New Book On Weeding

Readers of this blog know that I am a huge proponent of the importance of weeding as a part of your basic RA services. You can click here to see my many posts that deal with weeding, but the most succinct one that lays out my philosophy of why weeding is important as part of your overall work with leisure readers is here.

But enough about me, the real expert out there on Weeding is Rebecca Vnuk. Don’t know who Rebecca is? Thats seems improbable, but here is the official author bio from her new book on weeding:

Rebecca Vnuk has a high profile in the library community as a librarian, consultant, workshop presenter, speaker, writer, and blogger. She is currently best known as Editor, Reference and Collection Management, at Booklist, and as the co-creator of the popular blog Shelf Renewal. Her most recent library position was as Adult Services Director at the Glen Ellyn (IL) Public Library. She has been widely recognized for her contributions to the field. In 2008, she was Library Journal’s Fiction Reviewer of the Year, and in 2010 she received the Public Library Association’s Allie Beth Martin Award for excellence in Readers’ Advisory and was named a Library Journal Mover & Shaker. She is the author of Read On . . . Women’s Fiction (2009) and Women’s Fiction Authors: A Research Guide (2009), and co-author (with Nanette Donohue) of Women’s Fiction: A Guide to Popular Reading Interests (2013). She has spoken at conferences and presented workshops extensively; her panels are among the most popular at ALA Annual and Public Library Association meetings.

Yes I said new book. The cover is above. And here is the link where you can read all of the details. From that page:

“No! We can’t rid of that!” Vnuk, author of the popular “Weeding Tips” column on Booklist Online, is here to show you that yes, you can. A library is an ever-changing organism; when done the right way, weeding helps a library thrive by focusing its resources on those parts of the collection that are the most useful to its users. Her handbook takes the guesswork out of this delicate but necessary process, giving public and school library staff the knowledge and the confidence to effectively weed any collection, of any size. Going through the proverbial stacks shelf by shelf, Vnuk

• Explains why weeding is important for a healthy library, demonstrating that a vibrant collection leads to robust circulation, which in turn affects library budgets

• Walks readers through a library’s shelves by Dewey area, with recommended weeding criteria and call-outs in each area for the different considerations of large collections and smaller collections

• Features a chapter addressing reference, media, magazines and newspapers, e-books, and other special materials

• Shows how a solid collection development plan uses weeding as an ongoing process, making it less stressful and more productive

• Offers guidance for determining how to delegate responsibility for weeding, plus pointers for getting experienced staff on board

• Gives advice for educating the community about the process, how to head off PR disasters, and what to do with weeded materials

• Includes a dozen sample collection development plans, easily adaptable to suit a library’s individual needs

Filled with field-tested, no nonsense strategies, this handbook will enable libraries to bloom by maintaining a collection that users actually use.

Buying this book is money well spent as it will save you time and money AND will result in happier patrons.

If nothing else though, please don’t forget how important weeding is toward your overall goal to provide exemplary service to your patrons.