Department

Subject Liaisons, Technical Services

Purpose

This policy outlines an alternating schedule for reviewing/processing gift books and weeded books, which will lead to greater efficiency in reviewing and processing within Technical Services and with subject liaisons.

Overview

Currently, there is little guidance as to when gift books should be reviewed or when weeding is to occur, outside of special projects. Due to limited staffing and a growing list of responsibilities for all library faculty and staff, assigning these two related collection development tasks into specific times throughout the year will help with project prioritization and efficiency for both subject liaisons and Technical Services.

Procedure

Subject Liaisons and Technical Services shall review and process Gift Books and Weeding on the following schedule:

Subject Liaisons (for selection):

Gift Books: July 1 - September 30

Weeding: October 1 - December 30

Gift Books: January 1 - March 30

Weeding: April 1 - June 30

Technical Services (for processing):

Gift Books: July 16 - October 15

Weeding: October 16 - January 15

Gift Books: January 16 - April 15

Weeding: April 16 - July 15

Gift Books

Subject liaisons will review up to 60 titles or all shelves in designated gift book areas, whichever is lesser, each designated Gift Book review period. In total, subject liaisons should review up to 120 gift books or their entire gift book areas twice per year, whichever is lesser.

If additional gift donations are received in non-specified times, there is no expectation for subject liaisons to review these materials. However, if they do, Technical Services will only process these titles during specified times during the year or if the subject liaison flags a donated material as a “rush” addition for the collection. If this happens, then the subject liaison should notify Technical Services directly.

This policy should help Technical Services process Gift Books on a regular schedule with limited staffing as well as help Subject Liaisons manage their gift book shelves at least twice a year.

Weeding

Using the provided suggested weeding lists, subject liaisons will review, and withdraw between 30-100 low use or damaged titles per weeding period. 30-100 titles should take up no more than one Technical Services cart, depending on the size of books. In total, subject liaisons should review, and withdraw 60-200 titles (or two carts) per year from the collection.

Suggested weeding lists will be provided prior to, or at the start, of each weeding period via the Collection Development google drive folder. Lists will have separate sheets divided by liaison teams (Arts & Humanities/ Social Sciences/ Natural Sciences). Each team will manage their corresponding lists in the manner that works best for all involved liaisons.

When a subject liaison is ready to weed materials, they will gather those materials on a cart provided by Technical Services. Once the 30-100 titles have been collected, subject liaisons will place the cart in a designated area in Technical Services. When the weeding has been completed for the time period, the subject liaison will notify Technical Services that weeding is completed. If the subject liaison determines that fewer than 30 titles or more than 100 titles will need to be weeded, they will notify Technical Services.

This policy is not to arbitrarily withdraw titles from the collection, but rather give both Technical Services and Subject Liaisons shared expectations as well as an annual strategy for weeding titles from the collection.

Since purchases arrive at an irregular pace after the transaction date, purchases’ timeline and deadlines will not be affected by this policy.

Regular reminders of this schedule and estimated counts of both Gift Books and Weeding should be given at Collection Development meetings.

Developed by Jonathan Bull and Alison Downey, May-July 2022

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