[Web4lib] Weeding Reference Books Based on Free Online resourcesavailable?

[Marcie Pierson]

For me, the issue isn't which books are duplicated online for free (or otherwise, like through a licensed database). The issue is more, can *similar* information be found online? What databases does your library subscribe to? Which reference books do you never touch? Which books do you not touch but which you might need to have because of their uniqueness? How proficient are you and your staff at searching online, and how confident are you that you can still answer questions if a particular book is gone? How much does your circulating collection overlap, either directly or indirectly, your reference collection? What is your book budget like - can you afford to keep updating certain reference books, especially multivolume sets?
 
Really, weeding reference is not much different than weeding the circulating collection except that you don't have the check-out stats. Outdated, superceded, worn items should be removed. Whether you replace or update such items is up to your library. (My experience has been in public libraries so perhaps some details differ from university libraries, but as long as you can get current, relevant, authoritative information, the kind of source, print or otherwise, shouldn't really matter.)
 
I recently went through a heavy reference weeding project in preparation for a building renovation, so feel free to email me directly if you have more questions and I'll answer as best I can: mpierson at cwmars.org
 
Marcie Pierson
Reference Librarian
Grafton Public Library
35 Grafton Common 
Grafton, MA 01519
508-839-4649
508-839-7726 FAX

________________________________

From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org on behalf of Salomeh Pourmoghim
Sent: Thu 5/1/2008 5:25 PM
To: web4lib at webjunction.org
Subject: [Web4lib] Weeding Reference Books Based on Free Online resourcesavailable?



Hi,

I have been given a very interesting project to work on. Our Reference
librarian wants me to review our reference collection and let him know
which ones' content can be found online for free. This will be the
beginning of a weeding project.

Has any of you done something like this? Do you have any suggestions as
to what is the best way to approach this project to get the best result?


His motivation is the article called, "A Time to Weed" by Laren
Lampasone published in Library Journal on May 1, 2008.



Thank you very much.

Salomeh Pourmoghim

Librarian

Fresno City College Library



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