Weeding the Books: My Personal Challenge

Already in my collection management class, we're exploring topics and issues that are really making me think. One of the latest topics brought up in our class discussion is the necessity of weeding as part of collection management. For those who are not librarians and are not very familiar with the terminology, weeding is the act of removing those items that are no longer "useful" from the collection. The reasons for weeding can be 1) the item is out of date and the information is no longer correct, 2) the item has not been checked out or used for some time, which argues against its continued usefulness, or even 3) the item has been replaced by other items more suited to the service population (the people that come and use the library). Or it could be for another reason not mentioned here.

Weeding is an important part of collection management policy because it keeps a collection relevant to those who use the library, and it helps to make space for newer materials that patrons want. However, I think that this particular aspect of collection management will be the toughest for me because I cringe internally every time I think about getting rid of a book. Even with my own collection (which, funny enough, has more items in it than the collection of the library I work in), it is SO DIFFICULT to get rid of anything--including old textbooks that I haven't picked up in years. As I mentioned in a reply to a classmate's comment, "It's not just that they're books--they have a value that I think librarians and avid readers inherently understand, but others seem to overlook. There is knowledge there, [not] just factual, but cultural, emotional, and psychological." The most that I'm ever able to do is pack old books into a box and put them in storage for that day I finally have enough space to give my books their own room (one day...one day...).

So with my tenacious hold on my own volumes, I don't know how I'm going to address the conflict within myself to effectively weed in a library's collection. Is there a training program for that? I suppose this is where the collection policy comes in. A well-written policy will contain guidance for what materials to weed when and why. My personal collection will continue to remain unweeded (though it continues to grow), but the collection at the library I work at definitely needs to be weeded--no matter how much I would like to avoid it. My hope is that I will be able to formulate a policy and procedure for weeding and determine items that can be discarded--especially since I will desperately need the space to put in new materials we will need to purchase for several new programs we will be introducing to our campus. For this, I will, I must put my personal desires aside for the sake of my library's collection. Even though it will be hard.

One of my classmates posted a link to this blog entry with a realistic and humorous approach to weeding: http://perfectwhole.wordpress.com/2011/05/16/i-cant-believe-youre-throwing-out-books/ I can understand and appreciate many of the points the author makes, and maybe I can use the author's attitude as a model for my own approach to my library's collection.