Weeding Criteria

On Friday we posted about weeding and about how keeping your collection clean can help your students to find quality, up-to-date resources. Today we look at two extremely popular weeding methods. Of course, first, you should be aware of your library’s collection policy and whether it lists criteria to consider when weeding.

CREW: Texas State Library and Archives Commission, out of Austin, Texas, put together this very widely used weeding manual, (CREW stands for Continuous Review, Evaluation, and Weeding). This manual outlines why, how, when, and how much to weed. It also includes a checklist of weeding factors. Criteria starts on page 15 and asks you to consider (among other things) the needs of your patrons, the usefulness of your items, and the availability of similar items in a digital format.

FRESH: Jennifer LaGarde, a.k.a. Library Girl offers tips for keeping your collection “fresh”, and this is specific to school libraries.
(Click the “FRESH” link above for a full post about her method.)

Some weeding resources are linked below for your convenience:

The Art of Weeding | Collection Management (Library Journal, 2015)

Weeding Your School Library Collection (National Library of New Zealand)

Less is More: A Practical Guide to Weeding School Library Collections (Book from ALAstore)

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