Weeding

Standards for weeding are available here.

Periodically examine your collection to see if materials need to be repaired, replaced or removed. Use the CREW method: Continuous Review, Evaluate, Weed.

Why Weed?

• To make room for new material. 

• Improves access and visibility

• Improves reliability

• Gets rid of poor material

Criteria:

• Publishing Date - Does the material look dated? Would it get better circulation if it was a more current publication?

• Frequency of Circulation - Has the material been checked out in the last 5 years? Is it over 10 years old?

• Physical condition

• Timeliness

• Bias

• Reliability

• Interest

• Duplicates

• Subject areas

• Content relevance

• More current or valid materials on the subject - Are there other materials that would be better suited on the subject?

• Material Type

• Technical Aspects

Possible material that should not be weeded:

• research value - good photos

• out of print

• local title

• unusual illustrations

• balance of topics

• rare items

• core collection

How Often should weeding be done?

Weeding can be done weekly as you see material that is in poor shape, outdated, etc. A more thorough and systematic weeding should be done at least once every 5 years.

A rule of thumb held by many library professionals is that about 5% of the collection

be weeded every year. This allows for turnover of the collection every twenty years.

While this doesn’t literally mean that no book that exists in the collection in the year

2000 will still be there in 2020, even classic literature and perennially useful materials

will generally become worn and tattered after twenty years of use and need to be

replaced with a fresh copy. (CREW: A Weeding Manual for Modern Libraries. www.tsl.state.tx.us/ld/pubs/crew/index.html Texas State Library and Archives Commission)

What should the average age of my collection be?

The recommended average age of a collection is within the last 10 years. This is unusual and seen mostly in new schools. Fifteen years old is attainable for an average age of a collection given that there is a healthy budget. 

How many items per student should I have?

The national average of # of books per student:

Emerging- 10 books/student

Proficient- 15 books/student

Exemplary- 20 books/student

Keep in mind that neither Destiny nor Titlewave take into account our digital library in Sora.