2.  “Selection in reverse”
 Importance: without an on-going weeding
program, a collection can quickly age and
become easily to use.
 When libraries, whether large or small
library, reach the limit of their collection,
their confront 3 alternatives:
 Acquire new physical facilities,
 Divide the collection (which also require
space),
 Weed the collection (which may or may not
require new space).

3. H. F. McGraw
 As “the practice of discarding or transferring
to storage excess copies, rarely used books,
and materials no longer of use.”
Purging
 As “officially withdrawing a volume (all
entries made for a particular book have been
removed from library records) from a library
collection because it unfit for further use or
is no longer needed.”
 Applies more to library’s file than to items in
the collection.

4. Stanley J. Slote
 Is “removing the noncore collection from the
primary collection area [open stack area].

5. DISPOSING
 Forms: exchange programs, Friends of
Library book sales or sale to an out-of-print
dealer for credit against future purchase.
STORING
 Retains the item at a second level of access.
 Second level of access normally is not open
to the client and frequently some distance
from the library.
 For Academic library: on or off campus
storage unit. For public lib: under their own
custody.

7.  Primarily supplying materials that meet the
current needs and interests of a diverse
community of users.
 User demand is the important factor influencing
selection and deselection; materials no longer
of interest or use are candidates for storage or
disposal.
 Ideally, as for discarding, a public library rule
of thumb is that collection should turn over
once every 10 years.

8.  There are differences (responsibilities) due
to size:
 Small and branch public libraries focus on
high demand materials, with little or no
expectation that they will have preservation
responsibilities.
 Large public libraries often include housing
and maintaining research collection, they
have to consider a wide range of issues
(materials) when undertaking a deselection
program.

9. A survey of North American public libraries’
weeding practices, 2002
 294 libraries in Canada and USA
5 Top reasons for weeding:
 Accuracy/ currency of information
 Physical condition
 Space needs
 Usage history
 Duplicate copy

10.  Weeding Library Collections, Stanley J. Slote.
 Relying on circulation data (shelf life) to
identify candidates for weeding.
 The CREW Method: Expanded Guidelines for
Collection Evaluation and Weeding for Small
and Medium-Sized Public Libraries, Belinda
Boon and Joseph P. Segal.
 MUSTIE (M= misleading, U= ugly [worn-out], S=
superseded, T= trivial, I= irrelevant to your
needs, E= available elsewhere)
 CREW (Continuous Review Evaluation and
Weeding)

11.  Deselection is easier because of
comparatively straightforward and
predictable use of patterns, the small size
and homogeneous nature of clientele, and
relatively narrow service goals for the
library.
 Deselection takes place with little hesitation
because costs and space are prime
considerations.

12.  Traditionally, the purposes of academic
research library have been to select,
acquire, organize, preserve and make
available the full record of human
knowledge.
 Collection development officers seldom view
demand as a valid measure of item’s worth.
 Potential or long-term research value takes
highest priority.

13.  Have slightly better track record of securing
funding (for additions to their buildings, new
buildings), they, too, face finite collection
space and a mission goal of preserving
information resources, thus deselection has
become part of academic library life cycle.
 Bulk of the academic “weeds” go into some
type of lower-cost storage unit either on or
off campus.

14.  When compact shelving is closed to the
public, one has the option of changing how
one houses the stored material.

15.  Employed highly structured collection
development practices.
 The need to coordinate collection
development with the curriculum needs is
imperative, more particularly when there is a
major shift in the curriculum; the library
must remove most of the old material.
 To some degree, the media center’s
deselection problems are fewer, other library
serve as backup resources.

16. (END OF PRESENTATION)