Collaborating with Faculty to Weed an Entire Science and Engineering Book Collection

Abstract

Weeding book collections and collaborating with faculty are necessary activities for academic libraries. Librarians, however, are often reluctant to remove books from collections and collaborating with faculty is often viewed as a difficult affair. In the fall of 2008 the Montana Tech Library, a small university library specializing in engineering, the sciences, and medicine, successfully collaborated with teaching faculty to weed the entire book collection. This chapter discusses how to successfully collaborate with faculty and offers advice on how to overcome the hesitation associated with weeding. Successful collaboration and overcoming the reservations of weeding can ultimately lead to the creation of a true “use collection” generated by customer driven collection development.