Website Review: Central Washington University

The Central Washington University deselection page provides a clearly identified strategy for deselecting books in the collection. The beginning section is called Collection Life Cycle here they list what happens to books from being chosen for the library, placed in the collection, and finally deselection or weeding of a title. This information is helpful to demonstrate that all books will go through this process eventually even if they are reshelved in the end.

The process that is described, although for an academic library, works for any library. The concise language and numbered points make this page a good go to site for reference. There is a ten-point General Deselection Criteria section followed by a six-point Deselection Guidelines. These sixteen points are clearly defined for what and how items are deselected.

Among the topics covered in the General Deselection Criteria section are relevance, usage, value, condition among others. Number eight deals with lost and paid material. This is a good addition as you need to decide if an item needs to be replaced before repurchasing the item. As an added touch there is a video link on the website that provides a tour of the university’s library.

https://www.lib.cwu.edu/Deselection-Policy-Guidelines

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Website Review - Field Notes

Field Notes North Dakota State Library's Library Development Team has several posts dedicated to weeding. Many of the posts are wonderful ideas for what to do with the items weeded from the library shelves. The ND State Library team uses the C.R.E.W. method outlined by the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, which advocates for weeding continuously throughout the year. As a result, the suggestions feature decorations for the whole year! Imagine taking tattered, old, outdated, unloved books and turning them into something new(ish), useful and loved! (Bibbidi-boppity-boo!) I’m genuinely excited to try some of the Winter themed crafts. I’ve been tasked with leading an adult holiday craft program. Book wreaths will be the main attraction, but Field Notes has some other decorative upcycling ideas I want to incorporate as well! The most recent post was updated in January 2018 and reaffirms not only the reasons for weeding, but gives advice for how to avoid avoiding weed...

Annotated Bibliography- Data Driven Deselection: Using a Decision Support Tool

Ehret Snyder, C. (2013, Dec 20). Data-driven deselection: multiple point data using a decision support tool in an academic library. Collection Management, 39 , 11-31. https://doi.org/10.1080/01462679.2013.866607 Weeding is a time-consuming and sensitive task for librarians. It is necessary to make space for new material, keep information current and updated, and remove items in poor condition. Librarians have to determine what kind of data is necessary to review in order to justify removing an item from the library’s shelves. Tools exist to help librarians gather multiple points of data to make the process more efficient. The librarians at Olin Library, part of Rollins College in Florida, utilized such a tool (Sustainable Collections Services) to help them update their collection and present the findings in this paper. Summary: Librarians are short on time and weeding is one of the most time-consuming tasks they can take on. Criteria is necessary to make...

Website Review - Awful Library Books

Awful Library Books The first thing that catches my attention when I navigate to Awful Library Books is the wonderfully out of date and kitschy covers. (Fran gets me ) It’s 246 pages (as of October 5th) of proof of why libraries need to weed. Many of the items are outside submissions and the whole project is curated by Michigan public librarians Mary Kelly and Holly Hibner. This site is… so much fun. Again, people from all over the country submit images of their books in need of deselection. Some of the titles, such as a copy of Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl will require repurchase at the discretion of the branch, and others, such as Easy DOS It! , a book about the no longer relevant DOS computer system, or a tacky as all get out Burt Reynolds book (likely not how he wants to be remembered, RIP), (This?) (Or THIS?) are best never to be seen again. Awful Library Books pokes fun at the idea that libraries are outdated by displaying the items that we get rid of...

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