I've been doing a lot of weeding this year of 16mm films and VHS tapes. Here's
what I did.
Involved objective shuffling of spreadsheet data, and then some subjective
decision making:
First ran reports that included copyright date, date added to collection,
circulation data -- total circs and circs within a shorter time frame (I did 3
years & 5 years back, as well as lifetime circs).
Reviewed for weeding:
1. No circs & at least 5 years in collection
2. Low circs (esp if none within last couple of years) & more than 10 years old
3. What kind of content?
Feature film or documentary/educational? (Didn't weed feature films
unless appeared to have problems).
Is title of ongoing interest? Is content classic or likely to be
out-of-date (ex: history vs science)?
Is it content of local interest? Out of print? If so, are other copies
listed as available via WorldCat?
5. For collection development purposes, I also looked at the high circ VHS --
Were the circs recent? If so, looked to see if DVD/streaming was available for
reasonable cost.
After identified titles were pulled:
Did visual review of pulled tapes -- Was content what I had thought? Main
problem identified at this point was what to do with video in a series -- keep
all or withdraw partial?
Also did a visual review of what was left on shelves for tapes that looked old
& beat-up. Checked circ stats -- if still being used, sent up for repackaging.
Most candidates for weeding were so clearcut that I didn't consult subject
collection developers regarding the withdrawal. I did let some know that we
should look for newer materials in a few subject areas. If in doubt, I
generally put it back on the shelf.
Barb Bergman | Media Services & Interlibrary Loan Librarian | Minnesota State
University, Mankato | (507) 389-5945 | barbara.berg...@mnsu.edu
VIDEOLIB is intended to encourage the broad and lively discussion of issues
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