Picking the library weeds

With my new position that I started last month I have adopted several collections. One of my new collections is the popular E (easy? everyone?) picture book collection. This collection is generally for a wide range of readers, consists of books that offer a rich vocabulary, and have stories told through text and images. Picture books, on average, are 32 pages.

I have picture books that I love to read in story times. I have a list of picture books that I recommend to adults when they are special guest readers in an elementary classroom. There are some great picture books that are informational in nature and sometimes hidden in the nonfiction collection, as they don’t necessarily tell a story but rather convey information. There are the picture books sometimes nestled in the 398.2 section, as they retell folk and fairy tales.

Today I am going to focus on the materials in the picture storybook collection – or the E’s and specifically how to weed them. I am currently engaged in the important task of weeding the E collection in my library, so it’s been on my mind.

Kendra Jones, a member of the ALSC Managing Children’s Services committee, wrote about the importance of weeding in her post from May 2015. In her post she mentioned the CREW Weeding guidelines published by the Texas State Library; when starting the weeding process, I refer to CREW to establish a quantitative baseline to decide how long to keep things that aren’t moving. Beyond the “MUSTIE” considerations, items in easy picture book collections should be analyzed according to last circulation date.

CREW states that easy picture book materials that haven’t checked out in 2+ years should be weeded. When I ran a report using this criteria, I found that there were less than 35 items (out of several thousand) that had been collecting dust and taking up valuable shelf space.

Another report that I generally run when “learning” the movement of a collection is used to find items that have been around for over two years but have never checked out. That doesn’t mean those items are automatically on the chopping block, but it is a good practice to know what moves and what doesn’t. This technique also highlights items that have not checked out because they are missing.

After looking at the most recent circulation statistics for items, I move onto items that may need to be replaced due to high usage and show normal physical wear. There isn’t one circulation number that universally works for all libraries; I’ve seen collections with items that have circulated over 200 times that are still in good shape; meanwhile other collections contain items that need to be considered for weeding due to poor physical condition after 50-75 checkouts. “Normal” physical wear is something that varies widely.

Is weeding part of your job responsibilities? If so do you have a circulation number that you use as your benchmark for replacement consideration? What constitutes “normal” in terms of physical wear for the collections you weed? Do you consider the size of your collection, regional standards, or the age of the collection? Does your library set aside a certain amount for replacements? What about audiovisual materials? I would love to discuss best practices from librarians in the weeds.