Core Collection Management in Public Libraries Interest Group

Hi everyone, I hope you're all having a good spring!

Several of you mentioned wanting to discuss weeding procedures/training, and I thought it would be a good topic for us to chat about here. We have a ton of new staff at my library (I'm sure I'm not alone in that), and throughout the past few years we've had to make major adjustments to how we've weeded (and NOT weeded) to respond to the disruption in service and circulation caused by the pandemic. We're rolling out a system-wide collection maintenance training this year, and really going back to basics with all staff, not just the newcomers. We're finding that the staff who have been here a while are craving some consistent training just as much as the newer staff, and they don't mind going back to the basics - I was worried they've be bored, but we're getting good engagement and lots of great questions from all of them in the trainings.

Something else we're doing is lengthening the amount of time we allow books to have not circulated before we review them for potential removal from the collection. Our library was fairly aggressive with weeding items if they weren't circulating well prior to 2020, so that's a big shift for us. But we want to give materials their chance to be discovered by our community, and many of them just didn't get a fair shot if we purchased them in 2020 or 2021.

What is your library doing to address training gaps when it comes to weeding and general collection maintenance? What kinds of shifts in your weeding philosophy have you made? Anything else you're hoping to learn from your colleagues here?

Erica

Hi Erica!

I'm relatively new to my library and my position; I started here at the beginning of September. APLD has 4 branches, but we do centralized collection development. Our 4 selectors purchase materials for the 4 branches with input/guidance from branch staff, but the branch staff are responsible for weeding (with input/guidance from the selectors). This causes some disconnect and confusion and pretty stark differences in weeding practices among the branches. I really like your idea of having library-wide collection management training, and I think that could help all of us get on the same page with weeding.

We also use CHQ to generate our weeding reports and I would love to hear from other CHQ libraries about how they are utilizing CHQ to its fullest potential. I'd especially like to hear about how you're using the DEI data you get from CHQ and how that influences your collection maintenance (ex: do you hold off on weeding DEI materials longer than non-DEI books? Use DEI data to create displays/promotions?)

Hi everyone, I hope you're all having a good spring!

Several of you mentioned wanting to discuss weeding procedures/training, and I thought it would be a good topic for us to chat about here. We have a ton of new staff at my library (I'm sure I'm not alone in that), and throughout the past few years we've had to make major adjustments to how we've weeded (and NOT weeded) to respond to the disruption in service and circulation caused by the pandemic. We're rolling out a system-wide collection maintenance training this year, and really going back to basics with all staff, not just the newcomers. We're finding that the staff who have been here a while are craving some consistent training just as much as the newer staff, and they don't mind going back to the basics - I was worried they've be bored, but we're getting good engagement and lots of great questions from all of them in the trainings.

Something else we're doing is lengthening the amount of time we allow books to have not circulated before we review them for potential removal from the collection. Our library was fairly aggressive with weeding items if they weren't circulating well prior to 2020, so that's a big shift for us. But we want to give materials their chance to be discovered by our community, and many of them just didn't get a fair shot if we purchased them in 2020 or 2021.

What is your library doing to address training gaps when it comes to weeding and general collection maintenance? What kinds of shifts in your weeding philosophy have you made? Anything else you're hoping to learn from your colleagues here?

Erica

Miranda - I definitely can relate! We have 23 locations and also do centralized selection, but ask our branch staff to handle weeding, so there can be a LOT of disconnect. Centralized training and guidelines have helped tremendously. We've also set up a system where we've designated one librarian at each branch as the "collection lead," and just this year we started meeting with the leads monthly to discuss collection issues and give weeding and display guidance. They are then responsible for coaching the rest of the branch staff on correct procedures.

We're new to using CollectionHQ so I have some of the same questions you have about how to fully utilize the product! We're excited about using the DEI data to help with displays and potentially identifying collection gaps at branches. We recently had one of our collection leads notice that the percentage of Middle Eastern/North African titles at their branch was pretty low but their local community has a large number of people of Middle Eastern/North African descent, so we are looking at ways to increase holdings at that branch to better represent the population they are serving. I've also been talking with our team here about not using the DEI information to "exempt" titles from being weeded, but to give staff more context about the title, and coach them to take this into consideration when evaluating books, especially low circ items. Some titles may not circulate right away and we need to give them time for our community to find them. But if the book is in poor condition, we shouldn't keep it in the collection just because it's marked as a DEI title in CHQ; we should be refreshing with a new copy or different titles.

That's a long winded response but I hope it's helpful! What is everyone else doing?

Hi Erica!

I'm relatively new to my library and my position; I started here at the beginning of September. APLD has 4 branches, but we do centralized collection development. Our 4 selectors purchase materials for the 4 branches with input/guidance from branch staff, but the branch staff are responsible for weeding (with input/guidance from the selectors). This causes some disconnect and confusion and pretty stark differences in weeding practices among the branches. I really like your idea of having library-wide collection management training, and I think that could help all of us get on the same page with weeding.

We also use CHQ to generate our weeding reports and I would love to hear from other CHQ libraries about how they are utilizing CHQ to its fullest potential. I'd especially like to hear about how you're using the DEI data you get from CHQ and how that influences your collection maintenance (ex: do you hold off on weeding DEI materials longer than non-DEI books? Use DEI data to create displays/promotions?)

Hi everyone, I hope you're all having a good spring!

Several of you mentioned wanting to discuss weeding procedures/training, and I thought it would be a good topic for us to chat about here. We have a ton of new staff at my library (I'm sure I'm not alone in that), and throughout the past few years we've had to make major adjustments to how we've weeded (and NOT weeded) to respond to the disruption in service and circulation caused by the pandemic. We're rolling out a system-wide collection maintenance training this year, and really going back to basics with all staff, not just the newcomers. We're finding that the staff who have been here a while are craving some consistent training just as much as the newer staff, and they don't mind going back to the basics - I was worried they've be bored, but we're getting good engagement and lots of great questions from all of them in the trainings.

Something else we're doing is lengthening the amount of time we allow books to have not circulated before we review them for potential removal from the collection. Our library was fairly aggressive with weeding items if they weren't circulating well prior to 2020, so that's a big shift for us. But we want to give materials their chance to be discovered by our community, and many of them just didn't get a fair shot if we purchased them in 2020 or 2021.

What is your library doing to address training gaps when it comes to weeding and general collection maintenance? What kinds of shifts in your weeding philosophy have you made? Anything else you're hoping to learn from your colleagues here?

Erica

Sorry to only now be coming to this discussion.
We're similar in that we have 13 locations plus a Mobile Library and centralized selection but branch staff does the weeding. We've also just held weeding training, emphasizing our weeding guidelines and the general principles to apply them to local circumstances.  We have been given things extra time post 2020/2021, but are starting to emphasize having a regular collection maintenance routine again, with the weeding training being part of that message. We required specific staff who needed extra guidance to attend but anyone involved with collection maintenance could attend.

We also do a deep dive analysis using both CHQ and old fashioned spreadsheets we sort in various ways of each branch on an 18-month rotation. We share these analyses with branch heads and others involved in collection maintenance and give specific weeding guidance at these meetings with varied degrees of success. Our hope with the recent training was to get more people all on the same page. Even though we include a lot of the same information in new hire training for librarians that is an overwhelming time for things to sink in and a lot of long-time staff tends to do it the way they always have done and appreciate updated training too.

We tell folks to give diverse materials an extra chance, especially in underrepresented areas. Our criteria don't quite always match up with the DEI designation in CHQ, but we find it to be a good additional piece of information that can flag something for taking an extra look. We also emphasize diverse materials are more readily found when the collection as a whole is well maintained and attractive, shelves aren't overflowing, and there is plenty of room for face out and display. But that doesn't mean keeping something just because it is diverse, especially as we continue to refresh and add updated diverse materials on the selection side. I'm in in agreement with Erica on items in poor condition- we spend a lot of time telling people to weed grubby items and get replacements when needed.

We've had CHQ since 2014. In the beginning (before I was in this role) there was such heavy emphasis on weeding dead items because there were so many people who weren't doing any maintenance at all, that people were over weeding or only looking at circ and missing other important factors. We've been making an explicit shift the past several years to using CHQ as a tool for mindful weeding and that condition is the first priority in our weeding order of operations, then in non-fiction outdated information and superseded editions, then looking at low/no circ items.

I enjoyed everyone's insights. Thanks for sharing them!

Miranda - I definitely can relate! We have 23 locations and also do centralized selection, but ask our branch staff to handle weeding, so there can be a LOT of disconnect. Centralized training and guidelines have helped tremendously. We've also set up a system where we've designated one librarian at each branch as the "collection lead," and just this year we started meeting with the leads monthly to discuss collection issues and give weeding and display guidance. They are then responsible for coaching the rest of the branch staff on correct procedures.

We're new to using CollectionHQ so I have some of the same questions you have about how to fully utilize the product! We're excited about using the DEI data to help with displays and potentially identifying collection gaps at branches. We recently had one of our collection leads notice that the percentage of Middle Eastern/North African titles at their branch was pretty low but their local community has a large number of people of Middle Eastern/North African descent, so we are looking at ways to increase holdings at that branch to better represent the population they are serving. I've also been talking with our team here about not using the DEI information to "exempt" titles from being weeded, but to give staff more context about the title, and coach them to take this into consideration when evaluating books, especially low circ items. Some titles may not circulate right away and we need to give them time for our community to find them. But if the book is in poor condition, we shouldn't keep it in the collection just because it's marked as a DEI title in CHQ; we should be refreshing with a new copy or different titles.

That's a long winded response but I hope it's helpful! What is everyone else doing?

Hi Erica!

I'm relatively new to my library and my position; I started here at the beginning of September. APLD has 4 branches, but we do centralized collection development. Our 4 selectors purchase materials for the 4 branches with input/guidance from branch staff, but the branch staff are responsible for weeding (with input/guidance from the selectors). This causes some disconnect and confusion and pretty stark differences in weeding practices among the branches. I really like your idea of having library-wide collection management training, and I think that could help all of us get on the same page with weeding.

We also use CHQ to generate our weeding reports and I would love to hear from other CHQ libraries about how they are utilizing CHQ to its fullest potential. I'd especially like to hear about how you're using the DEI data you get from CHQ and how that influences your collection maintenance (ex: do you hold off on weeding DEI materials longer than non-DEI books? Use DEI data to create displays/promotions?)

Hi everyone, I hope you're all having a good spring!

Several of you mentioned wanting to discuss weeding procedures/training, and I thought it would be a good topic for us to chat about here. We have a ton of new staff at my library (I'm sure I'm not alone in that), and throughout the past few years we've had to make major adjustments to how we've weeded (and NOT weeded) to respond to the disruption in service and circulation caused by the pandemic. We're rolling out a system-wide collection maintenance training this year, and really going back to basics with all staff, not just the newcomers. We're finding that the staff who have been here a while are craving some consistent training just as much as the newer staff, and they don't mind going back to the basics - I was worried they've be bored, but we're getting good engagement and lots of great questions from all of them in the trainings.

Something else we're doing is lengthening the amount of time we allow books to have not circulated before we review them for potential removal from the collection. Our library was fairly aggressive with weeding items if they weren't circulating well prior to 2020, so that's a big shift for us. But we want to give materials their chance to be discovered by our community, and many of them just didn't get a fair shot if we purchased them in 2020 or 2021.

What is your library doing to address training gaps when it comes to weeding and general collection maintenance? What kinds of shifts in your weeding philosophy have you made? Anything else you're hoping to learn from your colleagues here?

Erica