Withdrawing books from the collection

[Janet Estridge]

Our church library uses Concourse. We need to make room for more books. If a book is not lost but needs to be "weeded" how do we withdraw it from our collection.

Thank you for helping me with this problem.

Janet Estridge.

[Martha Jo Dendinger]

How did you set up the location code "removed" in Concourse?

Thanks so much.

 

Martha

[Deanna King]

You set it up through Administration - You can create new locations any time with any name you choose.

[Deanna King]

We have a "Discarded" location - when we decide to weed out an item, we change the location to Discarded AND also insert a comment: "Weeded out on x/x/xx due to low usage" or "... per Pastor X recommendation" or whatever.
Then, every 2 or 3 months, we export the Discarded items into Excel (Our master Discard List) so that we have a permanent list we can refer to, BEFORE deleting all of them in Concourse.
I got this idea from Eva Nell Hunter. In our early days we just deleted them, but I like knowing that if a question comes up on an item, I can search for it in the Excel list and find out when we got rid of it and why.

[Janet Estridge]

Dear Deanna,
Thanks for your suggestion. We are taking a break at Thanksgiving so will put all of this in use when we are back in the library again.
Janet Estridge.

[Melissa Snell]

Here's a different idea - I don't know if anyone else uses it, but this is what we do. When I withdraw a book, I delete all of its information such as call number, source, publisher, etc.. Then I change the title to "blank". This keeps the number in the system and allows the numbers to be used again. From time to time I run a report listing all books whose title includes the word "blank" and use these numbers when adding new books. This way my numbers will never get too high. I didn't come up with this, I "inherited" it, so I don't know if running up very high numbers is an issue or not, but we do have high turnover and it works for us.

[Sandra Fitts]

This is a unique solution, but it does have problems associated with it -- especially if you are using Concourse! Please call Book Systems (Concourse) to check me on this, but according to what I understood from a trainer from Book Systems, deleting the information from the record does not eliminate the history of that record.

In other words, the history of the circulation for the item number 1 will always follow that item number even if you change the information in the record. So you will be adding to the history of the original item, rather than creating a history for a new record. (If Jane Doe wants a list of the things she has checked out, she may be on the list for the second item even if she never checked it out -- because she checked out item # 1!) Yes, it is confusing, but that's what was explained in a conference.

I don't think high numbers in your accession records will ever be a problem.

[Janet Estridge]

Thank you Melissa for helping me with this problem. It is hard to know what to do and I appreciate everyone's input so very much. Happy Thanksgiving to You and Yours.
Janet Estridge.

[Maxine Johnson Bersch Lovern]

I just add this little bit. We used Concourse and one of their great features is their support system. You can telephone them from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m and get a live person to answer questions, since you say you find it confusing sometimes; when we first started, I was calling them a lot. 888-289-1216 or email: [e-mail]

[Janet Estridge]

Thank You Miss Maxine !
I appreciate you taking the time to help me with this. I pray your Sunday will be a good one and hope you and yours will have a very Happy Thanksgiving.
Janet Estridge.

[Cheryl Purvis Swain]

Weeding a book in Concourse:
1. Remove book from shelf
2. Remove from Concourse by : a) click on cataloging, then "Add, Edit Item" b) enter the item id (barcode, accession number - all the same thing) of the book you wish to delete, c) click on the trashcan (4th icon from the right) and it will ask you if you are sure - once you click "yes" this is an IRREVERSIBLE action, the record is gone and that number cannot be reused
3. Remove paper records, if any:
a) if you keep a printed copy of your Accession Book, cross out the book you just deleted, b) if you are still using a paper card catalog, pull all related cards (author, title, subject, series) - info at the bottom of the card will tell you which cards were printed for the item,c) use a Sharpie to mark out your library name on title page and wherever else it appearsd d) give the book to another library or trash it, as appropriate.