Collection Evaluation & Weeding
Erin King FRIT 7332
Europe & The 940s
After speaking with my media specialist at West Jackson Middle School, he suggested I choose a topic in the 900s because that section had not been weeded since he had been at the school. I chose to focus on the topic of Europe and the 940s section because there are multiple standards on the 6th grade level this section would relate to. The standard below was selected because it includes more than one specific area of focus while learning about Europe.
Standard:
SS6G10 The student will explain the impact of location, climate, natural resources, and population distribution on Europe.
Europe and its countries have seen lots of changes over the last two decades and its important to make sure our collection is accurate and up to date.
By The Numbers
The 940s section alone takes up four and half shelves and has 194 titles. Here is the breakdown:
Copy Count: 194
Total Circulation: 1,956 or .68%
Circulation This Year: 21 or .35%
Average Age of Collection: 1997
Total Circulation Data since 2000/2001
Items To Weed
Since the whole non-fiction section has not be weeded in more than 10 years, I'm anticipating having good sized list of items to weed.
In order to assess the collection, I'm going to look at three things:
1. The copyright date (since history keeps changing, we need up to date info)
2. Circulation Information
3. The M.U.S.T.Y. acronym from Melissa Allen's "Weed 'Em and Reap: The Art of Weeding to Avoid Criticism"
Here is my list of recommended items to weed:
The Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (2008) Lost
Peoples and Nations of Europe: A Short History (1988) Circulation
The Knights (1979) Damaged
The Middle Ages (1988) Newer Book available
Struggle For Power: A Pictorial History (1972) Age
World War I, 1914-18 (2008) Damaged - needs replacing
The Battle of Guadalcanal (2007) Damaged - needs replacing
The Upstairs Room (1972) Age/Circulation
The Attack on Pearl Harbor (??) Lost
Battle of Britain (1981) Age/Circulation
The Battle of Britain (1984) Lost
World War II: The War In the Pacific (1991) Lost
The Desert Rats (1973) Age/Circulation
A Child In Prison Camp (1971) Age/Circulation
Pearl Harbor (1981) Age/Circulation
Northern Ireland (1987) Age/Condition
The Irish Question (1987) Damaged
The Golden Century: England Under the Tudors (1972) Age/Circulation
The Thames (1980) Age/Circulation
England (1980) Newer Version
The Rhine (1979) Age/Circulation
Suleiman the Elephant: A Picture Book (1986) Circulation
The Hungarian Uprising (1987) Lost
The Seine (1981) Age/Circulation
Liberty, Equality, Fraternity; The Story of the French (1965) Age
The Battle of Waterloo (1967) Age
Everyday Life of the Etruscans (1987) Circulation
Stitching Starts: The Story Quilts of Harriet Powers (1993) Circulation
The Volga (1980) Circulation
The Cold War (2003) Lost
You Wouldn’t Want To Be A Viking Explorer (2000) Lost
A Viking Sailor (1987) Lost
Sweden (1985) Age/Circulation/Newer Version
The Land and People of Mongolia (1990) Circulation
Belgium (1988) Damaged
Luxembourg (1989) Age/Circulation
The Danube (1979) Age/Damaged/Circulation
Romania (1988) Age/Circulation
There are also several other aging titles that I would like to add to the list, but feel the need to work with the social studies teachers prior to moving forward with another round of weeding.
Disposal Plan
However, in order to "trash" books, we need to scrape off the barcode from the front of the book and if possible, the spine label. We also would take a sharpie to the "West Jackson Middle School" stamp that should be found on one of the beginning pages and other locations if necessary. This will ensure the books stay off the shelves of the media center if one winds up finding its way back.
Once books have been de-processed, I would recommend placing them on a table in our faculty work room to give teachers first dibs if they want any of the discarded materials.
Another suggestion for some of the books with pictures would be to see if our Severe & Profound SPED students would benefit from being able to cut out pictures or use pages for a word hunt. If books are unusable by those students, then I would offer them to the Art teacher if she had any projects to use them for. If she also deems them as unusable, then the trash can they go.