Weed to Achieve: a Fundamental Part of the Public Library Mission?
Pergamon Library Collections, Acquisitions, & Technical Services 27 (2003) 73–96 Weed to achieve: a fundamental part of the public library mission? Juris Dilevko*, Lisa Gottlieb Faculty of Information Studies, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 3G6 Abstract Weeding or deselection of materials has become an integral part of library management. Based on a nineteen-question survey about weeding practices in public libraries, this article discusses the personal perspectives of public librarians on weeding as well as the weeding practices of their institutions. The three most common criteria for weeding are circulation, physical condition, and accuracy of information. Librarians overwhelmingly believe that weeding increases use of books and patron satisfaction. In addition, the public library was framed as a venue that offers safe, clean, and fresh “product lines” with various natural life cycles and expiry dates. This discursive formation raises questions about the extent to which public libraries and their collections are becoming commodified, homogenized, and ephemeral, and whether such ephemeralness and homogenization serve the inter- ests of all community members. © 2003 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Weeding; Deselection; Collection management; Public libraries 1. Introduction The question of whether a public library collection should be weeded has long been a controversial topic in the field of librarianship, generating lively arguments about the advantages or disadvantages of weeding. As Loriene Roy summarizes, the weeding debate can be traced back to Charles Francis Adams, Jr. and the Quincy Plan. Adams served as a library trustee for the Crane Memorial Public Library in Quincy, Massachusetts, which was built by Henry Hobson Richardson in 1882 [1].
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