Weeding by Wading In SUNYLA 2017 Presentation by

Weeding by Wading In SUNYLA 2017 Presentation by Lisa Errico and Katrina Frazier Nassau Community College

Introduction

A. Holly Patterson Library • Community College • Opened in 1978 • Serves approximately 19, 000 students • Commuter campus • Over 200, 000 titles in the collection

Renovation Plans • Administration proposed renovation plans for the Library in the near future. • Plan calls for increased collaborative space on 3 rd floor of Library. • A 10% reduction of collection is required to make room for more collaborative space.

Past Practices • Lack of an organized weeding schedule for Library faculty (no library subject specialists or liaisons). • The “Collection Development Committee” weeded by default. • Weeding triggered by upcoming accreditations for various programs and departments. • General fear and resistance to reducing the collection.

New Approach

Our Weeding Guidelines • We are a community college Therefore, our weeding criteria will differ from a four-year college and/or university centers. Tailored our criteria to meet our user needs. • Focus is on the circulating collection Reference, serials, electronic resources and special collections are excluded from this weeding project. • Reviewed the Professional Literature (CREW, books, e-forums & articles) • Weeded liberally (weeding was not a priority in the past and no off-site storage facilities)

Workflow • Created Aleph Reports. • Librarians participated in the process from beginning to end (did not use support staff). • Attempted to include weeding into our weekly schedules. • Acquired new titles as needed to update collection and fill gaps. • Used bindery service. • Physical removal of materials.

Aleph Reports Searched the collection for titles with zero circulation statistics and produced Aleph reports sorted by call number. Used Services function in Cataloging Module: Items-General Retrieval Form (Ret-Adm-01) Items-Delete Item Records (Item-11) Retrieve Catalog Records-Print Catalog Records-Columnar Format (Print 08) General-Retrieve Record Keys (Manage-70) Aleph and OCLC Batch Processing

Our Findings

Pros Enhances collection development and acquisition strategy Shelves look more attractive Incidental weeding Impromptu reference service Option to re-classify titles that may be a better fit in another area

Before After

Cons Requirement of additional supplies Allergic reactions Time consuming

Lessons Learned

Your Collection Talks Weeding is not an exact science. Aleph reports are just a guideline. Mistakes will happen—Don’t sweat it! Grab faculty assistance when you can. Embrace your own style. Librarians are in charge!

We Got Your Back! Afraid of making a mistake? If an item is weeded “accidentally” you can rely on other resources and our global network: • Electronic Resources (databases, Hathi Trust, e-Books, etc. ) • Interlibrary Loan – (other Librarians have your back!) • Print on Demand

Bibliography . " CREW: A Weeding Manual for Modern Libraries | TSLAC. N. p. , n. d. Web. 17 May 2017. " Barclay, Donald A. “The Myth of Browsing: Academic Library Space in the Age of Facebook. ” EScholarship, 22 May 2015, escholarship. org/uc/item/25 g 4866 w. Accessed 17 May 2017. Handis, Michael W. "Practical advice for weeding in small academic libraries. " Collection Building 26. 3 (2007): 84 -87. Web. Vnuk, Rebecca. The weeding handbook a shelf-by-shelf guide. Chicago: ALA Editions, an imprint of the American Library Association, 2015. Print. Ward, Suzanne M. Rightsizing the academic library collection. Chicago: ALA Editions, an imprint of the American Library Association, 2015. Print.

Questions? Contact Information: Lisa Errico Assistant Professor Technical Services Librarian Lisa. Errico@ncc. edu Katrina Frazier Professor Cataloging Librarian Katrina. Frazier@ncc. edu