Weeding a shared e-book collection: Collaboration across a consortium

Abstract

Collection weeding is an important function of any library operation. At its simplest, the process of deciding what to remove, and implementing it, is controlled by a library or system serving a single mission and set of objectives. This becomes more complicated when the collection is shared by a group of libraries, such as those within a consortium, that have separate governing structures. The difficulty of such an undertaking is further compounded for collections of electronic resources with varying licensing terms and technical configurations. This paper describes just such a weeding project of an e-book collection shared by members of a large library consortium.