We will present an overview of our recently completed project to remove unused and obsolete titles from our print collection using OCLC Greenglass

Giammarco, Joseph

Kliever, Julie

English

HELIN Digital Commons

WEED-WHACKING!A print collection cleanup project usingOCLC Greenglassat Providence CollegeJulie KlieverHead of Collections ServicesJoseph GiammarcoCollections Services SpecialistWho are we?• Julie: Head of Collections Services here since 2007– I inherited a 270,000 print-title collection– Do we really need all these books?• Joe: Collections Specialist here since 2017– Started as a part timer– got roped into this projectWeed-whacking!  - HELIN Virtual Conference June 16 2021 - Providence College 2Not actually Julie and JoePC’s Print Collection• In 2018:– About 350,00 volumes– About 270,000 were print monographs• What was the history of past weeding projects?Weed-whacking! - HELIN Virtual Conference June 16 2021 - Providence College 3Past weeding projects attempted:• Letting faculty review weeded titles– They all ended up back on the shelves• Throwing weeded titles down a chute into a dumpster– Bad opticsWeed-whacking! - HELIN Virtual Conference June 16 2021 - Providence College 4Why does any library need to weed?• Make room for new titles• Remove damaged items• Resource is available online• “Less is more” –– Keeping everything you ever acquired is not helpful– An overabundance of titles makes it harder for patrons to find what’s usefulWeed-whacking!  - HELIN Virtual Conference June 16 2021 - Providence College 5OCLC Greenglass – how it works:• Visual interface• Choose ranges for call numbers, publication dates, number of checkouts, etc• Ability to see the impact of your selection criteria– Fine tune a pull list, make multiple changes before committing– Are you removing too many titles in an area? Too few?– Is your deselection criteria too broad or too narrow?• Allows for holdings comparisons with other libraries– Other Consortium members (is this the only copy in the consortium?– Peer institutions (should we keep this because other schools like us have a copy?– Hathitrust (has it been digitized?)Weed-whacking!  - HELIN Virtual Conference June 16 2021 - Providence College 6What did choose to weed?• Only our Circulating collection• We didn't not want to use this method for Reference, Archives, or any other special shelving locationWeed-whacking!  - HELIN Virtual Conference June 16 2021 - Providence College 7How we prepared for this project• OCLC sent us a tech specs questionnaire– Which areas did we want to analyze– What kind of classification method, call number structure, etc• Comparator Groups questionnaire– We were asked to choose up to 6 "comparator groups"– This enabled us to view other institutions' holdings for each of our titles.Weed-whacking!  - HELIN Virtual Conference June 16 2021 - Providence College 8Comparator Groups1. HELIN Consortium members2. Non-HELIN RI libraries Brown, URI, Bryant3. Catholic colleges Boston College, Holy Cross, Fordham, St Anselm, Villanova, etc.4. Peer Institutions (from Future of Higher Ed publication) Northeastern, Fairfield, UCONN, etc.5. Primary ILL lenders to PC, based on ILL stats6. Dominican Theological Library at Dominican House of Studes,(Washington DC) 60,000 theology/philosophy titlesWeed-whacking!  - HELIN Virtual Conference June 16 2021 - Providence College 9The Greenglass interface• Live demo !– more like a very quick overviewWeed-whacking!  - HELIN Virtual Conference June 16 2021 - Providence College 10How did we handle the actual work?• Export the Greenglass query to Excel• Hide columns except for call#, title, barcode• Print out 3 pages of titles at a time, give to student worker• Students check off books as they pull them, or indicate NOS• Cart with pulled books and completed sheets taken to Tech Services areaWeed-whacking! - HELIN Virtual Conference June 16 2021 - Providence College 11Removing weeded titles from WMS• Used the marked pull lists to document titles that were NOS(fancy library jargon for "Not On Shelf").• Used online sheet to copy barcodes into WMS• Can delete 100 barcodes at a timeWeed-whacking!  - HELIN Virtual Conference June 16 2021 - Providence College 12Physical processing of weeded titles• Books were brought to a staging room in the basement• Student workers:– Crossed out barcode– Stamped "no longer property of Phillips Memorial Library"– Boxed in cartons supplied by Better World Books• Lastly, we arranged shipping to BWB– Via UPS for 14 or fewer boxes– Via freight truck for larger number of boxes– Our last shipment was 169 boxesWeed-whacking!  - HELIN Virtual Conference June 16 2021 - Providence College 13And then there was COVID• We began this project in the Winter of 2018.• We had a 2-year license for the Greenglass interface• We were about 75% complete by March 2020• Running pull lists and supervising student workers from off campus went as well as you might expect.• We asked OCLC for a year extention on Greenglass, they obliged.• We finished April 2021.Weed-whacking!  - HELIN Virtual Conference June 16 2021 - Providence College 14Before and after• Winter 2018– Circ Stacks 269,822• Spring 2021– Circ Stacks 256,111• Total titles removed:– 13,711 – approximately 5% reductionWeed-whacking!  - HELIN Virtual Conference June 16 2021 - Providence College 15This Photo by Unknow n author is licensed under CC BY.Thank you!Julie Kliever jkliever@providence.eduJoe Giammarco jgiamma1@providence.edu

Weedwacking: Providence College\u27s use of OCLC Greenglass

https://helindigitalcommons.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1006&amp;context=helinconference

Weedwacking: Providence College\u27s use of OCLC Greenglass

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