Another great article on weeding your library

Check out this great article on weeding the collection :

Dickinson, Gail. "Crying Over Spilled Milk (PDF)." Library Media Connection. 23, no. 7 (2005): 24-26.

She uses a milk analogy to help people clarify in their mind what they are doing and why : the milk in the refrigerator is past the sell date, has an odor, and is curdled and lumpy.
Would you...

• Keep it, because you don’t know when you could get to the store tobuy more?
  Then why would you keep a book on the shelf with misinformation because you don’t know when you could replace it?

• Keep it, because otherwise your refrigerator would look empty?
  Then why would you keep outdated books on the shelf to preserve a false collection size?
  

• Give it to a neighbor to keep in his or her refrigerator?
  Then why would you send outdated encyclopedias or other materials to a teacher for classroom use?
  

• Donate it to a food pantry for hungry children?
  Then why would you send outdated resources to be used by children in this or other countries?
  

One of the suggestions is to ask students to help review a section of the library, evaluating the material as part of an information skills lesson (see Davis, 2001) - wonder how this would work?