weeding

Barbara Burkett August 13, 2010 6:38

I have a problem with weeding books in Bible section or even Family Relationships that have not been checked out in the last few years. It seems a waste of money to replace it just because someone else is writing a new book on the subject and it's a shiny new book. And yet I hear people say that they have bought new books by new authors on these same subjects.

I'm from Alamo Heights Baptist Church in Port Lavaca, TX. We have just moved to a new building and have a new room but not much more shelf space than where we came from. So we HAVE to do some serious weeding.

Nicole Greene August 12, 2010 23:25

Thank you all for your help! Sounds like we are on the right track on what we are deciding to keep and what is going. We have decided to do a book sale with the items being taken out of circulation and all the proceeds go back to more inventory for the library. We don't plan to make much but it is worth a try! Ann, I am also in Washington state! Bellingham, actually.

Deanna King August 12, 2010 20:48

We have been weeding our Adult Nonfiction books this year. The last time we weeded this section my former co-leader who was very familiar with our collection and had read or skimmed most of the books did it. Now she has moved away and it is up to me and my assistant librarian! I have an intermediate familiarity with evangelical authors/titles, but there is a lot I have not personally read.

This is what we have done - We take a section at a time, say 300-400 books.
1) We print out a usage list for that section, showing how many checkouts have been done for each. We highlight the items very lightly used or not used at all in the last several years.
2) I go through the books that have not been used at all or very lightly used, one at a time and think:
- would I highly recommend it, or has someone I highly respect highly recommended it (authors on the back of the book, one of our pastors, etc)? Old ones can be classics, so you need to have a sense of what those are.
3) If yes, then we keep it.
4) If no, I look over the table of contents, etc. and also compare it with what else we have on that topic. If we have lots of books on that subject, then it will probably be discarded and given away to our congregation or another ministry.
5) If I really am not sure, I mark the list with a 'P' and then later, pull all of those marked items together for one of our pastors to help me decide.

My philosophy has been, if it hasn't been used in the past 3-5 years, unless it is excellent, we will not keep it. If it is just 'pretty good', that's not good enough because we need room for new books and media.

If I wasn't running out of room, then I wouldn't be so strict, but we've hardly had space to shelve returned NF books lately!

Our other goal is to promote our NF books more than we have in the past, because if they are checked out, then they are freeing up shelf space! Often our kids' DVDs (our most popular section) has 50% or more of the collection checked out, so we don't run out of space in that section.

I'm looking forward to learning from others about how they do this!

Maxine Johnson Bersch Lovern August 12, 2010 14:12

About the weeding--be sure to take a class taught by an experienced church librarian at one of our regional conferences--this is the best preparation for this. Watch the events for ones that are close enough for you to attend. This is worth the church money to send you, so be sure and put "training" in your budget. In case anyone on the finance committee questions you, be sure you are ready to speak a good word for Jesus Christ in saying, "I need training because I want to do the best I can, where I am, with what I have, for Jesus' sake!" Your pastor will stand behind you on this and your minister of education--Now, in the meantime, while you are trying to rid your shelves of books that will not be useful for your congregation, there is one area that I must warn you about. That is "Missionary Biography." All of those are collector's items. We never get rid of those. And we try to keep Bible commentaries, even the little study course ones! They are usually authored by some highly qualified person, and even though the reading is simple and concise, the information is going to be useful, and especially to Sunday School teachers who need to deepen their background knowledge for a unit of study they are about. In the area of Christian Life, you will find much latitude and there are new books coming out all the time, so watch the copyright date and watch the check out record. Hope this offers a little help. Maxine

Laura Dallas August 12, 2010 13:26

An important lesson I learned in library school is that a library's collection should reflect what the needs of its users. If a book has not been borrowed in five years, there is probably not a need for it in your congregation, but you could fill that space with something more relevant. Just a helpful philosophy to keep in mind as you are weeding. Your patrons will be more interested in browsing your shelves and have an easier time finding what they want if most of what they see is current, relevant, and in good condition.

This reply was deleted.

Sandra Fitts August 7, 2010 16:18

Hi Nicole and Ann and other folks interested in the subject of weeding!
First of all, many of us want to avoid the subject and especially the activity! But, I can guide you to some help and it's not very far away. Go to the website www.lifeway.com/churchlibrary , find the quick links column on the right hand side of the page and choose "Subject Index of Online Resources for Church Library ." This link will take you to archived articles on many subjects related to church library management. Articles are divided into topics relating to the four ministry areas: administration, collection development, classification & cataloging and promotion. Look at the following articles, some are under administration and some under collection development.
•Policies for Your Library — Developing and Revising
•The Selection and Gift Policy: A Reflection of the Church
•Weeding — Selective Reduction for Your Library
•Weeding: A Church Library Team Training Suggestion
As you might guess, developing the policies for selection and 'deselection' are important first steps in the weeding process. Help on developing policies is also available in the resource from LifeWay: Church Library Ministry Information Service.
I hope this helps! Good luck to you!
- Nicole Greene > Sandra Fitts August 7, 2010 22:09
  
  Huge help Sandra! Thank you so much. I will check that out.
  
  Blessings

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weeding

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