Read on Twitter
we’re doing our second big weeding project at my library & embarking on weeding on the regular. “weeding” is library world for removing materials from the collection and it’s just as fun as adding new things to me 
the librarians weed by liaison area. so i have architectural design, photography, and film so i collect and weed those areas of the collection. i just finished weeding NA, which is architecture and i was like byeeeeeeee 
to stuff that hasn’t moved in prob over 10 years
to stuff that hasn’t moved in prob over 10 years
some people might think a library should keep everything forever no matter if no ones hasn’t used it in 20 years, but every library has a different collection development policy which is the whatsourfocuswhyarewedoingthis policy of stuff they have
we base our weeding first — but certainly not only — on how much use the item has gotten. “use” means of someone checked it out OR used it in-library. but you can’t just base it on those numbers. i mean you can, but we don’t
humans need to look at it because there might be a *reason* it’s not getting used or you want to give it a chance to get used by doing some outreach to your liaison areas
for example, the first big weeding project we did i was weeding the photography section and i noticed there was a relatively high amount of books on the to-weed list by or about women or people who identify as black, indigenous, or people of color
so i went to the director and was like nah and she agreed, so we kept them and i did some outreach. some libraries might weed for other practical reasons like space or to replace super old or super worn material with new versions
i fully believe a library, depending on its purpose, should critically examine its collection regularly, change and grow with the needs of the community and be transparent about policies 
oh i’m also super into pulling the books myself because i like to see all the materials with my own eyes. so we might get the spreadsheets from access services, but i’m big into putting on my eyes on stuff especially considering what happened the first big weeding project
