WEEDING

PROCESS
Weeding
❖ Definitions
❖ Reasons for weeding
❖ Benefits of weeding
❖ Responsibility for weeding your library collection
❖ Sections of the library collection to include when
weeding
❖ Criteria for weeding library resources
❖ Managing the weeding process
❖ Disposal of weeded items
De-selection/ weeding – the process of selecting items in
the library collection for withdrawal or relocation to a
storage. (Johnson, 2004)

Withdrawal – is the process of removing materials from

the active collection; others use the terms weeding,
pruning, thinning, de-selection, de-accession, relegation,
de-acquisition, retirement, reverse selection, negative
selection.
Reasons for de-selection

1. To keep the library in best possible condition

2. Alleviate space problems, especially for small libraries
3. Improve accessibility of the collections – remove old
or seldom used materials
Criteria for de-selection/ weeding

There are three (3) broad categorizations of de-

selection criteria;
1. Physical condition
2. Qualitative worth
3. Quantitative worth
H.F. McGraw’s criteria for de-selection
1. Duplicates
2. Unsolicited and unwanted gifts
3. Books that are infested, dirty, shabby, worn out,
juvenile, etc.
4. Obsolete books, especially in the sciences
5. Superseded editions
6. Books with small print, brittle paper, and missing pages
7. Unused, unneeded volumes of sets
8. Periodicals with no indexes
Problems in de-selection

1. Lack of time/ takes time from the regular routine

2. Lack of staff to do evaluation of materials for de-
selection
3. Cost involved and property accountability
4. Actual practice is seldom done- “the bigger the
collection, the better”
Evaluation of Collections

Collection Assessment – systematic quantitative and

qualitative measurement of the degree to which a library’s
collection meets the library’s goals and objectives and the
needs of its users.

Collection Evaluation – systematic consideration of a

collection to determine its intrinsic merit or its “goodness’ it
seeks to examine or describe collections either in their own
terms or in relation to other collections and checking
mechanisms.
Aims to Evaluation
1. To search for more accurate understanding of the
scope, depth and utility of the collection
2. To prepare a guide to and a basis for collection
development
3. To measure the preparation of a collection
development policy
4. To measure the effectiveness of a collection
development policy
5. To determine the adequacy or quality of the
collection
6. To held rectify inadequacies in library holdings and to
suggest ways to improve them
7. To focus human and financial resources on areas
needing attention
8. To aid justification for budget increases
9. To demonstrate to administrators that something is
being done about the demands for more funding
10. To establish the existence of special strengths and
weaknesses in the collection
11. To check the need for weeding/de-selection and
collection control, and to establish areas of priority
need
Methods of Evaluation
1. Collection centered methods – list checking, expert
opinion, comparative use statistics, collection
standards
2. User centered methods – circulation studies, customer
perceptions, Inter- Library Loans (ILL) statistics, citation
studies
Evaluation and Conservation of Collections
1. Preservation – a broad range of activities intended to
prevent, retard or stop deterioration of materials or to
retain the intellectual content of materials no longer
physically intact (Johnson, 2004)
2. Conservation – non-invasive physical or chemical
methods employed to ensure the survival of
manuscripts, books and other documents (Johnson,
2004)
3. Restoration – returning a book, document or other
material as nearly as possible to its original condition, it
can include methods such as mending, repairing,
rebinding and de-acidification
Weeding – refers to the process of the regular removal
of outdated library resources. In this guide we cover
the reasons for weeding your library collection, criteria
for making decisions, along with who will be involved
and some recommendations for managing this
process.
Reasons for weeding

Weeding (sometimes called deselection or culling) is the

regular and ongoing process of removing library
resources which no longer;
• meet the selection criteria
• support students’ learning needs
• are appealing and in good physical condition
• are being used by your students or teachers
Benefits of weeding

Although people are often reluctant to dispose of

library resources, there are definite advantages to
regularly weeding your collection:
• your collection will be reliable and up-to-date
• your collection will look attractive and inviting
• your collection will reflect current thinking and
attitudes
• students and teachers will be able to easily find
what they need
• you will be familiar with your collection’s strengths
and gaps
Responsibility for weeding your library collection

The library team undertakes the weeding process, often

in collaboration with class teachers or subject specialists.
Where the final responsibility lies will vary from school to
school, depending on how library responsibility has been
delegated.
Some points to consider when deciding who to ask for
assistance with weeding:
• Involvement of teachers at all school levels
enhances understanding of the weeding process,
and helps build productive collaborations
between library and classroom.
• In intermediate and secondary schools,
collaboration with specialist subject teachers
provides useful feedback on weeding
recommendations made by the library team.
• A whole-of-staff, or a departmental, approach may
be useful in some circumstances, especially where
teachers can work in pairs to weed non-fiction areas
in which they have a professional interest.
• Criteria need to be clearly understood before the
workshop begins.
Sections of the library collection to include when weeding

In addition to weeding the fiction and non-fiction

collections, remember to check the following for
accuracy and currency as well:
• reference resources
• websites in your school library catalogue
• library content on the school intranet and website,
including any linked websites
• your e-book collection
• curated content/ pathfinders
• the information file (if your library has one)
• magazine collection
Your automated library system should be able to
generate reports to assist with weeding. It can identify;

• How many times an item has been issued

• Resources which have not been issued for a
specified period of time. For example, you may
decide to run a report on fiction titles that
haven’t been issued in the last three years, and
then decide if they should be promoted or
weeded.
Criteria for weeding library resources
The criteria you use to select resources are also your
weeding criteria. In addition, consider the following;

• Appearance and physical condition – such as

damaged covers/ binding, torn or dirty pages, brittle
or yellowing pages.
• Amount of use. When was it last issued/accessed? If it
hasn’t been used in the last 3-5 years consider
possible reasons ( such as the criteria identified
above/ curriculum cycle/position on shelves). Decide
whether to weed or promote.
• Are there good online resources for this topic, more up-to-
date than print material?
• Publication date – has this area of knowledge changed?
For non-fiction titles the publication date that you use to
guide your weeding practice will vary according to the
area of knowledge.
• Relevance to curriculum and student interests – have
curriculum and students’ needs and interests changed
since these resources were bought?
• Level of difficulty- Can your students read it?
• Changing attitudes- does this item reflect the attitudes of
its period, and to what extent are those attitudes still
considered acceptable?
Managing the weeding process
Weeding is a regular and ongoing process. You may
choose to weed the collection in its entirety or weed
specific sections on a rotational basis.

Some points to remember during the weeding process;

• The weeding process not only creates discard piles,
but also brings to light other collection issues. You
may also have piles for mending, promotion,
recataloguing, moving to the teachers resource
collection, replacement.
• Delete weeded items from the library online catalogue
to ensure accurate reporting for the financial audit.
• Stamp resources ‘Withdrawn’ to ensure that they will not
find their way back into your collection.
• Use link checker software to review the currency of
each URL for checking websites on the school library
catalogue or intranet.
Disposal of weeded items

• Disposing of books can be sensitive issue, and the

agreed options should be documented in your school
library management statement.
• School staff need to be aware of your school’s policy on
disposal, so that any discussion around this can be open
and questions clarified.
• Most material weeded from the library will not be
suitable for other libraries, or even to donate to students,
in New Zealand or overseas.
• Items at the wrong level for your students may be offered to
another school if appropriate to their students.
• Pre-1940 children’s books may be offered to the National
Library for the Dorothy Neal White Historical Collection
• For further information on this, contact a Library Adviser on
0800 LIBLINE (0800 542 5463)
• Non-fiction of high quality and early New Zealand material
may be offered to public libraries or historical societies.
• Low-use items which are still in reasonable condition can be
offered to local fundraising book fairs, or sold to second
hand bookshops.
• For some books permanent disposal or recycling is
necessary.
REFERENCES
• Alvi, A.W., 1997. Collection development in resource sharing
environment. DESIDOC Bulletin of Information Technology, 17(2),
pp 3-9. [Online] Available at: http://publications. drdo.gov.in
/gsdl/collect/ dbit/ index/ assoc/HASH0117.dir/dbit/702003.pdf
[Accessed 28 July 2009].
• IGNOU, 1999. Library management: information resource
development. BLIS-02, Block 2. New Delhi: IGNOU.
• Kaliammal, A. and Thamaraiselvi, G., 2005. Role of ICT in library
and information science. Delhi: Authorpress.
• Kaur, S. and Satija, M.P., 2007. Collection development in digital
environment: trends and problems. SRELS Journal of Information
Management, 44(2),pp139-155.