Weeding

Why Weed?

• To make room for new material

• Improves access and visibility

• Improves reliability

• Gets rid of poor quality material

Material that might not be weeded:

• 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Weeding can be done weekly as you see material that is in poor shape, outdated, etc.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. 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.

The national average of # of books per student:

• Emerging- 10 books/student

• Proficient- 15 books/student

• Exemplary- 20 books/student

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