We’re not an academic library, but about 3-4 years ago, in preparation for our move to a new building in May 2016, and in response to changing use patterns, we dramatically reduced the size of our reference collection. We weeded a great deal, since users were more inclined to use the open internet or our electronic resources instead of calling us or coming to the library. Of the remainder, we moved quite a bit to our circulating collections. Remaining in reference we have state and federal legal reference, some Alaskana (mostly rare copies of directories and the like) and some “just in case” collections that staff just couldn’t bear to let go. Some of those will likely go or move to circulation this year, and reference will shrink even more. We find ourselves willing to let go of more and more with each weed, and generally haven’t regretted letting things go once they’re gone. It’s definitely the staff that find it hard to let go of things, not so much the users. That said, for core Alaskana and some legal resources, we’ll probably send duplicates to our vault before letting go of them altogether!
Freya
===============
Freya Anderson
Head, Information Services
Alaska State Library
PO Box 110571
Juneau, AK 99811-0571
907-465-1315
http://library.alaska.gov/
From: colldv-request_at_lists.ala.org <colldv-request_at_lists.ala.org> On Behalf Of Brewer, Michael M - (brewerm)
Sent: Monday, June 04, 2018 11:28 AM
To: Erin Gallagher <gallaghere_at_reed.edu>; colldv_at_lists.ala.org
Subject: Re: [ALCTS-colldv] Strategies for weeding print reference collections
I’d be curious to hear if anyone is rethinking their reference collections as a whole and either just integrating them into their stacks, moving them into the stacks (but keeping them as a cohesive collection), or recreating a greater reference collection (with all the reference content that has been moved to the stacks over the years), but housing that collection in the stack (rather than taking up the typical real estate used for reference collections).
Because of a major renovation, we are in the process of moving ours in pieces to be adjacent to content in the stacks with the same call number ranges (toward eventually integrating it as we can make room). I can’t say I wouldn’t have wanted to do this even if we hadn’t been renovating, but it is making it easier. As a librarian and scholar, I love the idea of a reconstituted reference collection in the stacks (for browsing purposes), but doubt that would really be worth the effort or what the majority of our clientele would use.
mb
Michael Brewer | Librarian
Interim Senior Information Resources Officer
University of Arizona Libraries, A349G | 1510 E. University Blvd.
P.O. Box 210055 | Tucson, AZ 85721-0055 | (520) 307-2771
From: <colldv-request_at_lists.ala.org<mailto:colldv-request_at_lists.ala.org>> on behalf of Erin Gallagher <gallaghere_at_reed.edu<mailto:gallaghere_at_reed.edu>>
Reply-To: Erin Gallagher <gallaghere_at_reed.edu<mailto:gallaghere_at_reed.edu>>
Date: Monday, June 4, 2018 at 12:14 PM
To: "colldv_at_lists.ala.org<mailto:colldv_at_lists.ala.org>" <colldv_at_lists.ala.org<mailto:colldv_at_lists.ala.org>>
Subject: [ALCTS-colldv] Strategies for weeding print reference collections
Hello everyone,
We are preparing to weed our print reference collection this summer. The collection is currently shelved separately from the main stacks and only a handful of titles are allowed to be checked out and used outside the library.
We have weeding criteria we drafted in 2014 but would like to update these criteria. For other libraries who weed print reference collections, what criteria do you use for weeding? Are there any other strategies or suggestions that have worked for you?
I'll be happy to synthesize our responses and share them.
Thank you in advance.
Erin
Erin Gallagher
Director of Collection Services
Reed College Library
(503) 777-7552
gallaghere_at_reed.edu<mailto:gallaghere_at_reed.edu>
Received on Mon Jun 04 2018 - 20:29:16 EDT