How to Feed and Weed Your Collection | Weeding Guidelines

Things We've Dug Up While Weeding | Reader Comments

What is collection development?

As you weed your collection, you will also want to purchase new, up-to-date, more relevant items. Collection development refers to an ongoing plan not only to weed, but to locate, select, acquire, organize, access or otherwise make available the resources your students and your teachers need.

The responsibility is yours. . .

You must accept the responsibility for maintaining your media collection. You are the professional responsible for selecting the best materials to add to your collection as well as for weeding. SUNLINK is just another of the many tools that are available for you to use in the process of collection development. SUNLINK is a union database of K-12 library media items, not a list of recommended titles. Use standard collection development criteria (accuracy, appeal, appropriateness, currency, relevance, format, need, curriculum, etc.) in making a final decision to add or delete an item to your collection.

While there are some unique needs for curriculum materials in every school, there are generally trends and issues which are of statewide or even national interest. By using SUNLINK, you can see what others in the state have purchased. If you have an occasional need for an item, you can borrow it through SUNLINK's interlibrary loan system. If you are a SUNLINK school and need to add materials to your collection, however, you can call, fax, or email the media specialist at the school listed in the holdings to get more details. And, if you are a SUNLINK school, you can also borrow the material to review it yourself or with your teachers.

How SUNLINK can help with weeding. . .

• If your media center is automated, print a list of all titles in the targeted subject area. Include dates of publication to assist in identifying out-of-date titles.
• If your media center is not automated, check the appropriate Dewey ranges in your card catalog.
• If you are a SUNLINK school, search SUNLINK (http://www.sunlink.ucf.edu/) by keywords in the "quick search" box, limiting the search to your school. Use the "pub date" boxes on the search screen to further limit your keyword search to a specific date range, such as titles published prior to 1980. (Do this by leaving the first date box empty and key in ë1980í in the second box.) Scan the resulting title listing to identify possible weeding targets.
• After evaluating the obvious weeding targets from your listing by comparing the title content with the publication dates (such as Modern leaders in Africa, published in 1978), review the subject area by visiting your shelving areas in the suggested Dewey ranges in Weed of the Month for that topic. Apply general and specific weeding criteria to all those titles on the shelves to find any that should be weeded.
• As a SUNLINK school, you can also use the SUNLINK "Age of Collection" (http://www.sunlink.ucf.edu/publications/appendix.html) feature to provide additional support for your weeding activities by comparing your overall collection age with others in your district or the state averages. Use this "Age of Collection" information along with the specific criteria on the Weed of the Month topics to counter any criticism from staff or administration as to why you are discarding books.
• Remember that the K-12 school library media collection is supposed to support the current curriculum, and is not an archival collection.

Look for items (print and non-print) that are not current and that include information that is out-of-date, inaccurate, or misleading. Any title that implies currency (Today, Modern, etc.) should be examined critically. This decision should be based on the content of the item, not the cost or good physical condition. Books with appropriate and accurate content but in bad physical condition should be repaired or weeded.

LM_Netters also have recommended the following sites for more information about weeding policies and procedures:

Weeding the Library Media Center Collections - State of Iowa Department of Education

The Importance of a Weeding Policy - Collection Development Training for Arizona Public Libraries

Guidelines for Weeding Library Materials - Alachua District, Florida