When people hear that a library is weeding its collection, many images spring to mind that are a tad bit unsettling, such as piles of books being thrown in dumpsters. The disposal of books is never an easy thing to process for patrons or librarians. Book lovers do not wish to see the end of a life span for books and other materials but occasionally it is necessary.
Weeding is not something librarians enjoy doing but we try very hard to find good homes for the books and other materials as we weed and the majority of the books do not get thrown away. There are exceptions. If a book is riddled with mold and bugs, it generally gets tossed for the protection of patrons and librarians. It is not a pleasant experience to have a spider crawl up the spine of a book and onto your person, ending with a small shriek of surprise and the entire library looking at you while you try to shake the beast off. Now, in olden days, you could do this and not have it posted on YouTube for millions to laugh at. If someone did film my moment of embarrassment, I pray it did not make it on the Internet. There are many purposes for weeding including to make sure your collection is up to date, in good condition, and to make sure there is a good representation of all areas. It is a good way to do inventory and find hidden gems that have been forgotten or pushed behind the shelves. Also, it can provide new ideas for promotions with what materials are available. Being a historian, I love old books but I do recognize that new scholarship is essential to expanding the field. Recently, I finished a small feat of weeding the 900's in the Dewey Decimal system for an academic library, approximately 6,500 books to sift through and figure out what was needed and what needed to be removed. The majority of my experience was removing duplicates -- it is no one's fault, just sometimes you get donations on top of what you've purchased or newer editions come out and added as the new record doesn't look like the old. I could go on. It was kind of fun, I got to explore through different areas of history that I previously did not study such as Asian history and found it quite fascinating! Weeding is necessary as sometimes to make room for the new, you have to say good bye to the old. I would highly recommend The Weeding Handbook by Rebecca Vnut for guidelines and some helpful tips. A big suggestion is to make weeding an on going process. I was weeding for months to get through my section and I did not get as much time with each book as I wanted because of a deadline. By keeping it an ongoing project, librarians can dedicate time to each and every book and research the material's full worth. It also makes the task less daunting and the small things such as repair, corrections, and double checking information are easier to manage a few at a time rather than a pile the size of a mountain. Remember to have fun!
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AuthorA public and academic librarian shares her views, thoughts, and tales of being a budding librarian in the 21st century Archives
November 2017
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