LibGuides: Collection Development Guidelines: B. Deselection

B. Deselection

Deselection, also known as weeding, is the removal of materials to be discarded. It is an important part of the collection development process. Librarians working with their assigned areas of collection development are primarily responsible for weeding the collection. Faculty are strongly encouraged to review their subject area to find items which should be withdrawn and bring such materials to their library liaison.

Deselection

The deselection of library materials takes place on a regular basis. Standards used by the Libraries include the American Library Association approved CREW Guidelines for Weeding Your Collection (See Appendices) and the MUSTY formulas:

The MUSTIE criteria are also applied during the deselection process:

M=misleading and/or factually inaccurate
U=ugly, worn beyond and/or unworthy of mending (moldy, poor binding, torn)
S=superseded by a new edition, duplicates, or a better book on the subject
T=trivial, faddish or of no discernable literary or scientific merit
I=irrelevant to the needs and interests of patrons (no longer supports curriculum)
E=easy to obtain the material elsewhere (through interlibrary loan or reciprocal borrowing)

Other deselection guidelines for print and media resources include:

Materials which cannot be repaired or rebound or for which the cost of preservation exceeds the usefulness of the information held are deselected.
The library’s general policy on the age of the book collection is that not more than quarter of it should be more than 25 years old. Further, if the title has not circulated at least three times in the last 15 years, it is deselected; for media, this timeline is shortened to 5 years. Exceptions to this guideline include:

Items considered classic works in their field (as decided by listing in Resources for College Libraries) as works that have a long-term value.
Items that have valid content that cannot be replaced by newer sources. In these instances, the items will be kept in the collection despite lack of use.

The material to be weeded should be brought to the Library Resources and Digital Services (LRDS) workroom and placed on carts designated "Withdrawn" with the name of the librarian who pulled the books and date.
Using the Collection Development Policy for guidance, the Director will review the material that is under consideration for weeding and make the final decision as to its disposition.
If the Director decides to withdraw the material, he will notify the LRDS staff who will deaccession the volumes as follows:
- Delete or correct the bib and item records
- Delete holdings on OCLC

- Withdraw the titles and volumes from the collection statistics
- Update the “withdrawn” spreadsheet with title, ISBN, author, call number, OCLC number
- Box and label the books. Withdrawn materials will be sent to Better World Books or recycled.

Withdrawn material may not be given to individual faculty or departments.

Ebooks that are candidates for deselection may be found as with print titles, through regular work (e.g., reference, preparation for instruction, uploading of new titles) or through a systematic review of the subject area, or at the suggestion of a faculty member or other library user.