WHY WEED AND HOW DO YOU DECIDE WHAT GOES AND WHAT STAYS?

You may have noticed that we have limited shelf space in our beautiful, historic building. While we’d love to keep every book that we buy or are gifted, it’s just not possible. On a regular basis, we weed out books that meet certain criteria (i.e. no one has checked them out in 3 or more years, they have never been checked out, they’ve only been checked out a handful of times, many other libraries have a copy, they are in poor condition and/or not repairable, etc.).

Think of weeding books like pruning trees. It’s necessary to trim off old parts of the tree in order to encourage new growth. We weed in order to:

  • Make space for new materials.
  • Provide a more appealing, up-to-date collection.
  • Make the library easier for staff and patrons to use.
  • Maintain the library’s reputation for providing reliable information.
  • Eliminate false or dangerous information.
  • Provide feedback on the strengths and weaknesses of the collection.

WHAT HAPPENS TO THE WEEDED BOOKS?

Following a DISCARD process, the items’ electronic records are removed from the catalog. Now that the items are no longer part of the library collection, we put them in our book sale so they can have a second life in someone else’s personal library. Books that are in bad condition and can’t be sold are recycled.

YIKES! THE SHELVES LOOK SO EMPTY!

When outdated, unused, and shabby items are removed from a collection, the shelves may look bare. Rather than being a deterrent to library use, this can result in increased circulation. Shelves with fewer, newer items are more inviting than shelves jam-packed with tattered titles. Empty shelf space permits face-out display of items, inviting patrons to investigate them. Many libraries find that their circulation actually goes up following a thorough weeding!

We know that it can be shocking to see the weeding process in real-time, but rest assured, it’s a normal part of collection maintenance and making sure that we have the best available materials for our community. Still have questions? Give us a call at 315-592-5159 or email us fullib@ncls.org