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• Superseded editions.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 Serials and Reference collections on the main floor.
Please note: some items are being moved to other locations rather than discarded, the spreadsheets include the planned action for each title.

Serials criteria:

• Has it been used in the last 10 years?
• Do we still have a subscription for it?
• Is it available in our research databases?
• Do other libraries have it?

Reference criteria:

• Has it been used in the last 10 years?
• Is the content still valid?
• Do other libraries have it?

The spreadsheets will be updated as the project progresses. Please contact April Davies (daviesac@cobleskill.edu) if you have any questions or want us to keep something in particular.