Three Libraries, Three Weeding Projects: Collaborative Weeding Projects Within a Shared Print Repository

Gillies, Scott; Stephenson, Carol

doi:10.1080/01462679.2012.685420

Cited by 12 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 7 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…A final conclusion to be drawn from the literature review is that a consortium approach to deselection may prove to be fruitful. One example involves the Tri-University Group of Libraries in Ontario, a consortium with a combined collection of approximately 4,300,000 book volumes (Gillies and Stephenson, 2012). The three university libraries had established a joint print repository for infrequently used books and journals in 1996.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Deselection of print monographs in the humanities and social sciences in the digital age

Oliva

2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Purpose For most college and university libraries, deselection of monographs should be an essential component of collection development. Few of these libraries have unlimited space for book stack expansion. This research study aims to cover the reasons why this should be undertaken and how it can be accomplished in the humanities and social sciences. At the main campus of Adelphi University Libraries, a conservative approach was used to identify and carefully review monograph titles that were published more than 50 years ago, and, in most cases, this resulted in their deselection without significantly affecting the collection. For some of these titles, the author determined that they might be worth replacing with available e-books and the author did so. Design/methodology/approach A brief overview is provided to delineate why deselection is important, and how it can be accomplished. A literature review was prepared. It included a review of deselection at small-, medium- and large-sized college and university libraries. The pros and cons of print versus e-books for collection development were reviewed, including four case studies. The feasibility of replacing print reference titles with e-books was also covered. A review of the monograph weeding project at the Adelphi University Library in the humanities and social sciences is provided. Conclusions and a projection of next steps are also included. Findings An overwhelming majority of the monograph titles reviewed were deselected without adversely affecting the overall quality of the collection. A small number of available e-book editions were selected to replace some of these deselected titles. Research limitations/implications All of the titles deselected were published more than 50 years ago. All of these titles were in the social sciences and humanities. The deselection review was limited to philosophy, religion, history, political science, sociology, education and psychology. There were limitations on the amount of time available to review titles in most of these fields, and as a result, only a small percentage of the titles in our collection could be reviewed. Practical implications The library has very serious space constraints, which has made it difficult to provide the needed study space for members of the Adelphi University community. Some sections of the book collection are jam packed, with no room for expansion. Deselecting older less used titles and eliminating some sections of book shelves help address both of these problems. Replacing some of these print titles with e-books contributes as well. This deselection project has reduced the holdings of monograph print titles significantly. In the future, the author hopes to rely less on print titles and more on e-books for collection development. Social implications In most fields, college and university students would be better served for their research by more recently published titles. Older, less used titles, as well as those not used at all, should be deselected to make room for more useful and up-to-date titles. As more and more titles become readily available as e-books, the collections of print titles can be reduced. Being able to use e-books even when the library is closed is a great advantage. It should also be noted that these titles can be used by more than one user simultaneously. Originality/value In conducting the literature search, the author discovered that there were a large number of titles on deselecting print titles. There was also considerable research on e-book collection development. However, there were few that linked these two important topics. In this research article and case study, the author hopes to have made a significant contribution to linking them together.

show abstract

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Deselection of print monographs in the humanities and social sciences in the digital age

Oliva

2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Возникшие в последние 20 лет электронные эквиваленты печатных ресурсов, помимо их большей приспособленности к совместному использованию, создали новые возможности и методы для списания документов (Lugg and Fischer, 2008). В последние годы в профессиональной литературе появился ряд публикаций по крупным проектам списания, выполненным в библиотеках колледжей и университетов (Acadia, 2016;Arbeeny and Chittenden, 2014;Gillies and Stephenson, 2012;Martin, Kamada and Feeney, 2013;Murphy, 2013;Oliva, 2016;Reich, 2013;Snyder, 2014;Soma and Sjoberg, 2011;Way and Garrison, 2013). Толчком к разработке почти всех проектов были планы по обновлению библиотек, строительство новых библиотечных зданий, нового книгохранилища, потребность разгрузить переполненные стеллажи, необходимость трансформации библиотечного пространства, обусловленная другими потребностями и проблемами.…”

unclassified

High-Yield, Low-Risk Deselection in an Academic Library

Giffin

2017

Naučnye i tehničeskie biblioteki

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In conjunction with a multi-year renovation of Concordia University's main library, a comprehensive collections reconfiguration project was launched. The new library floor plans provided for increased study space and a reduced footprint for stacks. Significant deselection of physical format materials such as circulating books, reference works, government publications, and microforms was therefore necessary in order to achieve the necessary space reduction and still maintain room for growth. Although different weeding strategies were developed for specific collections and disciplines, the key factors considered were usage, currency and duplication. By focusing on reducing duplication - multiple copies, superseded editions, replication across different formats - and using data extracted from the library system, it has been possible to remove a large volume of items with minimal decision making required from subject librarians. Virtually all weeded materials have been sent to a non-profit reseller or recycled, in keeping with the university's commitment to environmental sustainability. This approach has resulted in the removal of over 60,000 duplicate copies from the monograph collection alone. At the same time access has been retained to most unique content within the collection, allaying faculty concerns about library deselection. In less than two years the original goals of space reduction for print and microform holdings have been exceeded.

show abstract

Collection Management

Kaspar¹,

Sullenger²

2019

Library Storage Facilities

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Three Libraries, Three Weeding Projects: Collaborative Weeding Projects Within a Shared Print Repository

Cited by 12 publications

References 7 publications

Deselection of print monographs in the humanities and social sciences in the digital age

Deselection of print monographs in the humanities and social sciences in the digital age

High-Yield, Low-Risk Deselection in an Academic Library

Collection Management

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About