Collection Development Policies: Weeding/Deselection

In order to keep its collection alive, useful, and accessible, the Library will maintain an active and continuing program of weeding. Weeding, or the removal of obsolete, damaged, and inappropriate materials for the purposes of discarding, is an integral part of the collection development process.

In general, candidates for weeding include:

• Worn, damaged materials.
• Ephemeral materials no longer timely.
• Obsolete, inaccurate materials.
• Superseded editions.
• Unused, unneeded items.
• Duplicate copies of seldom used materials.

Items that should not be weeded:

• Materials of research potential (as determined by library and/or subject area faculty).
• Local history.
• Rare materials.

Responsibility for selecting items for possible withdrawal from the collection lies with the entire college community. Faculty in academic departments are expected to actively participate in the decision-making process regarding removal of materials. All librarians participate in the weeding process in consultation with appropriate subject area faculty.

Items currently being considered for removal from the Children's (JUV) collection.

Criteria:

• Keep award winners (Caldecott, Newbery, etc.) and classic, core titles (e.g., Charlotte's Web)
• Remove any book that has not been used since 1995, unless faculty provide a good reason to keep it (e.g., significance to the history of children's literature)

The spreadsheet will be updated as the project progresses. Please contact April Davies (daviesac@cobleskill.edu) if you have any questions or want us to keep a certain book.