“I've put it off for way too long,” Claire Warren stated on Twitter. “But these sturdy, once-great relics are finally destined for the recycling bin.”

Attaching a photo of a complete set of the World Book Encyclopedia—all 22 volumes in their hardback glory—Warren, a school librarian in Nottinghamshire, England, signed off her post with a grimacing face and the hashtag #librarianlife.

How is deaccessioning going in your library?

Share photos of your best/worst weeds and tag us on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook (#weededbooks).

A March 2021 survey on library collection development by SLJ revealed the following:

• Public libraries are more likely to have newer children’s/YA collections than school libraries. Public libraries estimate that 26.2% of their collection was published in the last two years. School libraries estimate that 16.5% of their collection was published in the last two years.
• The three most common reasons/criteria for weeding are condition of books, outdated nonfiction, and items not being checked out.
• A quarter of respondents (both public and school libraries) say their weeding criteria have changed over the last few years. In a follow-up question, common reasons include an increased awareness of unconscious racial bias, inclusion and diversity, and a need to be more ruthless about weeding because of decreasing library space.
• 42% of public libraries and 37 percent of school libraries have received pushback in response to collection weeding.

For more information, see our coverage: “When Weeding Books, Librarians Are Attending to Inclusion and Diversity, SLJ Survey Shows.”