Throw-It Thursday - The Five W’s of Weeding, Part 3: Who

Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay

Ashley Borman, Technical Services Librarian at the Clintonville (WI) Public Library and YSS board member, continues a five-part series on weeding. Stay tuned for the next few months as she shares insights on the Five W's of Weeding

So far, we have talked about why weeding is necessary and where and when it happens. We referenced some really old resources (which I still have listed below if you care to look) that I will mention again today. The WHO of weeding depends on the library. Both resources listed below state the “librarian” should be in charge of weeding. Since both pamphlets were written with smaller libraries in mind, this refers to the library director. But this might vary for different libraries, especially in todays world, where we have numerous activities and duties we are all responsible for.

The library director, or head of a department is usually a good choice for weeding, or at least knowing who to designate responsible for certain sections, as they hopefully know their staff and their staffs’ capabilities. It is also possible to involve clerical staff, pages or volunteers to pull items from the shelves to be looked at. They can also mark items as discarded after the items have been reviewed by the person choosing what happens to them. In my library, I am responsible for the adult collections, while the children’s librarian is responsible for the children and teen collections, though I do help them from time to time. I utilize our front desk staff for marking items that are being discarded after I have removed them from the system. 

So, the simple answer is, there might be one person responsible for everything from start to finish, or you might utilize a number of people to accomplish your weeding goals. Whatever you do, I hope it makes it less stressful and more enjoyable because weeding is necessary and fun!

Sources of interest:

“Weeding the Library: Suggestions for the Guidance of Librarians of Small Libraries.” Wisconsin Free Library Commission; Madison, 1949. 

“Weeding the Collection.” Division for Library Services, Bureau of Public and Cooperative Library Services, 1977.

Please stop here for the rest of this series (links go live as they are published monthly):

The Five W's of Weeding, Part 1 - Why

The Five W's of Weeding, Part 2 - Where and When

The Five W's of Weeding, Part 4 - What

The Five W's of Weeding, Part 5 - How