested
• Costs resulting from doing nothing

  • Ongoing collection maintenance
  • Unavailable shelf space
  • Unattractive and unappealing collections
  • Provision of dated and possibly inaccurate information
• Weeding criteria


  • Has it been used?
  • Is it worn, soiled, or damaged?
  • Is it outdated?
  • Is the content still pertinent?
  • Is it in a language that current and future users can read?
  • Is it duplicated in the collection?
  • Is it available and easily accessible elsewhere?
  • Is it rare or valuable or both?
  • Has it been superseded by a newer edition?
  • Was it selected originally in error?
  • Is it cited in standard abstracting or indexing tools?
  • Is it listed in a standard bibliography of important works?
  • Does it have local relevance?
  • Does it fill a consortial commitment or regional need?
  • If available in electronic format, is continued access to the e-version ensured?
• Libraries that are part of the Federal Depository Library Program must abide by this program's policies regarding government document retention and disposal.
• School library media centers often develop detailed guidelines to keep a collection fresh and current.
• Possible replacement guidelines for a school media center

  • Art and literature books generally do not become dated, so condition is of primary concern
  • Other materials should be replaced based on the length of time the content remains up-to-date and the frequency with which materials should be replaced
• CREW (continuous review, evaluation, and weeding)


  A method that applies objective and subjective criteria in the evaluation of materials, using the MUSTIE acronym (Misleading, Ugly, Superseded, Trivial, Irrelevant, Elsewhere)
• Other easy-to-remember acronyms for weeding

  • MUSTY (Misleading, Ugly, Superseded, Trivial, Your collection has no use for this book)
  • WORST (Worn out, Out of date, Rarely used, System cannot support, Trivial)
• Shelf scanning


  • Involves direct examination of volumes to provide information about the condition, scope, depth, and currency of materials
• Title-by-title review requires knowledge of the collection and subject area, circulation activity, user community, curricular and research needs, and the library's collection development policy.
• Decision forms


  Used to record the decision made at the point of review, ranging from brief options to more detailed forms to compile data about the collection
• Another approach to weeding is to begin with reports generated by the library's integrated library system.
• A critical step in weeding is to ensure that the bibliographic records are updated to reflect the disposition of the item.
• Some libraries do massive weeding projects every few years, some weed as worn or damaged materials cross the circulation.
• Libraries can generate reports on their collections to identify materials for weeding, such as by call number range, publication date, and circulation history
• Weeding process


  1. Generate pick list of likely candidates for weeding

  2. Review pick list to confirm decisions

  3. Update bibliographic records to reflect disposition of items
• Weeding approaches


  • Massive weeding projects every few years
  • Weed as worn or damaged materials cross the circulation desk
  • Weed by collection segments (e.g. picture books, young adult fiction)
  • Divide collection into equal parts and work through in a year
  • Develop a multiyear weeding schedule
• All formats, including media and e-books, deserve consideration in the weeding process
• Libraries should have a disposition policy that states the options and processes for disposing of weeded materials
• Outdated, inaccurate, offensive, or very poor condition materials should not be sold, donated, or traded
• Libraries should be careful about how they dispose of weeded materials to avoid potential issues