Brown School Library Deaccessioning Policy

Librarians review the library collection on an ongoing basis to ensure the collection is meeting the current curriculum, research, and informational needs of students, staff, and students. Materials that no longer meet the needs of the Brown School may be deaccessioned from the collection.

Reasons for review and potential deaccession criteria…

Briefly
    M=     Misleading--factually inaccurate

    U=      Ugly--worn beyond mending or rebinding

    S=       Superseded--by a new edition or by a much better book on the subject

    T=       Trivial--of no discernible literary or scientific merit

     I=        Irrelevant to the needs and interests of the library's community

     E=       Elsewhere--the material is easily obtainable from another WUSTL library

Misleading/Age

                Candidates for Deaccession:

Nonfiction
General topics older than 8 years and not considered foundational within the field of public health, social policy, or social work
Technical manuals, ex: obsolete computer hardware and software – 2 years
Job advice, general – 3 years
Job advice, social work – 10 years
Medicine – 3 years
Law – 10 years
*Has not circulated or gone on course reserve in the past five years

*exception of any text in the Test and Measurements Database (https://libguides.wustl.edu/c.php?g=46890&p=301092#s-lg-box-889944)

Fiction
Has not circulated or gone on course reserve in the past five years

Condition

                Candidates for Deaccession:

Any volume that has sustained significant damage due to water, mold, bugs, misuse, etc…

                Candidates for Replacement:

Nonfiction volume that meets the above criteria and has circulated in the past three
 years

Fiction volume that meets the above criteria and has circulated or gone on course reserve in the past five years

Superseded

When a new edition supersedes a book, older editions will be reviewed.

                Candidates for Deaccession:

*Has not circulated or gone on course reserve in the past five years

Multiple copies – all but one will be deaccessioned if none have circulated or gone on course reserve in the past five years

The remaining title will be reviewed again and will be deaccessioned if it has not circulated or gone on course reserve in the past five years

*Exception: Books that have not circulated in the past five years but contain data necessary for longitudinal studies, ex: book containing statistics on poverty in the 1970s

Exception: Always read retention notes in catalog before deaccessioning