Building further on the Collection Development and Circulation Policies that many libraries and archives follow is that of Weeding Policies, designed to remove irrelevant, unused, damaged, or offensive materials from a collection. These policies often dictate the shelf-life of a book or other type of resource held within a collection and may set restrictions on what can and cannot be weeded or removed.

With most collections, there is a heavy weeding cycle on resources that change constantly such as medical guides or scientific journals as new ideas are theorized and proven and standards in these fields adapt and change. Often in the case of resources such as the aforementioned being removed from the cycle, they are destroyed or recycle instead of added to a sale or sent to another institution as they were removed for inaccuracies.

These policies often go hand-in-hand with the Acquisitions Policies discussed previously, and apply in the same way to customer suggestions and concerns of whether or not a book should be added or removed from the library's collection. Because some materials might be perceived as offensive or dark in nature, patron concerns are a vital part of the weeding system, and it is important staff deal with this appropriately and review these concerns and consider removing them from a collection.

The practice of weeding is an important part of any library or collection of resources, as it is through this process that damaged, underused, and irrelevant materials are removed. The policies that go with these are important to the way that weeding is, as an Archive and a Public Library will go about these practices in different ways. For example, the former will have strict guidelines on what can be removed from their collection as some resources are irreplaceable or one-of-a-kind. On the other hand, the latter often uses the weeding process to remove excess copies of once-popular series and no longer circulating books in addition to heavily damaged materials that might have gotten past the circulation and shelving staff.

For this final assignment, we were tasked with taking on the role of a Librarian or Circulations department member responsible for weeding items from the collection. Out of the two books I received, both were damaged to different extents with one having a torn cover while the other was badly damaged. During my initial search of the Halifax Public Libraries collection along with the provided statistics, I found that while both titles were older in publication, they were used regularly by the public and played vital parts in the collection. I also researched as requested into similar works and newer additions or versions of the work found in the collection and libraries associated with Halifax Public Libraries.

In filling out and filing the Weeding Report for both The Settlers of the Marsh and The Very Brave Bear, I adhered to the MUSTIE guidelines that many libraries follow in weeding materials, and provided as much detail as possible in explaining my decisions. Furthermore, I used the CREW guidelines that are part of the MUSTIE guide to finalize and support my decisions for each of the assigned materials.

I found that in reviewing Settlers of the Marsh, there were similar works, however, it was still a valuable asset to the Canadian Historical Fiction collection of the library, and should be retained until damaged beyond reasonable repair or use. On the other hand, I found The Very Brave Bear should be removed from the collection according to the CREW guidelines and the parameters of this assignment. I also made a point in saying it should be re-purchased if there is funding as there is a newer edition of the work, and it is still used by patrons of the library.

This assignment was extremely important in learning how much effort and time can go into a seemingly simple evaluation of a material by a member of the libraries' staff. While the large majority of libraries would not go to these lengths to decide if a book should be retained or not, it is important to understand when books should be kept or removed, specifically thinking about how important they are to the public and the implications of budgetary constraints in maintaining a libraries' collection.