Collection Weeding Guidelines

In addition to acquiring new materials, collection development involves identifying and withdrawing selected resources that are no longer useful in order to ensure that students and faculty have access to accurate, up-to-date, and relevant information in their fields of study.

The most significant factors in making weeding decisions are consultation with teaching faculty and the professional judgment of librarians. Additional factors may include the Library's role in academic programs, user needs and requests, available shelf space, resource-sharing agreements, holdings in centralized databases, and the effectiveness of interlibrary loan services.

Circulating Collection

Deselection should be monthly or quarterly at each campus to ensure that all LC subject areas are reviewed. It is recommended that full-time and part-time librarians make final decisions for deselection, and that library staff assist with processing withdrawals.

Audio-Visual (AV) Collection

Weed the AV collection in conjunction with physical books.

Electronic Book (E-book) Collection

Weed the E-book collection in conjunction with physical books. Depending on where and how the e-books were acquired, weeding will primarily mean removing the item from the library's online catalog. If the library owns the electronic file, as opposed to paying for a subscription, the file may need to be deleted from a server.

Criteria for Deselection ("Weeding")

Along with the criteria used to select new materials, general criteria for retaining, replacing, repairing, or deselecting materials include:

• Availability from alternate sources or locations
• Feasibility and cost of repair
• Historical significance, interest, or value
• Physical condition
• Relative usefulness of the item
• Space considerations
• Superseded, inaccurate, or outdated content
• Usage and years since last checkout

Detailed weeding procedures, tables, and MUSTIE evaluation criteria are maintained in Appendix C.

Disposal of Withdrawn Items

When appropriate, and subject to applicable agreements and procedures, withdrawn materials may be offered to the Florida Academic Repository (FLARE), academic partners, educational organizations, or other approved recipients.

Faculty and program managers should be consulted regarding grant-funded materials when appropriate.

It is at the discretion of the faculty librarian and Library manager to contact appropriate subject faculty regarding withdrawn items purchased by the Library.

Withdrawn materials may be offered to members of the College community or to outside agencies, such as Better World Books. Damaged or unusable materials may be recycled or discarded in accordance with College procedures.

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