Weeding by Committee: Involving Faculty in the Deselection Process

Megan McCarthy

DeMars, J. M., & Roll, A. (2016). Weeding by committee: Involving faculty in the deselection process. Retrieved from IFLA 2016 Conference website. http://library.ifla.org/1570/1/100-demars-en.pdf

Summary
This conference paper detailed the "deselection" or weeding process at the Pollak Library, the library for CSUF. A formal plan was created for a large scale deselection that responded to concerns identified in the literature review. Subject specialists were trained in the use of GreenGlass and Excel to identify un- and under-circulated resources. An innovative web-tool was developed to allow faculty to identify resources to be removed or saved. After running a pilot program, the tool was improved to discourage faculty from "saving" all of the resources while allowing for additional input to justify why an item remained useful despite its circulation numbers.

Evaluation
This paper provides important insight into the process of a large-scale weeding process and includes how the program was both implemented and improved. Furthermore, the authors addressed the emotional side of deselection, ways to overcome the anxieties of faculty, as well as how to overcome obstinate faculty that attempt to prevent removing a single item from the collection. It is a useful resource for others planning a similar deselection program in academic libraries.