Throw-It Thursday - The Five W’s of Weeding, Part 4: What

Image by Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke 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

Today we continue this mini-series of the five w’s with the what. What is the what of weeding you ask? Good question. I am not going to give you the definition of what weeding is because you already know that. Heck you probably know most of the things I’ve mentioned in my last few posts. There are so many what’s to weeding that I can’t possibly answer every what without raising more what questions. So today, I will only talk about one what that may or may not be useful: what resources can you use to help aid your weeding process.

According to Weeding the Library (yes, I know it’s old, and the books reference are waaaaaay outdated, but it’s still fun to see what they used to say), you should collect as many good classified lists as you can and compare them to see what books show up multiple times. You should keep those or get new editions. I think this is poppycock, of course. Yes, finding some good lists can be helpful, but today, such lists are a dime a dozen and there are so many books being printed daily that it can be overwhelming to look at more than a few lists. Find a couple you like and go with those. I usually check out the NYT Bestseller’s list for new and popular items. For older items or non-fiction, I have a list of resources below.

Another great resource to use is the CREW Method, which is especially helpful for maintaining a more up-to-date non-fiction collection. This list goes through each collection (and smaller sections of NF) to help you determine best practices and what should and shouldn’t be kept. This is my go-to resource when I am questioning something in the non-fiction. It has so many helpful tips in it. If you are new to weeding, or still unsure of the best way to go about it after years of stressing over it, find some resources like these that will help you feel more comfortable with saying good-bye to overcrowded shelves.

Book Lists to Help Maintain Your Collection

Library of Congress Classic Books. https://www.read.gov/books/. 

OCLCs The Complete 500 (the top 500 novels held in WorldCat Libraries). https://www.oclc.org/en/worldcat/library100/top500.html. 

H.W. Wilson Core Collection books. https://www.hwwilsoninprint.com/core_collections.php. 

CREW Weeding Manual and educational resources: https://www.tsl.texas.gov/ld/pubs/crew/index.html. 

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 3 - Who

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