Nurturing collaboration while weeding collections: A new interdepartmental workflow

Abstract

Reviewing, transferring, and withdrawing materials is normally a hands-on and collaborative interdepartmental process. Last spring, our institution decided to expedite a closure of a branch library and consolidate holdings to the central location. These changes necessitated a rapid review of collections in both buildings so that a timely consolidation of materials could take place. This coincided with the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, when many library staff were working from home. In this session, staff from collection management, technical services and circulation will share their experiences in establishing and piloting a new workflow that included standardized weeding lists created by technical services, a sharing method to deliver the lists to selectors, maintaining list uniformity when further passing lists to circulation, and back to selectors. Other aspects of the project included, providing facilities access, and adding circulation staff to assist pulling materials from the shelves. Presenters will share progress on the project and identify which new practices we envision retaining or not for future reviews of the collection.