WEEDING THE COLLECTION 1. Policy Overview 2. Responsibility for the Collection 3. Weeding Criteria 4. Weeding Process a. Capturing Circulation Statistics of Target Area b. Identifying Items to Be Weeded 1. POLICY OVERVIEW Weeding the collection is as vital to the health of the Library s materials collection as adding new titles. The collection is only as strong as its components as a whole, outdated material can influence the reliability of the other material beside it on the shelf. Weeding is critical to presenting a collection that is current, reliable and attractive to users. 2. RESONSIBILITY FOR THE COLLECTION It is the role of librarians to select and withdraw (deselect) library materials and advise on their use. Recognizing that sensitivity to the needs and interests of the college community is essential to the development of a strong library collection. Weeding (actually ALL collection development) should be done without bias by individuals whose personal preferences or interests will not dominate their work. Librarians are expected to include in the collection, when available, materials that reflect all sides of controversial questions. Weeding of any part of the collection will be primarily overseen by the library faculty. Discipline faculty should be actively encouraged to participate in and assist with the process. The responsibility for EVC Library s collection development is organized by individual librarians being assigned as liaisons to specific college academic divisions. That individual librarian is responsible for the development of that specific area of the Library collection, selecting new materials as well as weeding/deselecting in the area. For example, if a librarian is liaison to the Language Arts Division they would be responsible for collection development of the P sections in Reference and General Collection, as well as the paperback collection which primarily supports reading lists for classes in that Division. Some cross over may occur. The liaison to Nursing and Allied Health would, of course, be responsible for section R (Medicine), but would also be involved in collection development in secion QP which includes works about vitamins, or section BF which would include some works about mental health issues. In order to be as informed as possible about their areas of responsibility each librarian should be aware of the patterns of usage within that segment of the collection. Do the patterns of usage reflec the courses being taught within that discipline? Does the collection meet the needs of students comleting
assignments for those classes? Circulation statistics should be used to determine the areas within a section of the collection that have high circulation (select additional titles on those subjects) or low circulation (deselect titles in that area). 3. WEEDING CRITERIA 3.1. General considerations. Collection level: How vital is the item to EVC coursework and research? Duplication: Is demand sufficient for multiple copies of the item? Physical condition: Can a damaged item be repaired? Should it be replaced? Physical condition should be spotted by technicians doing inventory and brought to the attention of the librarian. Research value: Are older materials still valuable for research interests, or is the information they contain now inaccurate or misleading? Edition: Is the edition of an item superceded by a newer edition? Completeness: Is the item part of a set or series of which the library does not have a complete run? Usage: Has the item been checked out frequently or recently? Relevancy: Is the item relevant to the needs and interests of the college community. The college by have discontinue a program or course and now demand for the subject has declined. The following sections, roughly broken down by LC Classification range, give general guidelines for that subject area. 3.2 A. General Works. Encyclopedias, almanacs, etc. Encyclopedias are purchased on a staggered schedule, i.e., two titles are not bought in the same year. They are replaced every 5 years. Almanacs and such items that are timely, are kept for only one year. 3.3. B-BJ. Philosophy-Psychology. Collection should reflect current trends and interests. Should include popular topics in psychology. Some items wil reflect an historical perspective, but should be evaluated on level of usage. 3.4. C, D, E, F, G. History, Geography, Anthropology. Books on history generally enjoy a longer shelf life than most of the collection. The main factors include demand, accuracy of facts, and fairness of interpretation. Consider the completeness of the coverage. Beware of titles such as American History, 1775 to the Present Day with a publication date of 1980. This would be very misleading for students. Books about countries or specific ethnic groups that present current coverage and not historical, should be kept for only 5 years. 3.5 HA-HJ. Business/Economics. Unless having historical coverage most titles have only a shelf life of 5 years. Computer application books should be reviewed on an annual basis to remain current with latest versions of software. 3.6 HM-HX. Sociology. 3.7. J. Political Science.
3.8. K. Law. Should be reviewed every year. EVC Library is on standing order for many Nolo Press titles. Old editions are automatically pulled as the new editions are added. Newer editions are not always specified as a new edition so the publication date is used to verify. 3.9. M-N. Music, Art. Generally have a long shelf life. Do weed items that deal with art/craft techniques that are no longer in vogue. Weed popular music titles that have become dated. 3.10. P. Language. Literature. Keep basic materials, especially criticism of classic writers. Discard works of writers no longer popular or in demand. You may have a favorite author, but nothing by that author has shown any circulation for 15 years discard the book. Discard language books including dictionaries and grammars that are dated, language does change. 3.11. Q. Science. Mathematics. Generally have a shelf life of ten years, but some area may be dated much sooner as new research supersedes earlier information, e.g. bioterrorism, biochemistry, global warming. Basic works such as Darwin s Origin of Species should be kept indefinitely. 3.12. R. Medicine. Unless having historical coverage should only be kept 5 years. The Nursing Department requires that books only by kept 5 years because of the demand of their accrediting organizations. 3.13. S. Agriculture. Unless having historical coverage, five years. 3.14. T. Technology. 3.15. U,V Military Science. Naval Science. 3.16. Bibliography. Library Science. Information Resources. 3.17. Ebook Collection. The same criteria is used to weed the ebook collection as is used for the regular print collection. 3.18. Paperback Collection. This segment of the collection has been developed to support reading lists for English and Reading classes. The collection should be reviewed at least every 2 years for condition and usage. Titles with high circulation should be duplicated to provide enough copies for demand. We should not, however, be expected to provide copies for an entire class is the book is required reading. 4. FREEQUENCY OF WEEDING 5. WEEDING PROCESS The weeding of any part of the collection will be primarily overseen by the library faculty Discipline faculty will be actively encouraged to participate in and assist with the process Discipline faculty will be contacted to assist with items that are in their areas of teaching expertise A faculty reviewer will be informed by a librarian how to indicate whether an item should be weeded
If a faculty member cannot be found or is not available to assist in the weeding process for a particular discipline, final decisions for deselection will be made by library faculty Library faculty should begin the process by identifying a section of the collection to review and create a list of the identified materials in Millennium in order to capture the circulation statistics; once an item is withdrawn, the statistical data is lost. This list should then be sorted by number of check-outs to determine usage patterns within that segment of the collection
Capturing Circulation Statistics of Target Area Once an item is deleted its circulation statistics is lost, so one of the first steps in the weeding process should be to create a list of titles in the targeted area which can then be sorted by the number of check-outs. Items with high check-out should be replaced with more current titles. 1. In Millennium open Create Lists 2. Select an empty file that is large enough to contain the number of titles in the target area. 3. Select Search Records. The present screen will be replaced with a Search Screen
4. As an example we will use section QP : of the General Collection 5. Name the file Review File Name: QP egen 080921 (i.e., the range, the location, the date) 6. Store Record Type: Bibliographic 7. Line 1 = Type: item Field: egen Condition: equal to Value A: egen 8. Line 2=Type: bibliographic Field: Call # Condition: between Value A qp 1 (4 spaces between qp and 1 ) Value B: qp99999 9. Select Search to perform the search.
10. Once the search is complete select Sort Records The current screen will be replaced by the Sort Screen 11. Select type: I (for item); field : total checkout 12. Select Sort/Save. The list is now sorted from low to high check out
IDENTIFYING ITEMS TO BE WEEDED There are multiple ways to identify items to be weeded: Working in the stacks and examining each item on the shelf Working from a truck of books pulled from the stacks Working with a list created from the database Working online in the database Working online in the database will be outlined here. Identifying materials by working online in the database 1. In the Cataloging function of Millennium conduct a Call Number Search for the targeted area, for example QP
The results will look like this: 2. Select Limit 3. Limit for desired results. In this example EVC Library and items published before 2003 (items older than 5 years).
From the resulting list you can scroll down to see each individual title with brief bibliographic information. You can select an item to see the full description.
And, in this case, select the individual item again to view the item information Note that this book has a 1975 copyright; was added to the database when we went online in 1994; and since then has had 0 checkouts. 6. If you choose to weed this book, print out a copy of the item record and place it in the To Be Pulled box for the Technician in Technical Services. It is important to print out the record with the item displayed. This will print the complete bibliographic record, plus the item record. This will enable the Technician to have the OCLC number to delete OCLC holdings if it is decided to go ahead and delete the book. 7. The Technician will pull the selected books and place the print outs in each book. 8. As you review the selected books which have been pulled by the Technician pay attention to the number of checkouts for the popular items. You can also refer to the list you created before you began the weeding process. This review is a double check before the item is actually deleted from the system. Some titles seem good candidates for weeding at the time, but as you actually handle the book itself, you may decide to keep it. 9. Once the items have been reviewed, alert the Technician that they can now be deleted. Keep the printout in the book for the Technician. The book will be deleted from the Library database, the statistics tallied for reporting purposes, and the holdings deleted from OCLC.