LIS Links

First and Largest Academic Social Network of LIS Professionals in India

Latest Activity

Samit Mondal updated their profile
1 hour ago
Dr. Badan Barman posted a blog post
2 hours ago
MANJULA T posted a discussion
3 hours ago
Sebastine Robert posted a discussion
3 hours ago
Dr. Bhakti Gala posted a discussion
3 hours ago
Sumit Chakraborty posted a discussion
3 hours ago
Dr. O Seshaiaih posted a discussion
3 hours ago
Dr. Badan Barman is now friends with Chavda Jitendra Kumar Ambalal and Poonam
3 hours ago
Nayana Nair posted an event
Thumbnail

One-day Workshop on Analog to Digital: The Transformation at French Institute of Pondicherry (IFP)

October 31, 2025 from 9:30am to 5:30pm
3 hours ago
Dr. Badan Barman updated an event
Thumbnail

International Conference on Libraries and Emerging Technologies for Smart Knowledge Ecosystems (ICLET 2025) at Jaipur,Rajasthan

November 14, 2025 at 9am to November 15, 2025 at 6pm
3 hours ago
Profile IconDINESH KUMAR, Kamlesh Das, Raman Kumar Sharma and 68 more joined LIS Links
3 hours ago
Pramod kumar updated their profile
Tuesday
Manmeet Kaur updated their profile
Monday
MEDARIKA SYIEM updated their profile
Monday
Namita Bayan updated their profile
Saturday
Paojathang Haokip left a comment for paojangul misao
Saturday
srikanth updated their profile
Sep 26
Dola Ghosh might attend Dr. U. PRAMANATHAN's event
Sep 24
Mahendra Singh and Navnit Patel are now friends
Sep 24
Rajbir Singh and Dr. Badan Barman are now friends
Sep 23
What is the process of weed out books ?

Views: 1157

Reply to This

Replies to This Forum

Thanks mam.

Weeding the collection is an essential task in the library because it ensures patrons will have access to the most useful and demanded materials. In a well-weeded library patrons are able to browse the stacks and make fortuitous discoveries. Conversely, a rarely weeded collection leaves useful books camouflaged by musty, out-of-date books.

  1. Plan the Process         Before a single book is pulled or subscription cancelled, the staff needs to decide on all the policies and procedures of weeding. Prioritize sections to be weeded. Identify any staff members who have advanced knowledge of a field of study and have them weed within their fields. Create a time line for the weeding process and set goals for each participating staff member. Determine the criteria for discards. Many libraries go by the mnemonically derived "MUSTY" systems that encourages the weeding of books that contain "Misleading" or out-of-date information, are "Ugly" or damaged, may be "Superseded" by other books, have "Trivial" scholarly merit or are irrelevant for "Your" patrons.
  2. START Pulling Books             Weed the stacks in small sections roughly the size of half a bookshelf. Pull the most obvious discards first, such as damaged and moldy books. Then pull books that are probable discards based on their publication dates. If a book need to be replaced with a new copy or updated version, tape a note to it.
  3. Back of House work         Once the books are off the shelves, decide what will be definitely discarded. Not all the books pulled will be scrapped. Check the circulation statistics on materials so popular books aren't discarded and unpopular books aren't kept. Send damaged but useful books to Collection Development to be replaced. When in doubt over a book, ask for other librarians' opinions.
  4. Dispose of Materials        Before throwing materials in the garbage, consider if they can be sold, donated or recycled, but do not be afraid to trash books.
  5. Maintenance    Weeding is not a one-time activity; an effective collection is weeded continually. Regularly weed small sections to keep the collection fresh and avoid another wide-scale weeding
Thank U.

Criteria for Weeding. 

CREW stands for Continuous Review, Evaluation, and Weeding.  This method has been time tested and is considered so valuable that many libraries simply refer to the CREW method as their criteria for weeding in their collection development policies.  however, that these criteria are for smaller libraries that normally do not have a heavy research emphasis.  Academic libraries and specialized libraries would use very different criteria than those mentioned here.

The CREW method gives six general criteria for considering weeding an item from the library's collection.  These have been summed up with the acronym MUSTIE

                     M=     Misleading--factually inaccurate
                      U=      Ugly--worn beyond mending or rebinding
                      S=       Superceded--by a new edition of by a much better book on the subject
                      T=       Trivial--of no discernible literary or scientific merit
                      I=        Irrelevant to the needs and interests of the library's community
                      E=       Elsewhere--the material is easily obtainable from another library

For more details visit the following link

ref:http://lili.org/forlibs/ce/able/course4/05criteria.htm

visit the following resource link to view the Weeding Manual fulltext free online:

http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/ld/pubs/crew/crewmethod08.pdf

Thanks mam for very descriptive answer.

I think you should change the title of the forum post to

What is the process to weed out books?

Mr. Badan,
I agree with your comments. the sentence is vague. Its doesn't

Thanks for ur comments.

 

Thanks for correction sir.

RSS

© 2025   Created by Dr. Badan Barman.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service

Koha Workshop