Weeding to Grow

000s before weeding

A couple of weeks ago, I submitted my MARC records for collection analysis to a couple of vendors.  I love that you get your reports back within minutes of submitting the records.  After a brief review of the analysis, I decided that I really did need to do some weeding this summer.  I called on several of my librarian friends to come and help me.  I think that there should be a rule that you should never, ever weed alone.  Sometimes you just need to discuss the book in question, or you need your colleague to look you in the eye and tell you to let it go. OR perhaps that colleague has more experience and knows that the book needs to stay on the shelf.  So we gathered in mid-June.  Between the 6 of us, we were able to weed the nonfiction section and more than half of the easy books in just two days. In all 654 books were deleted from the collection.

Weeding the collection allowed me to rearrange the nonfiction section so that the books are more accessible to the students.  I was also able to create a small teacher resource nook for some RTI materials. While weeding, we pulled all of the Rookie Readers and Welcome books.  These were organized by subject or sometimes series and put into tubs.  Again, the purpose was to make them more accessible to the students who would be using them.

A small portion of the weeded books waiting to be boxed.

Now that the initial weeding phase is completed, I am able to think about growing the collection.  I have a clearer picture of what my collection needs.  I also have a starting point for discussions with teachers.  I have numerous books that had 6 copies on the shelf which begs the question: Is this a unit topic for a grade level?  If it's not a unit of study, then I can evaluate whether or not it's necessary to have 6 copies of that book.

Reference section after weeding

The benefit of weeding the collection is that you can instantly tell a difference.  The shelves in the library look so much better.  In a couple of days, I will be adding labeled shelf dividers to help the students find books that interest them.  I can't wait to see my students faces when the walk in the door for the first time.  All the effort that I put into the library this summer will be worth it as I watch them grow into independent learners.