Weeding Policy

Materials in the College Library will be evaluated regularly (see Inventory Policy).

Maintaining the quality and usefulness of the collections is a central goal of the Library. Librarians are responsible for deciding which materials are accurate, current, and relevant, and which should be discarded. They will consult faculty members during major weeding projects and when doubt exists about the need to retain an item.

For weeding, relocating, or discarding purposes, the collection will be evaluated on the basis of two distinct purposes:

Materials needed to provide depth and breadth in circulating materials.

Materials needed to provide currency in reference materials.

Library materials should be considered for removal from the collection if they fall within one or more of these categories:

•obsolete contents

•superseded editions, provided that newer editions incorporate important information from earlier editions

•no longer serving the purposes of the library, e.g., unused duplicates, "shelf sitters,"

•outmoded technology

•poor physical condition, or damaged beyond usefulness

•records of lost items that are now out of print

•lacking historical value

•ephemeral materials that are not easily accessed or bound

•paper copy or bound periodicals for which space limitations warrant microform copies, or which are covered by a more durable format (e.g., online or CD-ROM).

Materials in the circulating collection will, generally, be retained in order that the collection can provide both historical perspective and current information. Biannually, faculty members from each division will be requested to review library holdings in their areas of expertise in order to identify current information, classic materials, and any gaps that the library should fill through acquisition.

Reference materials whose daily value demands the most current information available, e.g. population data, business patterns, information on prescription drugs, political office holders, etc. will be weeded and updated by replacements regularly. Weeded materials may be relocated to the circulating collection if the information would not mislead or harm a patron.