The MUSTIES 2021

This is our version of an ugly sweater contest, the second annual MUSTIES!

After December 10th, one ambassador from each library will be able to vote for the M.U.S.T.I.E.st or W.O.R.S.T. loaned item that has been weeded from a NEKLS member library’s collection. All NEKLS members (be they school, academic, public, or special) may submit photos of up to (3) three retired items (cake pans, DVDs, books, anything you think has a shot at the grand prize). We want you to weed, and we want to reward you!

Submissions will be anonymous until the winner is announced–voting ends at Noon, on Thursday December 16th.

Here is a short dedication to the 2020 winning submission:

Send photo submissions of up to three weeded items to dalexander@nekls.org by December 10, 2021 (multiple photos of materials are allowed).

About Weeding

Get started with weeding by calling a NEKLS consultant or tackle it on your own-some, here’s a great starting spot. If you don’t have a collection development policy, or it has not been reviewed since no one knows, let’s talk.

If you need to recycle deselected books, here is more information for that task.

MUSTIE is an easily remembered acronym for six negative factors that frequently ruin a book’s usefulness and make it a prime candidate for weeding:
M = Misleading (and/or factually inaccurate)
U = Ugly (worn and beyond mending or rebinding)
S = Superseded (by a truly new edition or by a much better book on
the subject)
T = Trivial (of no discernible literary or scientific merit; usually of
ephemeral interest at some time in the past)
I = Irrelevant to the needs and interests of your community
E = The material or information may be obtained expeditiously
Elsewhere through interlibrary loan, reciprocal borrowing, or in
electronic format.

WORST (for Media): Worn out, Out of date, Rarely used, Supplied elsewhere
(available through ILL), or Trivial and faddish