How to Feed and Weed Your Collection | Weeding Guidelines

Things We've Dug Up While Weeding | Reader Comments

Why Weed Diseases?

Your students will turn to your materials on diseases for more than completing school assignments and reports. Home and personal circumstances will often prompt a student to seek information from your collection on diseases. But, improvements in technology and treatments have drastically changed the prognosis and the way people cope with all diseases over the years. Dietary guidelines have been modified for diseases such as diabetes. Cancer treatment and research now includes gene therapy and tests that were not available just a few years ago. More hepatitis viruses have been identified now. And do you have materials that cover tuberculosis as a conquered disease? It is now antibiotic resistant and a growing threat in our country again.

Suggested Dewey Numbers to Check:

Most of your materials on diseases will be in the 616 range. Check the 362.1 area for titles on living with a physical illness. Remembering that young people learn many facts from fiction, check your fiction titles where characters' illnesses are central to the theme. Remember to check vertical files, non-print materials, and the reference section.

Specific Criteria for Weeding:

The most obvious example of criteria for weeding this area is the topic of sexually transmitted diseases. If you have materials printed prior to the 1980s, AIDS will not even be mentioned! Even materials printed in the late 80s will have outdated and misleading information on this disease. In the treatment of most diseases, amazing progress has been made in the past five years. Anything older than 10 years is certainly suspect, and anything older than that probably should be removed from your collection.

Consider Weeding Titles Like These:

• The ABCs of diabetes, c1979. LCCN 79004277
• Addiction, cults and disease : the final solution, c1980.
• A.I.D.S. : everything you must know about Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, the killer epidemic of the 80's, c1983. LCCN 83062309
• The AIDS fact book, 1983.
• The AIDS file : what we need to know about AIDS now!, c1987. LCCN 87070217
• All about lice [filmstrip], 1976.
• The allergic child, [1954]. LCCN 53008891
• Arthritis : everybody's disease, 1978. LCCN 78111157
• Arthritis and you, c1947.
• At highest risk : environmental hazards to young and unborn children, c1980. LCCN 79020053
• Basic nutrition in health and disease; including selection and care of food, 1971. LCCN 70139427
• The battle against bacteria, a fresh look : a history of man's fight against bacterial disease with special reference to the development of antibacterial drugs, 1976. LCCN 76000639
• Borrowing time : growing up with juvenile diabetes, 1979. LCCN 79007083
• Cancer : a new breakthrough, [1972]. LCCN 72081848
• Cancer : the silent stigma [filmstrip], 1978.
• Cancer and allied diseases of infancy and childhood, 1960. LCCN 59010626
• Cardiac emergency care, 1975. LCCN 74026878
• Child abuse and neglect [filmstrip], 1975.
• Childhood diabetes : the facts, 1982. LCCN 82008122
• Childhood illness : a common sense approach, [1972]. LCCN 71186817
• Choices : realistic alternatives in cancer treatment, c1980. LCCN 79055572
• Chronic illness in children : its impact on child and family, 1976. LCCN 75000185
• Cold comfort : colds and flu, everybody's guide to self treatment, c1979. LCCN 78011240
• Common neuroses of children and adults, [c1937]. LCCN 37020881
• Common symptoms of disease in children, 1979.
• Communicable and infectious diseases : diagnosis, prevention, treatment, 1964. LCCN 64010929
• The complete guide to eye care, eyeglasses and contact lenses, c1977. LCCN 77008753.
• The control of tuberculosis in the United States, 1940.
• The conquest of tuberculosis, 1964. LCCN 64021065
• Coping with venereal disease, 1980. LCCN 80011353
• Coronary : prediction and prevention, c1978. LCCN 78013099
• Coronary artery bypass surgery, c1980. LCCN 80017937
• Critical areas of health [filmstrip], c1966.
• Current respiratory care, 1977. LCCN 76042687
• Diabetes : a new look at an old problem, c1976. LCCN 75006346
• Diabetes : a practical new guide to healthy living, 1981. LCCN 81066801
• Diabetes as a way of life, [1970]. LCCN 75113167
• Diabetes explained, 1975.
• The diabetic at work and play : a modern manual for diabetics with the latest information on oral drugs, diabetic camps, research, and many other topics, [1971]. LCCN 70149204
• Diabetic menus, meals and recipes, 1959. LCCN 59016028
• Disease detectives : your career in medical research, [1959]. LCCN 59012765
• Diseases from space, 1979. LCCN 80463252
• Diseases of the kidney, [1971]. LCCN 70146340
• Dr. Neumans's guide to the new sexually transmitted diseases, 1983. LCCN 83002738
• The encyclopedia of common diseases, [1962]. LCCN 62004357
• Facts about syphilis and gonorrhea, 1966.
• Facts about VD for today's youth, [1973]. LCCN 72012089
• For people who make love : a doctor's guide to sexual health, 1975, c1974. LCCN 75315856
• The frequency of rheumatic diseases, 1971. LCCN 72158427
• The genetic connection : how to protect your family against hereditary disease, 1979. LCCN 77010820
• A guide to skin care for the teen-ager, 1961. LCCN 61014859
• Guidelines for stroke care, 1976. LCCN 77602022
• Handbook of infectious disease management, c1979. LCCN 79011377
• Health and disease, [1965]. LCCN 65018287
• "Herpie" : the new VD around town [filmstrip], 1977.
• How to avoid social diseases : a practical handbook, 1973. LCCN 72096746
• How you get VD [filmstrip], 1974.
• Introduction to lung disease, 1975.
• Introduction to respiratory diseases, 1964.
• The invisible chain : diseases passed on by inheritance, 1972. LCCN 72080166
• Male trouble : a new focus on the prostate, 1976. LCCN 75014646
• Managing diabetics properly, c1977. LCCN 77073937
• Modern nutrition in health and diseases : dietotherapy, 1968. LCCN 68018869
• Modern woman's medical encyclopedia, 1966. LCCN 66024326
• New hope for incurable diseases, [1971]. LCCN 79176384
• The new way to live with diabetes, 1966. LCCN 66-12225
• Overcoming arthritis and other rheumatic diseases, c1976. LCCN 75013348
• Reducing the risk on noncommunicable diseases, [1970]. LCCN 72120074
• The straight story on VD : a doctor answers 201 questions of the most common questions about venereal diseases, c1973.
• The teenager and VD : a social symptom of our times, [1969]. LCCN 69013417
• Tuberculosis : a half century of study and conquest, [1970]. LCCN 75096989
• Understanding diabetes [filmstrip], 1977.
• VD : old bugs, new problems [motion picture], 1977.
• VD : twentieth century plague [filmstrip], 1975.
• Virus in the cell, 1957. LCCN 57011705