Abstract
Texas A&M University‐Commerce was founded in 1889 as East Texas Normal College, and since that time has gone through five name changes. Each name change brought about a change in focus for the university. Since the university’s founding, an intensive weeding of the James G. Gee Library print monographs collection has never been undertaken. A January 2011 age of collection report from the ILS showed that the greatest growth in the collection took place in the years between 1970 and 1990. Many of the monographs contained obsolete information and/or supported programs and courses that are no longer offered by the university. While librarians were in the midst of completing a literature review of best practices for weeding and constructing weeding policies and procedures, a major event changed the entire direction of the library’s weeding goals. The Director of Libraries received word that a United States senator was considering donating his congressional papers to the library, and an entire floor of the library must be cleared to receive the documents. This paper outlines how the library weeded more than 70,000 items between June 1, 2011 and August 31, 2011.
Speed Weed: How We Weeded More Than 70,000 Items in Three Months
Texas A&M University‐Commerce was founded in 1889 as East Texas Normal College, and since that time has gone through five name changes. Each name change brought about a change in focus for the university. Since the university’s founding, an intensive weeding of the James G. Gee Library print monographs collection has never been undertaken. A January 2011 age of collection report from the ILS showed that the greatest growth in the collection took place in the years between 1970 and 1990. Many of the monographs contained obsolete information and/or supported programs and courses that are no longer offered by the university. While librarians were in the midst of completing a literature review of best practices for weeding and constructing weeding policies and procedures, a major event changed the entire direction of the library’s weeding goals. The Director of Libraries received word that a United States senator was considering donating his congressional papers to the library, and an entire floor of the library must be cleared to receive the documents. This paper outlines how the library weeded more than 70,000 items between June 1, 2011 and August 31, 2011.