Too Many Weeds in My Garden

Today I did a little weeding.  Oh yes!  And, man, do I feel good!  This was sparked by the fact that I had just purchased the rest of the Lorien Legacies by Pitticus Lore and saw that the poor "L" shelf was already packed to the gills, along with pretty much every other shelf in the YA section.  What's a librarian to do?  It was time for action.  Time for weeding.  No gardening gloves needed!

For those of you who visit my blog that are not of the library science crowd, weeding is the systematic removal of materials from a library collection.

After a bit of examination and a good deal of time checking circulation rates, checking conditions, and generally evaluating the books, I ended up filling our Weeding Box to nearly overflowing. Not bad for one morning. While I am sad to see books leave the library, I know that it really is for the greater good.  I try to weed (or at least evaluate the collection and shelves) every few months.  Libraries provide access to entertainment and information, not hoarded piles of words.

Weeding can be a difficult task for some librarians.  It is an admittance that perhaps we made a mistake of buying and cataloging a book in the first place or simply a declaration that we cannot keep every book ever written.  However, this is an absolutely essential part of maintaining a library, especially when we want to look modern and fresh.

I have found there are generally two different reactions to weeding, or rather, weeding specific books.

There are those books that you can't believe are even still in the catalog.  Why wasn't this weeded long ago?  Why is it even taking up valuable space?  We're okay with letting these go.

There are also those times when you feel like you simply can't get rid of a book.  Maybe it's nostalgia or a fear of someone one day weeding your favorite book or just hesitation that you may one day need this specific book.  No matter what, sometimes you just end up like this:

Many many books (irony not missed) and online resources offer help to those who more often fall into the second category.  Sometimes it's hard to let go.

Let's not forget why we weed:

• To save space (Save your bookends the strain.)
• To save time (Both for you and your patrons.)
• To make the collection more appealing (Who wants to wade through 20 outdated books to find the one you really do want to read?)
• To determine your library's strengths and weaknesses (Do you have 50 books on the Christian religion, but only one on Buddhism?  Do you need to build a stronger, updated science collection?)

My method of weeding has been boiled down to a speedy science of study, but I started with the handy MUSTY method (an odd title, but effective!):

M - Misleading information
U - Ugly (Perhaps it can be replaced if it is falling apart, but still popular)
S - Superseded (by newer editions)
T - Trivial
Y - Your Collection (Most importantly, does it circulate?)

Hang in there, you can do it!

Additional resources:

CREW: A Weeding Manual for Modern Libraries - As it suggests, an online guide to help librarians continually weed to better their library.

Awful Library Books - Books libraries have weeded that really needed to go.