As you begin weeding your school's library collection, please consider the following guidelines shared below from our JCS Media Handbook and NC IMPACT standards.
JCS Evaluation Guidelines
An important part of collection development is continual assessment of media resources. It is the responsibility of the media coordinator to develop a plan to assess the current collection annually at the end of each school year. Assessment of the collection includes taking inventory of existing materials and weeding outdated and inappropriate materials. The inventory will be completed by utilizing the automated cataloging system and checking for the actual item on the shelf. Then selected items are checked to be sure that they meet the required selection criteria.
The following criteria should be considered when evaluating the collection.
- Materials that are damaged beyond repair should be discarded.
- Materials that are not current in information will be removed from the collection.
- Materials that do not have regular circulation should be flagged and considered for removal.
IMPACT CRITERIA FOR WEEDING/SELECTING
SCHOOL LIBRARY MEDIA RESOURCES
Relevance to the curriculum
Copyright date
Condition of the material
Date last circulated
Enduring value (classics, rare books, etc.)
Reading/interest level
Authoritative writing
Bias/stereotypes
Recommended in current selection tool and/or other review sources
Local interest/community needs (Lowe, 2001)
Next Week's edition...What can I do with these resources once I decide they no longer
need to be part of our library collection!?