HIT: ADMIN: 2) How Weed of the Month Club has been a help

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

This is Part Two of the hit about Florida's SUNLINK Weed of the Month Club
site, http://www.sunlink.ucf.edu/weed/

You can read a summary in Part One.
All postings are from Librarians in the U.S. unless otherwise noted.
Joan Kimball
=========================================================

I check your site every month and look at that group of books and weed.
Many times I have the exact titles that you say to weed.  I also look at
suggested new titles.   I don't always have the money to order, but get
ideas of what to look for.  This works for me because I weed on a regular
basis and pull as I see a need.  I don't set aside a weeding time of year.
It is always an ongoing project.  I really enjoy the site.
[Elementary School]
========================================

I used this link last year when I was in a library that desparately needed
weeding.  I was the assistant and the libarian and I laughed when we both
brought in the new pages one month.
========================================

        I have used each month's subject as an incentive to weed it! It's been
great to get me to take a look at those sections and not put off
weeding. I'm also weeding my collection to split it at the end of next
year so it's especially helpful. The monthly reminder to keep at it is a
good reminder to all of us.

        Thanks for providing us with the incentive and the valuable information
on guidelines for what to weed. As a single Media Specialist I find it
invaluable!

Thanks!
[Junior/Senior High School]
========================================

I am planning a major "weed" this year and am planning to use it to put
together some specifics for the different collections. They haven't
published nearly enough subject maatters, but I will use what is there. I
will definitely attend your presentation; I can use all the help I can get
as I'm planning to involve my school'scomplete faculty and they need a lot
of guidance.
=========================================

Joan, once a month, I pass out a print-out of the Weed-of-the-month topic.
I only print out the part that describes the section and the rationale for
the weeding of that section.  I give it to the librarians and aides who all
come to our monthly TEAM meeting for the district.  During the month, they
evaluate their library's section, and bring weeded books to the next
month's TEAM meeting. We discuss those books "weedability," and then we get
the next month's assignment.
    Bringing the books to the meeting has added an element of
accountability to the process.  It has also served as a good way to
encourage these women to "let go," when before they were very reluctant to
find any reason to discard a book that was part of "their" collection. In a
way this loosening of their grip on their collection, has helped loosen
them up just a little in other areas, such as who can check out what, and
how much certain students can have.  They are seeing "their" collection as
more fluid and not so sacred.
    I've come to rely on Weed-of-the-Month Club for well done rationales
and specific sections to examine closely.
[School District Coordinator and High School Teacher/Librarian]
========================================

    I really appreciate Sunlink's weed of the month because it breaks an
awesome job into sections, making the job seem very workable.  It is usually
easy to get through one section of the Media center per month.  It has been
especially helpful in some of the subject areas that I wasn't sure how long
to keep older materials around (ex. history materials and some science
areas).
    Somehow, it seems much easier to delete titles that are listed as
specific examples of those to get rid of!
    Even if I'm not ready to weed that section each month, I still print the
list and save it for future weeding!
=========================================

I inherited a large library of over 11,000 books that had not been weeded in
the 27 years of its existence. The weed of the month focussed me towards
specific areas in the non-fiction books so that the whole process was not
overwhelming. By listing some books to definitely remove, I was saved the
effort of seeking out other teachers in fields in which I had little or no
expertise. The suggested books has given me a starting point in seeking out
reviews for my book orders. I felt as if I had received a gift the day I
discovered this site.
=========================================

I am in my fourth year as an LMS in a 25-year old school.  Former librarians
(with the exception of the one who preceded me in the job) did a great job of
selecting fiction and non-fiction titles.  But parts of the collection are
obviously dated, and we are running out of space.  Since I teach 26 or 27
35-minute classes each week, I hve to be incredibly efficient at collection
development work to get anything done.  Weed of the Month has saved me lots
of time by disciplines, sparing me the task of researching the field on my
own.  By giving this information and specific examples, the site has done the
following for me:  boosted my confidence in my decisions; demonstrated the
strengths of my collection, compared with others; and motivated me to tackle
a task which would otherwise seem impossible to take on.

In my book, Weed of the Month should be on every school librarian's list of
bookmarks.  It is truly a Best-of-the-Web site!
[Elementary School]
========================================

Although I am in an "academic" high school - and the weeds of the month,
particularly the suggested titles to weed/add,
are most often geared to the elementary or middle school librarian - I have
found that the Weeds-Of-The-Month provide needed structure for a task that
is undertaken only when - and if! - nothing else pressing is going on;  a
bit at a time adds up. Each month I print out the pages and add them to my
weeding manual.  My manual also contains articles on weeding, HITS from
LM_NET, and a print-out of Weeding Library Media Center Collections
available on
http://lmsvillage.k12.ky.us/html/weed.htm.  Additionally, I have the Crew
Manual.  So - keep them coming!

A couple of subject areas that might be covered in the future:

Professional Collections books on school libraries, LMCs, with policies,
technical procedures, vertical files stuff, collection development,
reference sources, book repair, working with faculty, standards, making
displays, computers, etc.

Asia

Health Issues


What to do with weeded books?
[High School]
========================================

Hi, Joan.  We use your weed of the month in our district.  Every month I
email the librarians with the weed of the month.  We can do a district
print out to see how many in this area are weeded.  Then I ask them to
share their "favorite weed" and give them a book already cataloged and on
the system as a reward for being a happy weeder.  They have had some
interesting and embarrassing finds.

The librarians all say it is very helpful to them to have a monthly
reminder to weed.  As a high school librarian, I found it way too easy to
let that area slide and to do "natural" weeding or weed as you go.
This would have been good for me.

Thanks for sharing this with us all.
[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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