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We're beholden to popular whims as much as any organization, at least if we want to keep the support of a broad base of our communities. The simple fact is tha

We're beholden to popular whims as much as any organization, at least if we want to keep the support of a broad base of our communities. The simple fact is that space is limited. If it ain't gonna check out and it ain't of huge culture importance, it can make way for something that's one of those two things.

greglindahl 10y ago
Even when physical space isn't limited, such as electronic books at the Internet Archive, there's still the crowded space of search results. If you're looking for a recipe involving a common ingredient, by default, we should probably show more modern / more popular recipes with that ingredient -- and save the historical record of recipes with that ingredient for an advanced search interface.
- stinkytaco 10y ago
  I don't disagree, but I think the burden here is not on the collection building process, but on the search tools. Generally we do not weed our ebooks unless they are quite obviously problematic (generally out of date or demonstrably incorrect). In practical application, you're probably right, but I would hate for that to become a reason to weed when it should be a reason to make search tools better. In addition to physical space, the literature is pretty clear that weeding has a long term positive effect on circulation. A physical collection that looks good and seems current is more likely to get used than one that looks beat up and who's best material is buried among rows of books about the OJ Simpson trial. We don't really have data or experience yet on electronic collections, but I'm genuinely curious if the same would be true. The OJ Simpson story is from actual experience. At a conference I went to a local library that had no fewer than 5 books about OJ Simpson with copyright dates in the mid 1990s. They looked like they hadn't been checked out for some time...
  - greglindahl 10y ago
    Sure, I agree that the search tool is the best place to fix that problem. But when I'm encouraging external libraries to include IA materials, often they ask me to filter it first, because they can't do anything about how their search tools behave.
sevensor 10y ago
Absolutely, I don't mean to be critical of librarians for stocking O.J. books or Dr. Oz's diet. They're important, now, to the patrons, and they won't be tomorrow. And it's clear from the weeding manual that librarians know this and acquire the books anyway -- I admire the professionalism this requires.

greglindahl 10y ago

Even when physical space isn't limited, such as electronic books at the Internet Archive, there's still the crowded space of search results. If you're looking for a recipe involving a common ingredient, by default, we should probably show more modern / more popular recipes with that ingredient -- and save the historical record of recipes with that ingredient for an advanced search interface.

stinkytaco 10y ago
I don't disagree, but I think the burden here is not on the collection building process, but on the search tools. Generally we do not weed our ebooks unless they are quite obviously problematic (generally out of date or demonstrably incorrect). In practical application, you're probably right, but I would hate for that to become a reason to weed when it should be a reason to make search tools better. In addition to physical space, the literature is pretty clear that weeding has a long term positive effect on circulation. A physical collection that looks good and seems current is more likely to get used than one that looks beat up and who's best material is buried among rows of books about the OJ Simpson trial. We don't really have data or experience yet on electronic collections, but I'm genuinely curious if the same would be true. The OJ Simpson story is from actual experience. At a conference I went to a local library that had no fewer than 5 books about OJ Simpson with copyright dates in the mid 1990s. They looked like they hadn't been checked out for some time...
- greglindahl 10y ago
  Sure, I agree that the search tool is the best place to fix that problem. But when I'm encouraging external libraries to include IA materials, often they ask me to filter it first, because they can't do anything about how their search tools behave.

sevensor 10y ago

Absolutely, I don't mean to be critical of librarians for stocking O.J. books or Dr. Oz's diet. They're important, now, to the patrons, and they won't be tomorrow. And it's clear from the weeding manual that librarians know this and acquire the books anyway -- I admire the professionalism this requires.