Weeding Policy

 Goals 

• Weeding at least 300 books a year

• Major weeding of collection every 5 years

• Maintaining a current collection

• Emphasizing currency in the Science, Dewey 500 area

 Guidelines & Methods

 CREW Method*

• M—misleading (factually inaccurate)

• U—ugly (beyond repair)

• S—superseded (newer edition or better title)

• T—trivial (no merit)

• Y—your collection has no use (irrelevant)

Further Ideas**

General Reference—Weed all encyclopedia sets that are five years or older.  These may go to classrooms, but remove them after 10 years.  Weed almanacs every year; only keep the current year.
000s—Computer books change rapidly.  Consider buying only paperback titles.
100s—Check for dated illustrations.
200s—Make sure you’ve got all viewpoints.
300s—As long as custom and folklore look okay, there is no need to weed them.
400s—Look for old dictionaries that don’t have new terms in them.
500s—Delete old dinosaurs and astronomy.  Botany doesn’t change too often.  Check books on atoms every two years. 
600s—Medicine, radio, TV, space exploration, and cars date rapidly. Popular subjects such as pets, crafts, and cookbooks may need replacing because of their condition.
700s—Some may be irreplaceable so hang on to them.  Consider replacing hobbies.
800s—These don’t get dated.  They just wear out.
900s—These date quickly!  Replace country books frequently.
Fiction and Easy—Duplicates once needed may no longer be needed. 

 *Wasman, Ann M. New Steps to Service: Common-Sense Advice for the School Library Media Specialist.

 **From SLM 501, Mona Kerby

Selection Policy

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