Weed, Yes! Discard, No! There May Be a Collection in That Trash!

Abstract

In the course of a weeding project at a small community college library, librarians discovered an unusual nineteenth century literary collection consisting of many obscure titles written by people of color, women and ethnic minorities. Though the materials were not rare, they constituted an interesting and valuable set of materials. These materials had never circulated and would remain underutilized given the mission of a community college. The community college librarians working together determined that while the collection did not belong in their library, the collection would be appropriate in an institution with upper level undergraduates, or even better with a graduate student population doing original research. A description of the collection consisting both of a list of the materials and an overview was created. The collection was then offered on a first come, first serve basis on a local consortium listserv. Another academic library, this at a university with a graduate school, requested the colle...