Each Abington Township Public Library selector will use his/her judgment based on the needs of the library’s patrons as reflected in usage and demand of materials. Older items may be considered for repair.
The Abington Township Public Library relies on the principles of the CREW (Continuous Review Evaluation and Weeding) Guidelines for weeding our collection. These are general guidelines that help determine a book’s usefulness in the collection based on publication date and circulation. The CREW formulas consists of three parts:
1.) The first figure refers to the years since the book’s latest copyright date (age of the book)
2.) The second figure refers to the maximum permissible time without usage (circ activity)
3.) The third figure refers to the presence of various negative factors (called MUSTIE factors)
For example, the formula “4/2/MUSTIE” means: “Consider a book in this class for discard when its latest copyright is more than four years ago; and/or when its last circulation or in-house use was more than two years ago; and /or, when it possesses one or more of the MUSTIE factors.”
The CREW Guidelines also include the MUSTIE formula:
M Misleading
U Ugly
S Superseded
T Trivial
I Irrelevant
E Elsewhere (available from another library)
Rev Jan 2019