n.the process of identifying and removing unwanted items from a collectionChatfield 1940, 100It is very important, therefore, in the administration of these current file rooms, that, at stated periods, time be allotted for the weeding out of useless documents for disposal and transfer of valuable documents to noncurrent file rooms.Child 1983, 289There was, however, a time, and not very long ago at that, when many archival programs did not have clearly defined collecting policies, when collections were accepted without rigorous appraisal, when weeding was limited to obvious duplicates and totally irrelevant or very low-level information, and when periodic reappraisal and re-weeding were neither considered nor carried out.Hite and Linke 1992, 24In many ways what was undertaken was simply an item weeding of the collections rather than a more comprehensive review of the material.Behrnd-Klodt 2008, 63Preparation for reappraisal that might result in disposal of an entire records group, collection, or body of materials should include a review of the mission, goals, collecting policies, plans, and ethical constraints of the archives and its parent institution, as well as consideration of the effect of deaccessioning upon all of the archival holdings. Such considerations are not suggested as strongly for the ongoing weeding of individual duplicates, routine, or out-of-scope documents or items that occurs during archival arrangement and description.Danielson 2010, 101Weeding, disposal, and deaccessioning can be done in an ethical manner as an integrated collection management strategy, and in fact needs to be done to prevent bloated, unfocused, and ultimately unusable collections.SAA 2017b, 3This document is not meant to address weeding or separating items, folders, and other materials found during accessioning and processing stages.Huggard 2019, 3The archival literature in the United States, when it discusses weeding at all, typically differentiates it from deaccessioning. . . . The archival literature does not conflate weeding with deaccessioning, and yet many in the profession appear to make this connection.Huggard and Jackson 2019, 521When weeding, a full reappraisal is typically not carried out; instead, individuals make quick decisions about removal for a small amount of material, and the collection overall will be kept by the repository.
