Weeding
Answer
Weeding is an essential, continuous scholarly component of collection maintenance in libraries. Weeding, or permanently removing materials for reasons such as being outdated, unused, or damaged, ensures the health and viability of the library’s collection to Rider University. Periodic weeding of the collection is necessary to identify items which no longer fit the criteria for inclusion in the collection. Weeding is a systematic process, which is an activity that should not be performed in haste. 1. Responsibility for weeding: Subject liaisons are responsible for continuously weeding their subject area. Once an item has been selected as a candidate for weeding, the subject liaisons may forward the weeding list to the affected academic department or discipline. If a weeding list is forwarded, teaching faculty will have two weeks to review the list and respond. After two weeks if there is no response, the Library will proceed with the weeding. NOTE: The discretion of what gets weeded ultimately falls under the purview of the subject liaison librarian. If there is an overlap in certain areas, both liaisons should be responsible for weeding and communicating to each other, and to their affected academic departments and disciplines. 2. Recommended factors for weeding: a. Currency: The content of library materials should be accurate and up to date. Materials that are superseded by newer, revised, or updated editions may be weeded. Yet, the subject liaison also considers faculty and students whose scholarship and teaching require historical texts in areas. b. Usage: Low or no usage may be a factor in weeding decisions. Usage is determined via circulation statistics or other reporting. c. Physical condition: Materials that are badly deteriorated or damaged may be considered as a candidate for weeding. Consideration for replacement will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
d. Duplicates: Space limitations limit the amount of copies of each text that may be made available. The library may weed duplicate copies of library materials, but will consider the demand of the material. e. Completeness: Materials that are part of a multi-volume set of which the library does not own all the volumes may be weeded. f. Format Obsolescence: Materials in obsolete formats may be weeded if the content is available in a more current format or if the material is in poor condition. g. Uniqueness: The library may not weed materials considered to be unique. h. Misleading or inaccurate: Information is no longer correct.