Weeding: what it is and why we do it

As you browse the shelves at the library you may notice that some of our older books are not on the shelf anymore. You may also notice that there is more space on the shelves than there has been in the past. These changes are the result of a process that we in the library world call weeding. Similar to pulling the weeds out of your garden, weeding in the library allows us to remove old, unwanted materials from our collection to make room for the new and exciting things.

There are several reasons why we weed:

• To keep our collections relevant.
  Sometimes a book just doesn’t appeal to people anymore. A book that was in demand 10 years ago may not have the same popularity anymore. That book has served its purpose and it can be moved out of the collection.
• To eliminate bad information.
  Books get old and the information contained in them is no longer correct. This is a particular problem in some of the non-fiction sections like science, business, technology, and law. These materials need to be updated regularly and the old materials are removed.
• To keep the collection clean.
  After they have been checked out many times library materials are often very dirty and sometimes heavily damaged. We remove these books to ensure that everyone can check out a clean, undamaged book. If damaged materials are very popular we may buy them again.
• To make it easier to find things.
  Library studies have shown that people are more likely to take materials off the shelf if the shelf is less crowded and easier to browse. With weeding, we are removing the things you don’t want to make it easier to find the things that you do want.

Usually weeding is a slow and steady process but every once in a while we have to take big swings and remove a large number of items from the collection. This is when you will notice the drastic changes in what you see on the shelves. Don’t worry, this isn’t a normal occurrence. Drastic weeding projects only happen every 10-20 years, sometimes only once in a lifetime, and if we keep our collection maintenance on schedule you will not see dramatic changes in the collection.

But where do the removed books go?

The one thing that we hear most often when we weed materials is that we are throwing away perfectly good books. That couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact we make every effort to ensure that materials that are removed from our collection are given a new home where they will be appreciated and used.

The first stop for any weeded book is usually the Friends of the Library book sale. At the book sales anyone can come and buy books and other materials at bargain prices. These sales raise funds for Library services and programs so that our old materials can still help us make the library better. Any books that can’t be sold at the Friends’ sale are sent to an organization called Better World Books. Better World Books, located in Mishawaka, IN, in turn attempts to sell these materials online. A portion of the profit from those sales comes back to us and part of it goes towards funding literacy projects around the world.

We do have some books that can’t be sold such as old textbooks or encyclopedias that no one wants. These books are recycled through the Paper Gator program which raises money for the Huntington County Literacy Coalition. So you can see that our old books and other materials go on to do great things for many people.