I received an email from a minister of education in GA who is working with his team to move their library to a new location. They are using this move to do some weeding. What would you recommend to him about determining what to remove from the collection?
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Self-help books over 7 years. Books with out-dated clothing and wording we don't use any longer. Yellowed and or brittle pages, any media that is unattractive or dirty. Any items that are torn or loose bindings....just to name a few. If you can tell the check-out history, I'd remove those books that are not being used. I would not remove my commentaries and other theology books as they have a way of cycling by different study times.
Could be very tedious depending on how large they are. When we weed our collection, we mostly look for items with damage beyond repair, things we feel are grossly outdated, and multiple copies (unless it's a high demand item). Depending on their policies about offering differing views in the collection, they might also look for things that contradict their doctrine. If they are automated, it's also a good idea to run a report on circulation and check those items that never make it off the shelf. I'm not saying to automatically discard all those with low circulation numbers, but it can help in making a decision when you can see how infrequently those are used, especially if there are other items you want to acquire or space is an issue.
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Self-help books over 7 years. Books with out-dated clothing and wording we don't use any longer. Yellowed and or brittle pages, any media that is unattractive or dirty. Any items that are torn or loose bindings....just to name a few. If you can tell the check-out history, I'd remove those books that are not being used. I would not remove my commentaries and other theology books as they have a way of cycling by different study times.
Rita Kirkland