HIT: ADMIN: 1) How Weed of the Month Club has been a help

["J. Kimball" <jakimball@MINDSPRING.COM>]

Dear Fellow Librarians,
I wrote asking for your experience as follows:

>If you have used the Weed of the Month site to help you with weeding or
>buying, or other aspects of collection development, could you drop me a
>line with the specifics?  How exactly has this site been useful to you?
>(The site is at the University of Central Florida,
>http://www.sunlink.ucf.edu/weed/)

>I am particularly curious because I would like to use your experience at the
>AASL conference in Birmingham on November 13th at a workshop describing
>SUNLINK and its Weed of the Month Club.

The Weed of the Month Club has now been going for over two years.  In that
time many of the most heavily used sections of a library have been
examined, one section per month.  Carol McWilliams, the director, has
posted criteria to use as guides to weeding, followed by lists of suggested
discards and replacements.

With this HIT I have been, as always, blest with many varied replies.
Thank you so much!
The hit follows, but let me first say that the Weed of the Month Club is
run -- not by me  -- but by a very busy person at Florida's SUNLINK, Carol
McWilliams.  I am passing all your thanks on to her.  I have been a mere
occasional contributor. Joan Kimball

                         ----SUMMARY----
For those of you that prefer a summary, here it is.
Many at elementary and secondary, new and veteran librarians, have attested
to the Weed of the Month Club's usefulness in collection development.
Quite a few said that they found the concept of tackling one topic at a
time especially helpful.  Some have found the same titles to discard that
we listed.  Others have found titles similar to our lists, and felt more
confidence.  A secondary person noted that our titles tend to emphasize
elementary and middle school, but she could extend the ideas to her level.
A couple of people said they needed more topics addressed as soon as
possible!

              ----Part One of the word for word postings----
All postings are from Librarians in the U.S. unless otherwise noted.

========================================================
As a brand new media specialist last year who inherited an old collection
that badly needed weeding, I printed off and used the information from the
Weed of the Month site to help me make decisions on what to let go of and
what to keep.
[Elementary School]
======================================

 This is a little nebulous, but I find that Weed of the Month gives me
the courage to do what I already know is right.  I always carry that
imaginary patron or administrator in my mind who is going to come in waving
a book I've weeded, demanding HOW I could have thrown away such a gem.  I
like knowing that I can go to Weed of the Month for professional back-up on
many of my decisions.  Thanks!
======================================

I have a brand new collection for 6th-7th grade in a new building so it will
be a couple of years before I have to weed again.  I did use your site to
help guide me in my previous building.  I do plan to check your site for
suggestions to fill in some areas that are weak in my new collection.  The
monthly posting was good motivation to tackle a section--much easier a
little at a time.
[Middle School]
======================================

I have used Weed of the Month to inspire me and help me organize my own weeding
of the library, following the sections as recommended each month.  I use the
rationale listed as support if someone casually questions my decisions to
withdraw certain books.  I watch specifically for the titles listed, and I find
that those titles guide me in weeding others.

I print out the web pages and save them to use when a teacher asks me for a
book on a certain subject, although I still try to find reviews for whatever I
purchase.
[High School]
===================================

I forward it to the head of my public services team. He and the team look
it over and consider the recommendations, sometimes following them,
sometimes not. They also take it as a reminder to evaluate the section as a
whole. From the review they decide to  delete other titles and recommend
others for addition to the collection.
[Director of a Public Library]
====================================

I use Weed of the Month as a reminder to check certain sections.  We all get
so busy that this really helps to keep us on track.
====================================

When I first "inherited" this library it had been under the supervision of
non-library professionals for almost 10 years. There were books on top of
books, improperly cataloged books, DDC sections bursting at the seams and
others (just as important to our school) were seriously lacking...a mess.
During my 2nd year I used the Weed of the Month website to clean up. I read
the suggestions for how/what to weed and made careful notes about what to
replace the weeded titles with. I am not exaggerating when I tell you that I
found books that were 80 years old still on the shelves! Your site helped me
to modernize my collection and gave me ammunition when the administration
wanted to know what I was doing by getting rid of all "those perfectly good
books!"
Thank you for the work you do. Thank you for your help. My entire school
owes you a thanks for your help in updating the collection! You helped me
look good, too!  :-)
=======================================

Joan, I have printed off the monthly weeds to use as I go through my
collection.  Usually I have already weeded the worst and oldest, but it is
good to have a guide.  The criteria and guidance info is usually good.
Maybe the best part is that it helps us break up the chore into manageable
chunks so that the weeding actually gets done.
[Elementary School]
=======================================

Weed of the month is one of my favorite services!

Each month I print out the information, then take a look at that section
weeding, adjusting etc.  Then I take the suggested titles, look them up on
Follett's cd-rom and make a list for my consideration file. Sometimes I
bring in a teacher to look the list over (this was especially helpful when
doing the section on AIDS).

I find this to be a much better way to weed, rather than going through the
collection all at once.  Many of the monthly choices are outside my area of
expertise.  It is also fun to see what "treasures" people find and
somewhat horrifying to find the same things in my collection.

I also forward on the weed of the month information to fellow Information
Specialists in my district via our district listserv.  Many are not on
LM_NET.  Before they all had internet many would ask for the information.
[High School in Germany]
=======================================


I print, save and use the Weed of the Month postings each time they come
out.

These postings have moved Weeding from a last priority to a regular
priority for me.  I depend on them.

The postings help me focus on a manageable part of the collection and
evaluate it without getting lost in the "entire collection needs weeding."

I would PAY to get these postings!  :)  Thanks
[High School]
=========================================

I just signed on to LM_NET this year, and discovered Weed of the Month
through the listserve.  What a wonderful service to offer through the web!
Thank you!
I enjoyed looking at the back "weeds" and found the folktale weeding
information particularly helpful.  I had taken a folklore class in college,
and felt that this was one subject that shouldn't be weeded, because
folklore didn't go out of date!  My collection was really old, not
circulating, and quite dusty.  The information on the Weed site helped me
determine that stereotyped folklore wasn't the best to hang on to, so off
to work I went!  Lots of stuff from the 1950's and 1960's, never circulated
and full of dust, went into the dumpster, and the collection is now cleaner
and it's easier to find stuff!  I'll be ordering some of the recommended
titles to bring things more up-to-date!
[Middle School]
=======================================

I am only a 3rd year media specialist, and I inherited very old
collections in two schools, (elementary and middle school). Although we
discussed weeding collections in one of my library science classes in
college, we didn't go much in depth about how to weed specific areas of
the collection.

The site has been very useful to me for providing information on
criteria for weeding particular sections. The examples of titles to weed
are also helpful. Even if I don't have those exact titles in my
collection, I have usually found something similar. Suggested titles to
add are somewhat helpful, but often I have found that the titles are not
available from the jobbers I usually work with.

One specific example in how the site has helped me would be the Space
weed of the month. The way that the site told how books older than a
certain copyright date would be outdated because of new information
obtained by Voyager 2 was very helpful to me in weeding this area in my
schools' collections.

I check the site every month for the new weed of the month. It's an
extremely valuable resource.
[Elementary and Middle School]
====================================

Dear Joan -
Besides enjoying both the assistance of other professionals when it comes to
selection of new materials and also weeding the old, I did come up with a
novel use for the site... BROWNIE POINTS!!!  We have several teachers
working on advanced certification, or grad. level classes...  as one of them
was taking a weather class, she & I printed the list of suggested materials
and she took it in to her prof. to show him a list of recommended current
titles.
[High School]
=======================================

Joan Kimball  jakimball@mindspring.com
Librarian, Storyteller, and Reviewer for Library Talk.
Retired from a K-5 Library: Hart's Hill School, Whitesboro NY
Now living in Ayer Massachusetts.

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