1. The Unglamorous but Essential Other Side to Collection Development De-Selection Collection Development for 21st Century School Libraries OR…

2. What is it? Why do it? Weeding?

3. In this age of rapidly changing information, it is imperative that we keep our collections up to date. This means selecting and purchasing new materials and discarding or recycling others. Weeding is the discarding part…

5. My name is Marlene. Think of me as your average teacher-librarian. I have a passion for teaching research and information literacy in the information-rich environment of the library. I love helping connect kids with just the right book. Weeding? No time….

6. “The milk in the refrigerator is past the sell date, has an odor, and is curdled and lumpy. Would you keep it, because you don’t know when you could get to the store to buy more? Then why would you keep a book on the shelf with misinformation because you don’t know when you could replace it?” Crying Over Spilled Milk Gail Dickinson

7. If I weed everything that should be weeded, the shelves would be empty!

8. “The milk in the refrigerator is past the sell date, has an odor, and is curdled and lumpy. Would you keep it, because otherwise your refrigerator would look empty? Then why would you keep outdated books on the shelf to preserve a false collection size?” Crying Over Spilled Milk Gail Dickinson

9. I have a great collection! A little old, but great!

10. A little old… Scribbled in? Moldy? Stained with…? Yellowed? Ripped? Older than 1990?

11. Library books are at least reliable, having been published and selected, unlike the Internet!

12. Misinformation… Predictions that one day man will land on the moon Predictions that one day man will land on the moon No Nunavut Funny-looking computers Funny-looking computers Breaks current equity policy Breaks current equity policy Still include the Soviet Union Still include the Soviet Union Not reflective of today’s values Not reflective of today’s values

13. It’s not current, so I’ll weed it from the library, but maybe the Geography department could use it.

14. “The milk in the refrigerator is past the sell date, has an odor, and is curdled and lumpy. Would you give it to a neighbor to keep in his or her refrigerator? Then why would you send outdated encyclopedias or other materials to a teacher for classroom use?” Crying Over Spilled Milk Gail Dickinson

15. If I weed, people in the school are going to get very upset! I’ve been using this book for the past 20 years! You CAN’T throw it away! Isn’t there SOMEBODY who could use these? You can’t get rid of encyclopedias! Surely! Another school? Poor people in Africa? I thought you were a librarian, not a BOOK BURNER! But these books were bought with taxpayers’ money!

16. “Weeding, when viewed as a normal part of a library media center routine, does not involve shirtsleeves, hot summer days, or brown paper bags surreptitiously stored in the trunk of the library media specialist’s car. Weeding is best done: Continuously throughout the year In small numbers at a time In targeted small sections of the collection Quietly and without comment With support of the principal” Crying Over Spilled Milk Gail Dickinson

17. I can’t weed because I don’t have the budget to buy new stuff!

18. “Poorly weeded collections are not the sign of poor budgets but of poor librarianship. Period. Only 2 things can happen if library replacement budgets are inadequate: 1.The collection ages if the librarian does not weed. 2.The collection gets smaller if the librarian does weed. That’s it.” Weed Doug Johnson

19. Crying Over Spilled Milk Gail Dickinson Sources Weed Doug Johnson Less is More: A Practical Guide to Weeding School Library Collections Donna J. Baumbach & Linda L. Miller