Weeding for Success
Course
Low-hanging Fruit [10:12]
In this lesson, we will discuss which types of books can be easily weeded out of school library collections.
Misleading means that, the item has outdated or factually inaccurate information. Often this is related to copyright but not always. Remember my example of the book on asbestos. Obviously, a book about a country will not include its most recent leaders but a book about the two Vietnams is totally misleading. Even when most of the country information is accurate still, the culture and major geographic landmarks haven't changed, you have to update the history about every 10 years.
There are actually some books that have been recalled because of safety errors, so watch science and medical books for outdated information. Science project books may include chemicals that are no longer considered safe for children to handle. Remember that books may contain accurate information but have outdated photographs and illustrations accompanying that information that are misleading.
Ugly means that the book is worn and beyond mending or is not worth rebinding. You may end up replacing some of these titles but don't hold on to The Very Hungry Caterpillar when it is torn, covered in crayons and falling apart. One library I've worked with had a snake book that was held together with rubber bands. Yes, the pages were literally falling out and the cover was filthy but it was the only book on snakes the small library had. I had to find a donation to replace it before I could get the librarian to weed that book. It was so ugly. You may be able to spruce up an ugly book with a new mylar jacket or a good gum eraser but usually it's not worth spending more than about 10 minutes on an ugly book.
Superseded items can be replaced by a newer edition or a better book on the topic. Even for popular books like the Guinness Book of World Records you usually don't want to keep more than one or two prior editions. Even if the information is still valid in an older edition, it will usually look outdated and be worn from use. If a replacement is not currently available, make a note to watch for new items when they do become available. Trivial indicates that the item was trendy or of ephemeral interest and the fad has passed. Books may be published to meet interest in fads or popular culture. This happens a lot with simplified, children's non-fiction.
Books are published to meet a perceived need. And while that series of sports biographies may have worked for reluctant readers in 1985, kids are interested in different athletes now. You no longer need books on macramé or those pop culture musicians especially about people no one even knows anymore. If your patrons do still have an interest in Elton John, buy a newer book than the one published in 1975. He's done a few things since then.
Irrelevant means that it is not of interest to your community or it is not relevant to their needs any longer. For schools, that may include topics that are no longer taught or a topic that was of interest to a long gone teacher. One teacher I knew did a big unit every year on apples. And so the library had a dozen books on all kinds of apples. After that teacher left the school, no one was using the apple books. While you won't eliminate all items on a no longer relevant topic, consider whether you really need so many books on one subject.
Elsewhere available means that you can weed the book with knowledge that the item is available electronically or at another area library. Consider weeding really unused classics that are available through Project Gutenberg, a free e-book collection of public domain titles. Also weed later titles in any series that is not regularly read by your patrons, and subjects that are rarely covered in the curriculum when they are easily available through inter-library loan or elsewhere.
Other low hanging fruit that allow for fast decisions include excess copies. Only keep what is needed to meet normal demand. Multiple copies of a title may have been purchased to meet popularity five years ago and now the books don't circulate enough to warrant seven copies. Get rid of those duplicates. This is a great opportunity to share with a newer library that may have missed the opportunity to buy that book. Books go out of print fairly quickly.
Look also for books without pretty covers. We live in a visual world. Books without nice cover art will usually sit on the shelf. Especially be aware of books that had been pre-bound or re-bound and have those ugly gingham covers with no art. Look also for jackets that has outdated art. Popular books like The Boxcar Children and even books by Beverly Cleary get refreshed jacket art on occasion to give a more contemporary and appealing look to the books.
Often when there's a series like Wimpy Kid or Lemony Snicket that's very popular, you'll see series knockoffs or copycat titles come out. As interest in those copycats wanes, because they don't usually hold up for very long, they can easily be weeded.
Also look at series books that have a lot of missing titles especially if there's not enough interest in the series for you to fill the gaps or where the titles have gone out of print. Being out of print is a good indication that the series is no longer popular.
Watch for lesser works by authors who have died. This may be more of a factor for highschools and public libraries. The collection doesn't really need to have every book Hemingway ever wrote. And even prolific children's authors with books that don't continue to be popular can be weeded. They may have not been their best work. Even Maurice Sendak has a few books that are not classics and were not as well-done.
To help you with your weeding, use technology. Your integrated library system can run a report to find all of the books in a specific Dewey area that have not circulated within two years or whatever the standard is that you're using. Aides and parent volunteers can then pull those books for you to review before making your decision. Some systems can also sort by copyright date making it easier to find all the Science books that are older than some date you have specified. Again, you can get very specific so that you bite off a smaller chunk by pulling all the books on life sciences, the 570s, older than five years so that you get rid of older books on genetics while keeping older books on earth sciences. You don't have a specific copyright factor to consider.
You can also use copyright age reports to help you figure out how much you need to weed to get a younger average age collection. Determine the average age for a section and then calculate approximately how many older books you need to weed to bring that age down.
You will make mistakes. You are not perfect and you can't know it all. It's okay. If you're weeding regularly, the mistakes will be limited and spread out. And remember, doing nothing is just as much or even more of a mistake than accidentally discarding something you should have kept. At some point your weeding may face public scrutiny and possibly even scandal. But this does happen most often when you weed too much all at once and make a few decisions that others challenge. Regularly weeding means that you have time to consider what you're doing. It also means that the appropriate person is doing the weeding. Mistakes happen when those who don't know the collection and its users come in to help, but are not adequately trained and supervised. The ultimate decision should be yours.
You will also reduce true mistakes if you know when you need help. First, don't weed if you don't know enough about the subject. Ask for help from subject experts. Read up on the topic and look at reviews of the books. You can also pull a card of weed candidates and ask your teachers to look at them and see if there's anything that really should be kept. Ask them to explain why the book should be retained so that you avoid decisions that everything should be retained. If the bulk of the book is weed worthy but there's a single section that the teacher uses, maybe that book can be withdrawn and moved to her classroom instead of staying in the library collection.
You can also look at standard collection books to see if the book is included. For example, middle and junior high core collection or the children's core collection books are standards for helping you determine what are popular for the collection and what should stay.
Look at reviews of newer books on the subjects to see what information might be outdated. Often, reviews will compare the new book to older titles or tell you what's updated.
Peruse an encyclopedia article on the topic to be sure you know what are major issues in that subject.
Another way to get help in weeding decisions is to give uncertain items one last chance. If you can't decide, especially for items that have not circulated in the recent past, put them on display. If they don't go out within a reasonable period of time, say three to four weeks, you can be pretty sure it's okay to weed that item. Similarly, you can put items you are unsure about on a 'hold' shelf. If no one asks where that item is within a reasonable amount of time, you can safely weed it.
MUSTIE is a useful acronym for weeding collections. Here are the MUSTIE factors:
MUSTIE is especially helpful with regard to what Larson calls "low-hanging fruit," which are those selections for weeding that tend to be "simpler decisions or don't require a lot of thought, making them good choices for weeding when you're in a hurry."
One example of "low-hanging fruit" is books with "ugly" cover art, invoking the "U" in MUSTIE. As Larson explains,
Look also for books without pretty covers. We live in a visual world. Books without nice cover art will usually sit on the shelf. Especially be aware of books that had been pre-bound or re-bound and have those ugly gingham covers with no art. Look also for jackets that have outdated art. Popular books like The Boxcar Children and even books by Beverly Cleary get refreshed jacket art on occasion to give a more contemporary and appealing look to the books.
Practice evaluating for cover art by examining a shelf, Dewey section, or even a set of just-returned books. Are there books lacking appealing or current cover art? Consider these as possible titles to weed from your collection.
MLA Citation
Morris, Rebecca J. "Weeding for Success: Judge a Book by Its Cover." School Library Connection, September 2017, schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/1964552?learningModuleId=1964556&topicCenterId=2247902.
Entry ID: 2128219
Additional Resources
About the Author
Jeanette Larson is a semi-retired librarian and adjunct professor at Texas Woman's University. She earned her MLS from the University of Southern California. Larson is the author of several books for librarians, including CREW: A Weeding Manual for Modern Libraries, Children's Services Today: A Practical Guide for Librarians, The Public Library Policy Writer, and El día de los niños/El día de los libros: Building a Culture of Literacy in Your Community through Día, as well as a book for children, Hummingbirds: Facts and Folklore from the Americas.
Known as a ruthless weeder, Larson recently culled her personal library prior to moving to a smaller home in Rockport, TX.
MLA Citation
Larson, Jeanette. "Weeding for Success. Low-hanging Fruit [10:12]." School Library Connection, ABC-CLIO, September 2015, schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/1964552?learningModuleId=1964556&topicCenterId=2247902.
https://schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/1964552?learningModuleId=1964556&topicCenterId=2247902
Entry ID: 1964552