Why Weeding Matters

 

Yes, yes, I love books, but I also really love weeding. I like to think that books have a life cycle, some longer than others, and that's okay. Our library is not an archive, and especially for youth things, the trends swing so quickly that it's important to make sure our collection is relevant.

WHY? Weeding lets me make more space for not only new items, but also for displays. My goal for most shelves is to have an item on display on each shelf. If possible, I also like to have a few completely empty shelves for full shelf displays, especially handy for graphic novels and chapter books. 

HOW? When I'm weeding a section I generally go through 2 times: first with a circulation report and again for condition. I prefer to use a patron count for circulation, rather than a checkout circ (which can include renewals) because it gives me a better picture of how many different people checked out an item.

For the circ report, I'm looking for things that have significantly lower circ for the last 2 years. For example, if the average early readers circulation is 12 check outs for 2 years, I'll look at anything with 0-2 circs for that same time. I also use a full shelf list to notice if I have multiple copies of something that could be reduced to a single copy.

Then it might seem meticulous, but I go through each book flipping through for condition: multiple torn pages, loose/cracked bindings, water damage, and smears/coloring. I can note things for reorder, but usually I have plenty of new choices and don't worry about replacing each item.

WHEN? I tend to do my biggest weeds at the times the shelves are the fullest - back to school and winter holidays (at least these are the two most noticeably full times for my library). My goal is to do a thorough weed of each collection at least once a year, but for some high traffic collecctions I go through more regularly for collection. 

TIP! To help with everyday, I added a tub under the desk labeled YUCKY. When I find books as I'm putting together displays or working on a request that are ready to go, I just drop them in the tub. It helps to quickly deal with things that don't need to stay on the shelf. I can review later for reorders. 

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