Weeding With Wisdom: Tuning Deselection Of Print Monographs In Book-Reliant Disciplines
- ASU Author/Contributor (non-ASU co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Allan G. Scherlen, Professor and Social Sciences Librarian (Creator)
- Institution
- Appalachian State University (ASU )
- Web Site: https://library.appstate.edu/
Abstract: As university libraries transition to digital collections and new services, their book deselection projects often lead to the adoption of cross-discipline quantitative weeding criteria (such as age and low circulation) in the interest of speed and presumed fairness. Cross-discipline quantitative rubrics, however, can have unintended negative consequences when applied to disciplines such as history and literature that rely on older books with low circulation statistics. The authors, after an extensive literature review on book research methods in the humanities and the reaction of humanities scholars to massive weeding projects, argue for a discipline-differentiated approach to weeding academic library collections that can employ quantitative criteria for disciplines, such as in the sciences, that are more reliant on current materials and qualitative criteria for disciplines, such as in the humanities, whose scholars benefit from ready access to older and low-use books.
Weeding With Wisdom: Tuning Deselection Of Print Monographs In Book-Reliant Disciplines
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Created on 7/10/2017
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Additional Information
- Publication
- McAllister, Alex D., and Allan Scherlen. 2017. "Weeding with Wisdom: Tuning Deselection of Print Monographs in Book-Reliant Disciplines." Collection Management 42, no. 2: 76-91. Version of record can be found at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01462679.2017.1299657
- Language: English
- Date: 2017
- Keywords
- university libraries, deselection, weeding processes, humanities, sciences