Mary Baldwin University Collection Evaluation and use of “Safe to weed” lists Paula s. Kiser Instruction and e-resources Librarian

Background Weeding project to review the entire collection Last weeding project was over 5 years ago and didn’t cover the entire collection Split the collection by subject area and department Created timeline for the project (areas least likely to protest weeded first) Began communicating with faculty members

Communication in departmental meetings creating a webpage our weeding criteria lists of books to weed list of all books in that section newsletter

Concerns Criteria used Not checked out since we automated 20 years ago Not on the Core List of essential titles Faculty still had concerns may need older works for a future project students may use the books and put them back how accessible will those weeded items be from other schools? Included the VIVA “Safe to Weed” List to our criteria

New Work Flow Create pull list Remove items from Core List Check against “Safe to Weed” List used ISBN Students pull books from the collection Another review by two librarians Withdrawn remaining pulled items