Essay On Library Housekeeping

The importance of maintaining the collection within the library.

Collection maintenance plays a vital role in libraries, which may focus on the day to day hands on care of the collection. It consists of several activities, which may include; housekeeping, cleaning the collection, conservation of materials and the weeding of the library collection.

According to (Merriam-Webster), housekeeping is the management of property and the provision of equipment and services. The practice of good housekeeping habits in a library maybe the simplest and cheapest method of library maintenance. Housekeeping work should be a frequent occurrence based on the needs and circumstances of the collection. Additionally, good housekeeping practices are done to keep away dust particles, smoke dirt, ashes and mold spore from gathering on or out of the objects with your collection. (www.nedcc.org/preservation). These factors can cause the materials in the

The process is an ongoing part of the collection development. (Ontario Library Association). Weeding is done within small projects needed for the acquisition process of new materials to the collection. This is done to reduce the duplicates of books, out-of-date materials, materials that are no longer covered in the curriculum, and also in poor condition for materials that are relevant and needed frequent by patrons. Thus, the weeding of the collection creates an up-to-date collection, where it saves time for the patrons and staff. Weeding creates increase staff knowledge of the collection, which helps in collection building process. It also saves time and money, where the constant cleaning, binding, mending, and extra stacks are reduced. The weeding of the collection also provides a cleaner and more attractive collection for its patrons and staff, where it is easier accessible to information in the