Kentucky Christian University's Young Library Policies

Young Library's Collection Development Weeding Policy

1. Introduction

“Next to emptying the outdoor book drop on cold and snowy days, weeding is the most undesirable job in the library.  It is also one of the most important.  Collections that go unweeded tend to be cluttered, unattractive, and unreliable informational resources.”

--Will Manley, “The Manley Arts,” Booklist, March 1, 1996, p. 1108

The mission of Young Library is to support the curriculum of the university, to help users gain access to information in a variety of forms, to assess the information needs of its users, and to encourage the development of information literacy in support of life-long learning goals.  Weeding the collection is critical in meeting the expectations of that mission statement and continuously striving to meet the needs of our students and the campus community.  Weeding should be seen as a tool, providing constant feedback on the strengths and weaknesses of the collection.

It is the function of the staff to select and discard materials.  What to keep is determined by guidelines that have been developed by professional organizations as well as statistical data on Young Library’s specific collection.

Weeding at Young Library is a continuous process.  It is used to enhance the collection development process and not as a deselection tool for controversial materials.

2. Items That Should Be Weeded

• Duplicates - except in instances where duplicates may be desirable such as heavily studied authors and texts and where it assists with affordable learning objectives.
• Superseded editions of which we have the latest edition
• Outdated materials
  • Badly damaged items (be sure to check on replacing them)
  • Incomplete series or series that we no longer maintain a subscription to
  • Materials which no longer support the curriculum (except classics or those that may come back up)
  • Textbooks (check edition)
  • Atlases older than 10 years (exception being one of historical value)
  • Technology and Applied Science older than 5 years
  • Travel books older than 10 years
  • Psychology older than 10 years (not including Biography, History of Psychology, and Psychological Theory)
  • Study prep guides (GRE, MCAT, etc) older than 5 years
  • Computer Science older than 5 years
  • Health, Medicine, Nutrition and Drugs older than 5 years
  • Business older than 5 years

3. Items That Should Not Be Weeded

• Restoration history items (if the item is severely worn, consider rebinding or replacing)
• Local authors
• Items that are considered a classic as according to standard bibliographical works like Books for College Libraries
• Primary sources or monographs published before 1750
• Items considered to be authoritative in its subject area
• Items that reflect the mores or scruples of a period or provides a comparative analyses of a specific time period
• Last copies in Library Consortia for Kentucky and the Appalachian College Association in usable condition.
• Items important to diversity.  Care should be taken that the deselection process does not create a deficiency of works by or about historically oppressed, underrepresented, and underserved groups.
• Titles or authors who have been award winners

4. Disciplines

Religion/Philosophy

The Library will retain systems of religion, and other standard works which are considered to support the curriculum.  Superseded materials should be replaced.  However, much discretion should be used in weeding. Bible & Ministry personnel as well as their course syllabi should be consulted.

Social Sciences, Psychology, Social Work, Anthropology, & Sociology

Items in these disciplines require frequent weeding as much of the material deals with problems of contemporary concern and therefore become outdated in 5-10 years.  Older works can usually be replaced by an item that provides historical coverage of those topics.

Applied Sciences (including Nursing and Biology)

Obsolete and dated books should be deselected.  Five to ten years will often date many works in the fields of medicine, technology, and media. Materials older than 5 years that are considered classics or basic information will be labeled with “Historical” stickers.

Art and Music

Items that are physically damaged or worn should be replaced, rebound, or deselected.

Literature and Language(s)

Literary history and collected works should be retained unless the item has been superseded and the Library acquires the newer edition.  Extremely worn or physically damaged works should be repaired or replaced as deemed appropriate.  Dictionaries, grammars, word books for the Biblical languages or languages deemed important to the curriculum should be considered for repair/replacement as needed.

History, Anthropology, Geography

Outdated or works no longer considered authoritative in their field should be removed unless representative of a particular view or standpoint historically discussed.

Reference

Monographs in the reference collection should be evaluated on a regular basis as they are the essential, non-circulating core supporting the entire collection.

Business

Unless having historical coverage most titles have only a shelf life of 5 years.  Computer application books should be reviewed to remain current with the latest versions of software.

5. Evaluation of Items Pending Deselection

To begin the evaluation process:

• Identify a section to weed
• Conduct a Diversity Audit on that section
• Run a circulation statistics report that includes publication date
• Evaluate for potential items to be withdrawn

Initial evaluation should include the following:

• Scholarly Reputation of the Author
• Circulation Statistics (Look at statistics for the last ten years.  How often has the item circulated?)
• Physical Condition of the Item
• Publisher Information (Scholarly, popular, or local)
• Relevance to the Curriculum and Mission

Evaluation Cycle

• Course Syllabus Bibliography
• Essay and General Literature Index
• Recommended Library Standard Bibliographies
• If the item is being deselected because of its physical condition, can the item be repaired?
• Is there a newer edition available?
• Assessment of Market Value

What to do With an Item Once it is Completely Withdrawn

• Make the item available to the faculty
• Make available to the consortium
• Check for option to recycle through Empty Shelves
• Is it a potential sale item?
• Is it something that could benefit the local public library?

Discarding Withdrawn Items

Items should be discarded with great care and considerable discretion.  Personal names of donors and the like should be marked through with a Sharpie, especially items that are being made available to other parties (faculty, public library, etc.).  Books should be stamped as “Discarded” in the front and back cover of the book and a line should be drawn through the barcode with a Sharpie.

Once items have gone through the process, they should be boxed and taped shut before being placed in the dumpster.

Bibliography

Association of College and Research Libraries Literatures in English Section. (2016). Guidelines for Deselecting Literatures in English Collections in Academic Libraries. ACRL. http://literaturesinenglish.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/104794900/GuidelinesforDeselectingLESCollectionsinAcademicLibraries-final.pdf

Burger, A. (2016). Libguides: Library policies and procedures: weeding policy [Educational]. Dalton State; Dalton State College. https://libguides.daltonstate.edu/c.php?g=24645&p=5756311

Cascio, K. (2011, March). Culling Your Collection: The Fine Art of Weeding [Power Point]. ALCTS. http://downloads.alcts.ala.org/ce/0323_11_fine_art_of_weeding_slides.pdf

Chant, I. (n.d.). The art of weeding | collection management. Library Journal. Retrieved February 14, 2022, from https://www.libraryjournal.com/story/the-art-of-weeding-collection-management

Davis, J. (2022, January 20). Libguides: Welcome to the limestone university library: library’s weeding policy [Educational]. Limestone University; Limestone University. https://libguides.limestone.edu/c.php?g=544879&p=5704313

Doll, C. A., & Barron, P. P. (2002). Managing and analyzing your collection: A practical guide for small libraries and school media centers. American Library Association. https://www.ala.org/aboutala/sites/ala.org.aboutala/files/content/publishing/editions/samplers/doll_mayc.pdf

Evergreen Valley College. (n.d.). Weeding the collection. Evergreen Valley College. Retrieved February 13, 2022, from https://www.evc.edu/AcademicAffairs/Documents/2B.2.6_Weeding_Guidelines.pdf

Green, D. (2012, June 7). Opal: Weeding: guidelines [Education]. Ohio Private Academic Libraries; OPAL Weeding Guidelines. https://opal-libraries.org/c.php?g=528173&p=3611584

Greenberg, K. (2021, February 22). Managing library shelf space—Knowledge quest [Education]. Knowledge Quest. https://knowledgequest.aasl.org/managing-library-shelf-space/

KPEKOLL. (2017, December 25). Collection maintenance and weeding [Text]. Tools, Publications & Resources. https://www.ala.org/tools/challengesupport/selectionpolicytoolkit/weeding

Kristick, L. (2020). Diversity literary awards: A tool for assessing an academic library’s collection. Collection Management, 45(2), 151–161. https://doi.org/10.1080/01462679.2019.1675209

Lee, C. R. (2019, June 3). To weed or not to weed... - Knowledge quest [Educational]. Knowledge Quest. https://knowledgequest.aasl.org/to-weed-or-not-to-weed-2/

Little, H. B. (2019, April 2). Weeding without Controversy: Part two - The How using research and analysis to make appropriate decisions for school library collections. Knowledge Quest. https://knowledgequest.aasl.org/weeding-without-controversy-part-two-the-process/

NoveList. (2020). NoveList Core Collections Weeding Checklist for Libraries. EBSCO Information Services. https://www.ebsco.com/sites/g/files/nabnos191/files/acquiadam-assets/NoveList-Weeding-Checklist-for-Libraries-Handout.pdf

Rendina, D. (2017, September 25). How to weed by the numbers and clean up your collection—Knowledge quest [Education]. Knowledge Quest. https://knowledgequest.aasl.org/weed-numbers-clean-collection/

Stony Brook University Libraries. (2016). Deselection and Curation. Stony Brook University Libraries. https://library.stonybrook.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/CopyWeedingDeselection.pdf

Upper Hudson Library System. (2011). Libraries & Weeding The Facts . https://www.uhls.org/Workshop_Handouts/Throw_the_Bums_Out/Weeding_Facts_Directors_Version.pdf

Vnuk, R. (2016, May 2). Weeding without Worry [Educational]. American Libraries Magazine; American Libraries. https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2016/05/02/library-weeding-without-worry/

Update pproved by Library Faculty Committee - 2.17.2022