Weeding Workshop - Hands on Training

This is a re-post of an e-mail sent out on October 18th by Sally Bates. Please forward this post to any staff who might be interested. As always, please get permission from your supervisor before signing-up. This workshop is approved for training credit:

The Collection Development librarians will be presenting a hands-on weeding workshop on Thursday, November 10, at the Johnson Neighborhood Library.  It will begin at 8:30 a.m. and will last 2.5 hours.

This workshop is for those with collection management responsibilities who may be new to the system or need a refresher.

Material covered includes:

Why weeding is important

Houston Public Library weeding policy

Tools to weed dated materials

Tools to decide whether to weed or float materials that are not circulating, including Collection HQ

How to weed materials in poor condition

How to process out materials for float or discard

How to schedule weeding/floating into daily workflow

Thanks to the Johnson NL who will host us!  The workshop will include hands-on weeding in the Johnson collection, which is scheduled to be RFID-tagged in the near future.

You can sign up by going to the calendar located on the Training Portal on the Intranet.  If you have any questions, contact CD at 3-1469.

Guidelines for Weeding Adult Fiction

Please follow the guidelines from the Collection Development Department for dealing with excess adult fiction at your location. NOTE: Please weed adult fiction by condition first. Then apply these guidelines for weeding excess adult fiction.

Float vs. Weed Guidelines for Surplus Past Adult Bestsellers:

When past fiction and nonfiction bestsellers have reached the ends of their holds queues, multiple copies start accumulating on branch shelves wherever they are returned, creating a shelf space issue.  This is particularly true of titles by very popular authors that are purchased in high quantities to meet initial demand.  The goal is to strike a balance between making space for new arrivals while keeping sufficient backlist copies available throughout the system.

In the HPL Weeding/Friends guidelines, “pre-approved discards” includes this category of material. 

Space permitting, it is appropriate for most locations to keep 2-3 copies of such a title to meet ongoing interest after the demand for “the newest thing” has faded somewhat.  A good rule of thumb for “past bestseller” designation is first-received date being 6 months ago or longer. Use date stickers on the items as a guide.  

How to determine when “too many is too many” and what to do:

1)      Check the catalog to see how many other active copies are still in the system.

2)      Fill any holds outstanding with copies in hand

3)      If there are 35 or more active copies of the title in the system, surplus copies are automatically approved to go to Friends (physical condition permitting, of course).  Active items = on shelf or checked out, but not missing or overdue/billed.

4)      If there are less than 35 active copies, please float surplus copies to locations that do not have any.  If you have duplicates, at least one other location does not have it. 

a.       Float extras to units that don’t already have the title.

b.      If Central has missing or overdue/billed copies, that may be an appropriate new home rather than another neighborhood location.  Central cataloged adult items do not float in or out so please send possible replacement copies to the Collection Development Department with a note indicating the situation so transfer approval can be done efficiently.

Note: Quantity guidelines for teen and juvenile items may differ.

Reminder Regarding Floating Materials

Before sending any items to other locations, please check them for condition. Do not float items in poor condition. When this occurs, the staff at the receiving location is then forced to discard said items. This creates more work for FIDS and the staff at the receiving location.

Please see the attached document for guidelines on weeding items based upon poor physical condition.

You may contact the Collection Development Department (x31469) with any questions.

Thank you,
Chris Hu

Courtesy Notice

If you do have excess materials, please remember to ask other locations if they would like the extra items. Do not simply box up the items and ship them off to another branch. Please remember to communicate with each other. Also, remember to weed damaged items from your collection rather than floating the damaged materials to another location. Such items will not be magically repaired when they arrive at another branch.

*Updated Weeding Guidelines - Revised 9/2011

Please weed collections based upon the criteria in this memo. When weeding, follow these guidelines for boxing discarded materials. For more in-depth guidelines, you can consult the CREW Manual. Please use the following label for boxes of discarded materials.