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369

Weeding Physical Collections for 
the Library of the Future
David Kiger, PhD, Director of Libraries and Theological Librarian, Milligan 
University and Emmanuel Christian Seminary at Milligan

ABSTR ACT:  The turn toward digital resources has come with bless-
ings and challenges. Electronic journals are quickly accessible and 
have, more or less, diminished the need for print journal collections. 
Electronic books afford simultaneous usage from an entire class 
and so can offer an affordable textbook alternative. In addition, the 
move toward Open Educational Resources is also facilitated by digital 
resources. Nevertheless, theological libraries (like other humani-
ties disciplines) still see a valid need for physical, printed books and 
resources. In this session, I discuss my personal weeding story with 
an emphasis on how it impacted library space; and focus on the way 
that the physical collection will be used in the future. The weeding of 
a library is not only a part of routine maintenance, but it also should 
be responsive to the needs of library patrons and the institutions to 
which the library belongs.

I work at a small academic library with only  five full-time employees. 
This means that collection maintenance can be quite challenging due 
to our heavy workloads. Additionally, being an academic library, we 
face unique challenges, as faculty often feel a strong connection to 
the texts. When I began my role as a theological librarian, I faced a 
daunting task. The collection was 52 years old and had never been 
systematically weeded. To complicate matters, our seminary had 
just merged with a larger institution, resulting in curricular overlap. 
In addition, the merger resulted in the loss of circulation data from 
the Seminary Library collection. 

I began contemplating the library of the future. The library of 
the future is context dependent. Each library is going to be different 
based upon its own context. For the purposes of my library, I view 
the future library as a welcoming space facilitated by a librarian, 
with a curated collection that meets the needs of the patron base. 



370    ATL A 2024 PROCEEDINGS

These needs encompass study space and information resources 
comprised of print and digital materials that meet the needs of the 
curriculum and also allow for intellectual exploration. 

Our initial collection consisted of over 114,000 volumes, many of 
which were duplicates, outdated, or damaged. We had books spread 
across 19 holding locations and over 900 print journal titles. Through 
our weeding efforts over the past seven years, we’ve managed to 
streamline this to 85,000 volumes in just four holding locations, with 
only about 100 non-archival journal titles.

When the project began, my primary goals were twofold: to 
make the collection healthier, and to make the space more inviting. 
Regarding the health of the collection, I hoped that the weeding 
process would improve accessibility, simplify holding locations, and 
allow us to remove damaged books. The whole process was designed 
to open the space of the library and would allow our library to move 
away from the old model where collections dominated the space and 
librarians were approached only “as a last resort.” Creating study 
spaces has become crucial in fostering the academic culture of an 
educational institution. The overarching aim was to evaluate and 
shape the physical collection to transform our library space, making 
it adaptable to our institution’s evolving needs.

We faced several logistical challenges in this process that ranged 
from deciding what to do with discarded books to alleviating faculty 
anxieties about the process. When it came to determining what to 
do with discards, we explored options like book sales, donations to 
libraries in developing countries, partnering with Better World Books, 
and, as a last resort, disposal. While we are certainly empathetic to 
the goals of recycling, a workflow to do so was beyond our capacity 
given our current roles. The physical process of moving books was 
particularly challenging due to limited workspace following our 
merger. To get books to the disposal spot took a significant amount 
of effort. 

One way we were able to address faculty anxiety was the fact that 
as Theological Librarian I participate in seminary faculty meetings. 
This role has traditionally been reinforced because of ATS accredi-
tation. Despite my presence in faculty meetings, the merger of the 
Seminary and the University had already caused some unease, and 
faculty often have reservations about new learning modes and digital 



Listen and Learn Sessions    371

resources. I found that sharing data, particularly circulation statistics, 
helped alleviate some concerns. But keeping clear communication 
lines was essential. At the beginning of the weeding process, I would 
allow faculty to examine the carts of withdrawal books. This did 
make the process slower than I would have liked, but it was worth 
the time for the benefit of the social capital. 

We began with print journals, using digital access as our primary 
criterion for removal. If we had the series in our digital (Atla) col-
lections, we would remove the print volumes. When we started, we 
tried to recycle the paper from these bound periodicals. We would 
cut out the paper, load it in boxes, and take those boxes to a local 
recycling center. We eventually had to stop this because we over-
whelmed local recycling facilities. 

After periodicals, we moved to the reference collection, but 
focused on the areas of the Library of Congress classification system 
that were not directly related to the seminary’s curriculum. Because 
we lacked circulation data, we used several criteria. Chief among 
the criteria was relevance to the seminary curriculum. In addition, 
the age of the work, duplication, physical condition, and whether or 
not a title was located freely online were all factors in the decision-
making process. Once we had completed the reference area, we 
began looking at the lending collection with the same strategy. 

Recently, our school administration approached the library looking 
for space. Thanks to our weeding efforts, the library was able to be 
part of the solution. However, this has presented new challenges in 
terms of our future resilience and space allocation. With the loss of 
space is the loss or changing of library services, but by cooperating 
with the administration in the change, the library shows a willing-
ness to work towards the goals of the organization. 

This has been a long-term project, and the full impact remains 
to be seen. We’ve now instituted consistent weeding as part of our 
collection development policy. Throughout the process it has become 
apparent that there is no perfect system for weeding. Mistakes will 
be made, but thankfully most mistakes can be remedied through 
interlibrary loan or new purchases. Another observation is that 
faculty support is crucial for smooth operations and increased 
library usage. Lastly, the process of discarding books often involves 



37 2    AT L A 2024 PROCEEDINGS

helping people through anxiety about change and fear of missing 
important resources.

In conclusion, the library of the future, in our view, is a welcoming 
space with a curated collection that meets the needs of its patron base. 
It provides space for study, resources for research, opportunities for 
connection, and integration with modern technologies. As we move 
forward, we will continue to adapt our space and collection to meet 
the evolving needs of our institution and its patrons.

After this presentation, there was a strong discussion about 
strategies for weeding and how those strategies help to posture the 
library within a university. Space is at a premium in many seminar-
ies and colleges, and the library often represents unused space. The 
weeding process, like any change, brings with it both positive and 
negative aspects. The challenges related to weeding physical collec-
tions highlighted the need for theological librarians to be engaged 
in the school’s curriculum so as to offer the most strategic forms of 
deaccession possible. Having a vision for the library’s space and 
purpose when it is not occupied by physical books is also helpful.


