"Would You Move, Please?" Weeding Science Reference Collection

Abstract

In the last five years the Engineering & Physical Sciences Library underwent a major staff shortage that resulted in the slowing-down of some services and the abandonment of other vital activities like regular weeding of the reference collection. Many print indexes and abstracts (e.g., Science Citation Index and Chemical Abstracts) were canceled in favor of electronic access but the old print volumes remained in reference. The reference collection occupies a prime location in the library. This space could be repurposed. The challenge we face is where to house this large volume count. This paper will provide information on best practices in weeding print reference collections. The tips were gathered from a review of literature on collection management at other academic, public and special libraries.