Regular lifecycle management of a library collection includes both acquisition and deselection; assessing collections and removing material that no longer meets institutional needs ensures that the collection remains relevant and of the best possible quality.
The Library has a history of not doing holistic deselection work due to a lack of professional Librarian workload capacity to do so. Over the course of decades, this resulted in overgrowth of the collection and significant impact on the accessibility of our spaces. To meet legislated accessibility requirements, mitigate hazards, and maximize student workspaces, the Library engaged in multi-year large scale deselection. We anticipate that this large-scale deselection work will be complete in Summer of 2026.
The initial criteria used to compile deselection lists includes items that: have not circulated in 20 years; were published over 20 years ago; were not acquired by the library in the last 20 years; and are not scarce in other Western Canadian university libraries as indicated by our library consortia preservation program. For health studies materials, the timebound criteria is reduced to 10 years, as currency and accuracy of information is safety-critical in health disciplines. For subjects that do not have a natural “datedness” (e.g. literature, history) the library looks primarily to physical condition coupled with active circulations/use statistics.
Academic Librarians refine these lists based on disciplinary criteria, recommending deselection of content that is outdated, not aligned with institutional teaching and research priorities, or are duplicate copies. Deselection is also recommended where content is: digitized; available in the public domain; available in trusted digital repositories; available in library databases to which we subscribe; or where similar but more recent content is available in the Library collection. We also look to retain works by important scholars within the field, items of significant historical importance that meets institutional teaching and research priorities, and content that reflects Indigenous experiences and perspectives or that are by Indigenous scholars.
The Library is soliciting feedback to further refine our deselection lists so that we can continue to manage a collection of high quality and scholarly value. For any questions on this process, please reach out to Melanie Sucha at SuchaM@brandonu.ca or 204-727-9688.
Please find below a listing of items the Library is proposing to de-select from the collection. This includes items from the following subject areas: World History, History of Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Economic History, and selected print journal issues that have been collected in our electronic collection. The proposed deselections are items that have shown no evidence of circulation or in-library use in the last 20 years, and in most cases, are items that are damaged beyond repair.
This list of deselections was created in accordance with the Senate Library Collections Policy. We appreciate campus feedback on retentions and personal requests by July 31, 2025.
If any of the damaged materials are relevant to current teaching and learning priorities, and should be replaced with the same content in a different format (if readily available), please use the Replacement Request form. You may also use this form to suggest a different title with similar content.
The Library acknowledges that the system statistics capture usage in a comprehensive, but not exhaustive, manner. This list was compiled through the statistical analytics module in the library system. If you see items on the list that you know you have used (either in the Library, or via loan), please share this using the Report Statistical Errors form.
If any materials on the deselection list are of use only for your research or interest, rather than to the broader community teaching and research priorities, please use the Deselected Items Request form to request the item for your personal use. The most effective access that we can provide to esoteric resources is via Interlibrary Loan from our partner institutions, rather than keeping them in our Library "in case."
In instances where the materials are required for institutional teaching or institutional research at BU, please use the Retention Request form to submit criteria for retention of the item.
