Tips for Weeding Your Collection

Just like a garden, library collections need to be weeded of materials no longer useful, in order to make room for what the customer needs now. Weeding the shabbier materials also makes for a brighter more attractive collection. Remember, you don’t want a MUSTIE collection:

• Misleading
• Ugly
• Superseded
• Trivial
• Irrelevant
• Elsewhere

Take a look at the book Weeding Library Collections: Library Weeding Methods by Stanley Slote for more tips.

There are a number of Web sites available to help you formulate your policy and help with training. The Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records has a useful guide which discusses weeding in depth.

The Alachua Country Public Schools offers a guide specifically for school libraries. The book Less is More : A Practical Guide to Weeding School Library Collections by Donna J. Baumbach is also useful.

The Texas State Library and Archives Commission has a manual for training in the art of weeding.