Weed of the Month was the SUNLINK project's answer to helping library media specialists with this responsibility. We must certainly recognize the contribution of the SUNLINK employees to the SUNLINK Weed of the Month.
PICTURE THIS
Does any of your stock market material show that it is always a sound investment? Most of your Civil War material looks like it was published at the time of the conflict.
WHAT IS WEEDING AND WHY SHOULD I DO IT?
Once you sweep thoroughly, you'll find that your shelves and your library media center look better. The collection will be more attractive to teachers and students, even though they may not even know why.
EXCUSES, EXCUSES (AND WHY THEY DON’T HOLD WATER)
Reasons to Weed
If an illustration of a computer takes more than one page due to the size of the machine. If the book was written before you were born, because actually nothing important happened before you.
POLICIES AND PROCEDURES
If you don't have a written weeding policy, perhaps advocate for one to be developed. This is best done at the district level, but if you need to develop your own, there are many good models on the internet to get you started.
TIME-TESTED MODELS
The CREW method was developed by Joseph Segal and further refined and updated by Belinda Boon in The CREW Method: Expanded Guidelines for Collection Evaluation and Weeding for Small and Medium-Sized Public Libraries. In the CREW method, there are two primary objective factors to consider: the age of the material and circulation or use.
GENERAL CRITERIA FOR WEEDING
Duplication. You may have duplicate copies of titles that were once popular but are no longer in demand. In addition to matching the curriculum, you'll want materials that match your users and their needs.
ITEMS NOT TO WEED
Due to pooled catalogs, small budgets, magnet schools, and a new attitude toward sharing resources, some school library media centers have formed cooperative groups in which each participating library media center specializes in one or more sections of the collection. If your library's media center participates in such an arrangement, the collection must still be screened for physical condition, accuracy, and relevance to the curriculum, but you must consider the needs of other schools.
HELPFUL HINTS
HOW TO START WEEDING
Not: It's just too hot in the library's media center to weed this week; I'll wait until it gets cooler. Instead: It's coolest in the library's media center in the morning, so I'm doing a little weeding every morning this week.
WHEN IS WEEDING COMPLETED?
Where you could look and who you could talk to to get an idea of the needs in this area and identify quality materials. With a schedule and a record of your progress, you'll always know where you've been and where you're going.
WORKING WITH TEACHERS AND OTHERS
Show them your collection development policy and the weeding section, assuring them that both are essential to the school library's media program mission. It's a great opportunity to help him or her understand your role as a professional and the importance of the library media program to the school's learning goals.
WEEDING TOPICS, CRITERIA, AND SUGGESTIONS
Depending on the "chaff in your wheat" - . the state of your collection and the length of time since the last weeding - you may want to be more conservative. For example, here are several baseball list titles with examples of where they got us thinking: ..the values we try to instill in our students?). You may also have titles that cover this topic in the 150s (psychology), the early 300s (social sciences), and into the 370s (education).
In the 700s, see the 740s (Painting and Decorative Arts) and the 796s (Athletic and outdoor sports and games). But you may find titles on this subject cataloged in other areas of the 300s or even the 900s. You may also have material in 306s (Culture and Institutions) on the substance abuse subculture and in 616s (Diseases) on medical aspects.
Transportation is a fairly easy subject to check as most of the titles are in the 380s (Trade, Communications, Transport) and 620s (Engineering and Allied Operations). Find holiday poetry in 811 (American poetry in English) and plays in 812 (American drama in English). Most titles on ecology will be found in the 570s, with newer titles in 577 (Ecology) and older titles in the now unassigned 574.
AIDS
S. Presidents
Weed out the outdated titles and replace them with some of the many new titles on the market today. Some of the titles may now have been exhausted by that initial demand and need to be replaced. Look in the 973.93s (United States 2001–) for titles on this subject classified by the period of the attacks.
These classic and award-winning titles are easy to weed out based on the condition of the title and the physical appeal of the format. Some titles (mainly classical works) can be shelved in the 8th century depending on the language of the work. In many K-12 library media collections, the short stories are placed in a separate location, sometimes labeled SC for "story collection". However, you may have some scattered in the 8th century (literature) according to the language of the collection.
The Other Side of Tomorrow: Original Science Fiction Stories About the Youth of the Future, 1973.
USING YOUR ONLINE CATALOG AND CIRCULATION SYSTEM IN WEEDING
They may be classics, have good photos or unusual illustrations, or contain local information that is not generally available. Your OPAC simply helps you identify titles you may want to take a closer look at. Another good trick to use your OPAC when weeding is to identify titles that may contain words that imply they are current, then research the date of publication or the copyright date.
Look for titles that contain these words: now, today, modern, contemporary, nowadays, recent, current, new, current, contemporary, predominant, or prevalent. Re-examine any materials that may be sending the wrong message or conveying inaccurate information.
COMMERCIAL COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT AND ANALYSIS SERVICES
This way you can see not only what you have and what can be thrown away, but what is available to replace your weed works.
FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS
Some services will print a list of your entire collection for you in Dewey order along with new titles recommended for purchase based on authoritative recommendation, popularity, or both. Information can be loaded into a DLA from the computer or via a small flash memory card. Information available for DLA may include copyright or publication date and circulation information.
Library automation companies are partnering with a wide variety of companies that provide technology solutions in other environments, and it is likely that the systems will continue to make school library media specialists more productive, giving you more time to work with teachers and students. Once you've identified the items to be removed from the collection, there are a few more things you need to do. One is to decide what to do with those materials you no longer want on the shelves.
You must also clear your records, remove the item from the shelf list (if you have one) and from the catalog.
WHAT TO DO WITH ITEMS YOU’VE REMOVED FROM THE SHELVES
If an item is important to the collection, current and used, but in poor physical condition, you may want to repair, clean, or even rebind it. However, you may want to see if another copy or newer edition is available and replace it. Give them away. If the information is correct and the item is in good condition, but it is not suitable for your students, donate it to another school where it will be used.
You may want to circulate a list of what's available and let others select what to use so your weed doesn't become someone else's problem. Depending on your school and district policies, you may be able to sell unwanted but useful materials to a used book. While you may not need to explain why those in poor physical shape were thrown out, you may need to justify those who withdrew for other reasons.
You don't want to look like you've been weeding to build your own personal collection.
UPDATING YOUR RECORDS
Never let your catalog—or your union catalog—get out of sync with the collection.
ADDING TO THE COLLECTION
The CREW Method: Expanded Guidelines for Collection Evaluation and Disposal for Small and Medium-sized Public Libraries. A step-by-step method for weeding using CREW (Continuous Review, Evaluation, and Weeding) and MUSTIE. Although the title focuses on poetry, the article suggests that you start weeding with poetry, provides a rationale for doing so, and provides a good overview of weeding in general.
DEWEY CLASSIFICATION
320s–330s Politics, 5 10 Be aware of outdated contacts; 321.8—Democracy Economics the economic field is rapidly changing 322—Terrorism. 520s Astronomy 5 10 Recent discoveries of planets and 520—Space and the Solar System should be reflected in astronomy in materials. Technology and topics should be current; diet 613.2—Nutritional medicine and exercise titles may be retained 613.7—Physical mechanics, longer; make sure materials about sexual readiness.
Technically transmitted diseases include current 613.85-Tobacco information on AIDS; include mater- Educational materials on growing areas of nanotechnologi- 614.5—AIDS nology and microbiology; aviation 616—Disease titles should include international 629.1—Aviation space station, space shuttle status History. Economic materials should reflect safe food handling techniques; watch out for sexist images and stereotypes in family studies and home education materials; fashion goes out of fashion quickly - throw away after 3 years;. Engineering, ensure that the use of computers is Manufacturer- included; be aware of modern mate-.
700s Art, Music, 5 10 Art and music: get new editions of well-used Sports titles; keep art histories.
