Maintenance of the Collection
Collection Maintenance and Evaluation
An essential element of collection maintenance is the systematic and periodic weeding of all formats of materials from the collection. Weeding is an evaluation mechanism as it maintains the purposes and quality of resources, increases the speed of access to materials, provides for accuracy in retrieval of materials, and increases the use of the collection. Weeding requires the same degree of attention as initial selection. Faculty members are encouraged to assist in spotting outdated or inaccurate materials in their areas of expertise. Materials are withdrawn on the basis of:
- Outdated information
- Inaccuracy of content
- Obsolescence of formats or incompatibility of format to available equipment
- Incomplete materials (e.g., book/software set with book missing, AV kit with pieces missing, mutilated)
- Materials damaged beyond repair, poor physical quality
Library Services strives to maintain the physical integrity of materials in the collection through conservation measures such as temperature, humidity and dust control. Material will be repaired, rebound or reformatted when possible to preserve the content for continued use.
Lost Items and Replacement
Resources that are missing, lost, or withdrawn because of wear are not automatically replaced. Lost items are replaced based on the following criteria:
- Importance of the item to the collection
- Demand for the material
- Availability of materials in subject area
- Availability of funds