Weeding and collection policy for 242 devotional literature question

[Martha Jo Dendinger]

Good morning everyone,

I'm attempting to weed our 242 section, primarily devotional books in the calendar format.  How does everyone handle this section?  With all the ones published each year, do you carry them in your library?  How do you weed?

Thanks so much for any advice.

Blessings,

Martha

[Barbara Hooper]

I put all the annual Devotionals on a book cart and advertised them as check out for a year ending the end of next year.  I do not purchase them.

[Dee Ann Hoff]

I try to only have a few of the calendar type devotionals as they would need to be checked out for a year to be useful.  Plus publishers put out new ones every year. Some on particular subject areas are useful for readers. We have a used book sale once a year and put them there or donate them to local charity organizations.

[Martha Jo Dendinger]

Good day everyone,

I just wanted to circle back to this topic and share about a new use that I stumbled upon for calendar devotionals.  Do you ever have that patron who just can't seem to describe what it is they are searching for?  Asking them to read a general devotional, such as Neil Anderson's  One Day at a Time: The Devotional for Overcomers is a great diagnostic method to help pinpoint that need.

[Debbie Watson]

I've cataloged a few but for the most part I put them out as "free" on the table outside the library. I don't purchase them, they are usually donated.

[Edie Asbury]

I was asked to supply some devotional and prayer books in our church's prayer room, so I moved some of our collection there, freeing up some shelf space in the library. Most devotional books are marked for one-year loan.

[Linda S]

Interesting --- I weeded out so many devotionals with writing in them & try to avoid journaling type devotionals. Although, right now I have 3 which I hope to someday weed out. (Pastor's wife ordered used...... so maybe I'll replace those soon.)

Also, I just reset our loan policies for Bible & Devotionals to loan out for 6 month with renewal expected. We hope items are returned in this area, but if not....may God bless the borrower.

Neat idea on the devotional swap!

This is one area that I've been pleasantly surprised in the interest, and so am working on acquiring non-journaling, and non-dated devotionals. Previously, about 1/2 of our devotionals were with writing and getting quite old. We also have specific interest devotionals as to targeting specific group of people such as teachers & families & women & men & couples. While I plan to get some devotionals for those groups, I hope to primarily focus on quality general devotionals. Monthly devotionals seem to be of more use to most people at our small church.

Blessings, Linda

[Pam Grady]

We also had little traffic with the year-long devotionals, so they have been weeded. We have better success with the 31-day devotionals which align better with our 4-week check out policy.

[Debbie Dehart]

We have devotionals that aren't specifically to use for a year but we've gotten rid of most of the all-year ones.  We might keep some real classics as a resource for people to use for a while to see if they like it enough to buy it, but they don't tend to get a lot of traffic.

A few times a year we put out all our discards and donations we don't need and "sell" them by donation.

[Sherall Cornwell]

I know I may be a little late on this, but, we are giving away devotionals starting this Sunday for the new year to anyone who wants them. This is something that Mrs. Kathy has done for awhile and seems to work.

Sherall

[Susan M. Albon]

We have a few classics in our devotional collection, but rarely add anything new because they are almost never checked out by our patrons.  For me, sticking with the classics makes it easy to cull the remainder.