Weeding is a key way that librarians keep collections healthy and relevant, but weeding processes and decisions can perpetuate white knowledge's domination of collections. Oftentimes, weeding decision are made primarily by sets of criteria that often include age and popularity of material. These are factors that are impacted by white supremacy, for example exclusion of materials by BIPOC authors from curricula lead to lower usage, or BIPOC issues are less popular areas of study for a predominantly white student body. This results in materials that would be relevant to BIPOC students or that could represent BIPOC points of view in our physical spaces being weeded.
Would you like to suggest a question to consider when weeding? Please submit you recommendation using our feedback form!