On Libraries and Weeding

How does weeding dandelions compare to weeding library books?

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Consider the humble dandelion if you would. Like other flowers that appear spontaneously to brighten our days, this beautiful yellow-flowered “weed” is loathed by lawn perfectionists far and wide. Yet dandelions diversify a lawn and, better still, aerate the soil so grass and other plant species can thrive.

This piece compares weeding dandelions with a process called weeding books, in which librarians retire items from library shelves. It’s not that weeding isn’t a necessity. After all, libraries could use the vacated space for new, more up-to-date volumes. And dandelions can crowd out other plants and spread their seeds where they aren’t welcome.

Moreover, to foster a diverse environment, as dandelions do in yards and public spaces, the library weeding process must be handled with scrutiny and a broad capacity for understanding, lest their ideas disappear along with the materials themselves.

In a library, just as in a garden, taking out unwanted items makes those left behind stand out. Circulation frequently rises after a weeding project, however counterintuitive that may seem.

-Ian Chant, Library Journal

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Dandelions Benefits

The dandelion’s weed status has long been debated. For example, the USDA’s Federal Noxious Weed List doesn’t consider dandelions to be a weed. Nor do organic farmers and gardeners. However, many non-organic gardeners, landscapers, and property owners consider dandelions a severe nuisance. So they attempt to eradicate them — often with scant success.

The urge to persist must be in dandelion DNA!

Of course, dandelions’ bright yellow flowers beautify the spring landscape. But do you know that the entire dandelion plant (except for its bitter stem) is also edible? This so-called “weed” offers several essential nutrients and distinctive flavors to soups, salads, and other dishes. Dandelions even have pharmacological benefits. For example, they:

• Reduce the risk of developing atherosclerosis.
• Have anticoagulant effects.
• Potentially counteract insulin resistance in people with diabetes.

Dandelions also support agronomy and crop production — and that’s where weed diversification enters the picture.

Weeding Library Books While Retaining What Libraries Embody

Regardless of how weeds are perceived, there are common ecological principles that should underpin any approach to managing weed communities, and based on these principles, increasing in‐field weed diversity could be advantageous agronomically as well as environmentally.

-Storkey, Neve, and Liebman, “What Good Is Weed Diversity?”

Just as a diverse array of weeds helps crops thrive, diversity in library materials helps librarians and patrons appreciate and value unfamiliar concepts.

The fields of health sciences and computer technology need regular and rapid updating, while books about the arts, religion, and philosophy have much longer shelf lives. Sometimes, if a library has a new edition or better book on a topic, it can replace one that is no longer current. Still, not all books should be replaced.

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Principles of Library Weeding for Diversity

The following advice on weeding a library’s shelves for diversity derives from “4 Steps to Evaluating Your Collection for Diverse Books + Book Suggestions” by Judith Snyder. This gives a glimpse of how librarians conduct a weeding project.

1. Start small. Say a library has 100 shelves in a section (e.g., adult history or children’s picture books) and choose to analyze five of them. Then they might pick every 20th shelf for the most accurate and representative sample.
2. Create a list of essential criteria. For example:

• The activities different characters are engaged in.
• Unfamiliar holidays and rituals.
• Any struggles they might be facing due to life circumstances.

3. Browse each book on the selected shelves, observing and noting text and illustrations. Librarians look for revealing material such as:

• The activities different characters are engaged in.
• Unfamiliar holidays and rituals.
• Any struggles they might be facing due to life circumstances.

4. Calculate the collection’s diversity level. Once Librarians complete a shelf analysis, they divide the number of books on the browsed shelves into the number of books that met each criterion. This process will provide a workable baseline for the collection’s diversity level. For example, 25 books with diverse main characters ÷ 300 total books = 8% of the entire collection.

Weeding Books Gradually

Older works tend to be less representative and stereotypical, so topics like Thanksgiving need close examination. And although librarians should hold onto outdated books in active circulation, they should also offer alternatives.

Moreover, while biographies about real-life celebrities seemed more manageable to audit than other nonfiction, a review of the subject’s livelihood found that while the overall percentages might look appealing, the collection featured Black subjects primarily as athletes, while most politicians were white.

As long as books have existed, they have introduced society to new ideas and, in the process, overturned what was no longer valid. Thus, it makes sense that allowing patrons to transition from older to more recent perspectives on a given issue without forcing their hands to accept harsh decisions empowers them to make progress on their terms.

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Old Roots Support New Blossoms

Organic gardeners and others who respect the natural environment want to selectively weed dandelions to ease other native plant species for greater variety. Similarly, diversifying a library collection a little at a time lets diverse library users adapt to new materials espousing non-traditional ideas.

Librarians are cautious and remember that certain exceptional books have “put down roots” — and acquired staying power so that other, more contemporary and up-to-date ones can flourish. Moreover, the more people discover new ways of thinking, the greater the likelihood of them wanting to revisit the outdated volumes those books have absorbed and synthesized.