Collection Development Manual > Collection Maintenance
Collection Maintenance
Maintenance of the library's collection through constant evaluation by the library staff ensures its usefulness and relevance to the community. This evaluation relies on the staff's professional expertise to assess the content of the collection and the ever-changing needs of the community. Library materials may be discarded for any of the following reasons:
- obsolescence: the material is no longer timely, accurate, or relevant
- damage or poor condition
- space limitations
- number of copies in the collection
- insufficient use or lack of customer demand
- availability in other collections
It is the responsibility of the library staff to assess the need for replacing material that is damaged, withdrawn or otherwise lost from the collection. This decision may be influenced by popular interest, adequacy of coverage in the subject area, the number of other copies in the library system, significance, cost and availability. Some materials may be bound or mended in consideration of the same factors that influence replacement decisions. A decision to bind may also consider the cost of binding versus the cost of replacement, feasibility of binding, and adverse impact on use due to appearance or functionality.
Items that have become historically significant, assumed reference value, or increased dramatically in monetary value may be considered for inclusion in special collections, stored in stacks, or sent to remote locations for "on-demand" retrieval.
In addition to daily weeding by library staff, a team of staff and volunteers do a scheduled agency Weeding each month. Resources that no longer meet expectations for the collection are discarded. They may then be declared surplus in accordance with Library policies and:
- sold to benefit the library at the Title Wave Used Bookstore
- given to other libraries, government offices, or community agencies
- destroyed or recycled