Letters to a Young Librarian - Weeding
Letters to a Young Librarian is a blog run by New York Librarian Jessica Olin. Currently she is the director of library services at an unnamed community college in Western New York. The blog is meant to act as a practical ‘What They Didn’t Teach you in Library School’ repository. It hopes to meld the theoretical learning of Library School with the day-to-day workings of being a professional librarian.
(Who doesn’t love the sound of that?)
Ms. Olin discusses weeding in a collection of four posts, the most recent being in 2014. Her view of weeding is much like other libraries and librarians we’ve experienced on this journey. She details her methods for weeding and reminds us that mileage will vary; what works for her may not work for others. Some of the weeding techniques are the usual ones such as age, circulation status, and the ‘employee smell test,’ that ephemeral combination of physical attributes that might render a book unworthy of remaining on the shelves. Books that are falling apart, beyond repair, or so unused that they’re smelly and gathering dust are on this list.
(THIS should not be coming out of your books!)
Most unique among her weeding information is the way in which she involves the community in her weeding. Olin collects student satisfaction surveys, enlists the faculty to come in and view the items that are candidates for weeding, and writes a letter to the faculty who teaches the subject of the Dewey number being weeded. She doesn’t say what her target number for removal is, nor does she specifically give them the final word, but they are a vital part of the process.
(Teamwork, amirite?)
Ms. Olin also mentions her criteria for keeping books. Cases include books that are unique and give your collection character, items that are duplicates but are used in classes, or books that fit in with a particular professor’s expertise.
One of the great gems of Olin’s commentary is that Collection Development isn’t simply adding books. That isn’t development; it’s simply addition. Developing means adding and subtracting because it’s a balance that allows the collection to grow and remain relevant with your audience and community. This is a viewpoint that I haven’t seen in any weeding information before. At times deselection might also mean removing information from reference because it’s outdated and moving it to the circulating shelves because the material is studied in a history classes.
The other really unique item from Letters to a Young Librarian is that Ms. Olin once repurposed books by burning them for a Banned Books Week display. Apparently this made a lot of people who saw the post angry despite the knowledge that the books had been passed around to the local Friends of the Library multiple times, went unpurchased at used book sales, and no longer had a reason to be on the shelves.
The MVP of the weeding tag from Letters to a Young Librarian is definitely the inclusion of her letter to the faculty. It is a culmination of so many facets of library science wrapped up into one letter. She appeals to the expertise of the faculty while also reminding them of her own. The letter shows a use of the collected statistics in circulation numbers, satisfaction surveys, and collaboration within the circulation community. Other libraries could use this community inclusion to maintain transparency in their weeding endeavors to help stave of the righteous indignation that a library is ridding itself of books!
(How DARE they?)
Libraries could also benefit from Ms. Olin’s blog in the calming reminder that weeding allows the collection to grow!
Light on criteria, but innovative in enlisting faculty to assist in the weeding process. 3.5/5
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