Weeding without worry: transparency and communication help ease weeding woes

Kate Lasky

INFO266 Spring 2019

Vnuk, R. (2016, May). Weeding without worry: transparency and communication help ease weeding woes. American Libraries, 47(5), 50+. Retrieved from http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A452496301/GPS?u=s9186272&sid=GPS&xid=2feffce8

In “Weeding without worry,” author Rebecca Vnuk reviews opportunities to improve communications and support transparent practices in the deselection of library material as a regular and proper process for all librarians.

Weeding is often negatively represented in the news. Damaging stories are most commonly generated by an employee or community member who is uninformed about the process of weeding and its necessity as part of collection development. Author Rebecca Vnuk advocates that librarians prepare public communications in advance of large weeding projects and promote transparency.

The article outlines several ways librarians can frame communications by focusing on making room for new materials, updating the offerings, opportunities for inter-library loan, and patron requests for purchase. The article offers a few examples of weeding “horror stories.”

Finally, the author advises librarians to find ways to reuse and recycle weeded material to help patrons understand the books will be used in the future.

The article, though brief, is a helpful reminder that effective communications requires thoughtful preparation in advance. Creating a list of frequently asked questions and answers and posting them on the library website can help employees, patrons, and board members better understand the finer points of deselection of materials.

Weeding Authors Instead of Books - Where is the Line Drawn?

When Cosby’s ‘Little Bill,’ Alexie and Asher are on the Shelf: What Should A Librarian Do?

Clayton, Jamie

Yorio Kara. (2018, May 9). When Cosby's 'Little Bill,’ Alexie and Asher are on the Shelf: What Should A Librarian Do? [Blog Post].  Retrieved from https://www.slj.com/2018/05/books-media/cosbys-little-bill-alexie-asher-shelf-librarian/#_

The #MeToo movement has brought forth a wide variety of opinions regarding what we do with books whose authors' personal behavior is immoral. This article weighs the moral ethics of removing these authors from our library shelves.  Is it up to us to weed books off the shelves based on the content or the author? Should we pull books off the shelves for ethical reasons rather than being outdated or having low circulation?  Would an athlete who was beating his wife get pulled even if he wasn’t convicted? Is it up to us to make that decision? Where is the line drawn? Kara Yorio provides some insight and asks the hard questions when moral issues of the author, not the story are at hand.  

The Art of Weeding

Carrie Lopez

Chant, I. 23 June 2015. The Art of Weeding: Collection Management. Library Journal. Retrieved from: https://lj.libraryjournal.com/2015/06/managing-libraries/the-art-of-weeding-collection-management/#_

A short article from Library Journal that outlines basic guidelines for weeding a collection, as well as concrete examples of why weeding is important. The article also highlights some negative press libraries experienced as the public reacted negatively about books being 'thrown away'. The article also includes some tips about how to handle these situations, even including craft tips and other ways to use weeded books.

Weeding Handbook: A Shelf-By-Shelf Guide

Vigil, Sharon

Vnuk, R. (2015). Weeding handbook: a shelf-by-shelf guide. The basics [Chapter 1]. (pp. 1-20). Retrieved from https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.libaccess.sjlibrary.org/lib/sjsu/reader.action?docID=4531556&ppg=90

Summary:

The Weeding Handbook: A Shelf-By-Shelf Guide is published by the American Library Association and was written with the goal of giving the reader a “good grounding of how and why to weed library collections.” The first chapter of this book provides a basic overview of the weeding process and includes a detailed step-by-step guide. It also includes frequently asked questions about weeding and retention and weeding guidelines that can be adopted and adapted to fit the needs of any library. This chapter offers a lot of good information about weeding and is a great resource for library staff who are unfamiliar with the weeding process. I did not have a chance to read the remaining chapters, but I plan on doing so in the near future.

Evaluation:

I don’t have any experience yet with weeding, but after reading this chapter, I have a much better understanding of what weeding entails. This book appears to be very comprehensive and concise. I also found this book to be rather humorous. For example, in response to the following question, “How do you justify weeding to patrons when they complain that your budget is going up?” the author refers to the “Cart of Shame,” which is “literally, a bookcart you use to store some of your worst discards.” She gives some examples of specific books that obviously needed to be discarded. One of these examples was a book on housekeeping, circa 1960, which points out the advantages of having a dishwasher so that the “lucky housewife” will be able to save time. In the future, when I am tasked with weeding a collection, I plan on using this book to guide me through the process.