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SHSU Special Collections Policies and Procedures

Weeding Policy

Thomason Room Special Collections – Weeding Policy:

 

It is our policy to enable the future growth of the Thomason Room Special Collections department and ongoing ability to fulfill our mission through an efficient and thoughtful weeding program. Those books and materials that do not fit in the guidelines set out in our collection development policy will be assessed using the following checklist:

 

  1. Do they meet the expectations set forth in the collection development policy?

    1. Regional Texana a.k.a. local history

    2. General Texana, published before 1899

    3. Specialized items pertaining to the Civil War

    4. Specialized items pertaining to the history of criminal justice in Texas.

  2. Is the item rare?

    1. Determine rarity by doing a Worldcat search.

    2. If the count of libraries that own the item in question is high, it may leverage your decision to move the item to MAIN or to discard the item in one direction. Conversely, if you find that only two libraries in the world own the item in question, holding on to the item in the Thomason room begins to make more sense.

    3. You may determine, in consultation with the Special Collections Librarian, that the item is worth preserving even if it is not specific to our collection development policy IF it is rare or unique.

  3. Monetary value. Determine monetary value by consulting the following portal:

    1. Vialibri: http://www.vialibri.net/

  4. Condition. The above indicators may be overridden if the item is damaged to a point that a high level of conservation would be necessary to render the item usable. Condition issues that render the item questionable include but are not limited to the presence of mold, broken spine or binding, torn pages or binding, discoloration of pages or binding, water damage, missing pages or parts, etc.

 

 

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