Weeding Collections

• Examine all volume sets and series
• Examine all reference-type works

There are multiple ways to weed collections.  Jared Beck, Print Manager, can generate lists of titles which provide information such as number of circulations, date last circulated, and more. Nevertheless, these lists constitute only one method of weeding. 

You may use the lists exclusively to make your decisions.

You may use the lists as you go into the stacks to review the books.

You may choose to not use the lists at all.

For more information on weeding, please contact Jared at jaredbec@usc.edu or John Juricek, Collections Strategist, at juricek@usc.edu

These guidelines were originally prepared in March 2010 by Lynn Sipe.

The Grand staff will be responsible for identifying and removing true duplicates (i.e., same author, title, publication date, and publisher).  They will be removing those volumes from the shelves beginning the week of 28 July and placing them on book trucks for selectors' review in DML 239 (Intellectual Commons).  Email notices stating the call number ranges ready for review will be sent to the relevant selectors. 

The list of duplicates was run after the original weeding list.  Therefore you are likely to find duplicate volumes included on your lists even though the Grand staff may have pulled the duplicates before you review your lists.

The best copy of a book will be left in Doheny stacks.  All duplicate copies will be removed.  When you review the duplicates in DML 239, you must put one streamer in every book:  Discards; transfers; or leave in Doheny.  Please direct any procedural questions to Masoud or one of his staff members.

If a book to be discarded has a bookplate from a previous owner or donor, it will be transferred to the retained copy.

N.B.  You will have only 1-2 days to review these before they are sent to Grand.  If you are unable to review them in Doheny, you will have a limited opportunity to review them in Grand once Grand reopens.

The list of items to be considered for transferring to Grand can be found on the Libraries' intranet (you will need to log in to access it).

For instructions on converting your weeding list from PDF to Excel, please see the video below.

We have access to Acrobat XI Pro (see "all programs" in the Start button).