Assignment+4

=**Assignment #4-Weeding and Collection Management**= =**LIBE 463**= =**By Cindy Nedo**=

After sifting through the library handbook, I came across a document for a weeding policy from 1995. It is very thorough and stresses "Quality over Quantity."
==It gives guidelines for you to follow, even detailing each Dewey section and suggestions for when this section should be replenished. Even though this document is 16 years of age, it gives some great criteria and empowerment to any Teacher-Librarian.==



==I then used my Destiny system to review the statistics of the 910-919 section of my library to determine what resources needed to be removed from the shelves. As indicated in previous discussions my library is in a temporary space and does not have all of the books from this section. At my current location, I would guess that I have approximately 25 books for the 910-919 section, so I decided for Assignment #4, I would weed 10 books from the entire 900 section of my library.==



Copy removed because: old publication date information not current last circulation 3 years ago recently purchased new nonfiction Canada books

Copies removed because: Duplicate Copy Facts from 1993 not relevant information recently purchased new nonfiction Canada books

Copy removed because: damaged cover facts outdated

Copy removed because: damage-colouring in pages lack of circulation 6 years ago

Copy removed because: old publication date information not current lack of circulation



**Reflective Report on Weeding**
===Completing the weeding of a studied section was fun! I found it to be much more purposeful and thorough than weeding on the fly. Over the past five years, I really didn't know how to tackle weeding strategically on a larger scale and would normalIy weed when books were checked in or when I was reshelving books. I certainly enjoyed the process of which I went through to complete this assignment.===

===What did I do? First, I printed out the reports for the 900 section and then pulled books off the shelf that I believe were ready to be discarded. Next, I deleted them using the Destiny software and stamped discard on them and boxed them up for the recycling service that is provided by the school district.===

===How did I approach the project? I was unsure to begin with because the 910-919 section focuses on Countries of the World. I have not been comfortable in the past, weeding this section, wanting to keep one book from every country of the world. But with my trusty weeding policy, I took to the shelves. I gave myself permission to rid the shelves of old, irrelevant, difficult resources.===

What was hard? As I don't have my whole collection at my current library, I couldn't weed out the recommended books from the reports as they were not present.
===It was harder to remove material that was in good condition yet uncirculated. In Chapter 10, Bishop recommends keeping up with geopolitical changes, which I am not very confident with. I wish there was a resource for this section to aid in keeping up with geopolitical changes.===

===How did it feel? It felt wonderful! I certainly liked the opportunity to focus on a section more thoroughly. Completing a weed more strategically was much more beneficial for me. Focusing on one section and studying that section in regards to using the reports for circulation stats, and publication dates, etc. I will certainly try this again and complete a more focused approach to weeding in the other nonfiction sections of my library.===

What would you do differently next time? Next time, I would like to create a schedule that I could use to weed on a more regular basis.
===How did you apply what you learned to the practice of weeding. I applied what I learned from Bishop about weeding when it came to duplicate copies. I removed the books that were duplicates and kept the copy that was in best condition on the shelf. I also referenced my district weeding guide for my school district. For the 900 section, the guide recommended retaining Canadian resources as long as they were still accurate. I discarded a few items that were Canadian resources because I felt the content was not accurate and that I could seek out some new "Canadian" Resources in this area.===