10-11 - Collection Maintenance, Resource Sharing

Weeding/Deselection

Process of removing materials from an active collection for withdrawal or transfer

Withdrawal

Process of permanently getting rid of materials and removing the descriptive records from the catalog

Reasons to Weed

1. Stimulate circulation

2. Save space

3. Save time

4. Enhance appeal

5. Establish credibility

6. Respond to community needs and interests

7. Make room for new technologies and formats

Factors that Discourage Weeding

1. Emphasis on numbers

2. Time constraints and professional work pressure

3. Public displeasure

4. Sanctity of the collection

5. Conflicting criteria

Barriers to Deselection

1. Lack of time

2. Procrastination

3. Fear of making a mistake

4. Fear of adverse or embarrassing publicity

5. Fear of being called a ‘book burner’

Continuous Review, Evaluation, and Weeding (CREW)

Method designed for small and medium-sized libraries that gives six general critera for considering weeding an item from the library’s collection

Misleading, Ugly, Superseded, Trivial, Irrelevant, Elsewhere

MUSTIE criteria

Shelf Scanning

Technique for weeding that involves direct examination of volumes.

Storage

Remote or on-site and are generally not open for public browsing or direct patron retrieval.

Preservation

Activities intended to present, retard, or stop the deterioration of materials.

Cooperation

Resource sharing; short-term, informal, and lacking a clearly defined mission and structure, with no planning and no risk

Coordination

Resource sharing; long-term relationships which focuses on a specific effort or program, and requires some planning and libraries retains authority with their individual organization.

Collaboration

Resource sharing; more durable and pervasive relationship, and is long-term, and entails commitment to a common mission and a high degree of trust and comprehensive planning.

Resource Sharing

ex. Library program for making requests and delivering resources, chiefly through the formal interlibrary loan process.

Bibliopgraphic Access

Discovering what is available from other libraries by searching online catalogs, bibliographic utilities, or rarely, printed or microform catalogs.

Coordinated/Collaborative Collection Building Management

Aims to create and sustain complementary collections on which the cooperating libraries can draw.

Library Consortium

Group of libraries that work together to engage in enterprises that are beyond the resources of any one member.