6th Annual MUSTIES
It’s that time of year again—the MUSTIES are our version of an ugly sweater contest… but for circulating items from your collection that were weeded in 2025.
How to Participate
- Submit up to three weeded items per member library. Multiple photos of items are welcome.
- Submit via email to: dalexander@nekls.org | Subject: 2025 MUSTIES
- Deadline: Friday, December 5
- Voting: After the submission deadline, an ambassador from each NEKLS member library will have the opportunity to vote.
- Winners announced: Monday, December 15
Weeding keeps your collection useful, current, and aligned with your collection development policy. For guidance, we look to the CREW method—a legacy framework for weeding library collections. You can review the archived manual here: CREW: A Weeding Manual for Modern Libraries
This is all in good fun, but it’s also a chance to reflect on items that served their time—and make way for the new. Whether it’s a DVD, kit, cake pan, costume, or book that has outlived its usefulness, we want to see it! Snap some photos and let’s reward the weird, the ridiculous, and the gloriously retired. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners will be awarded a gift card!
MUSTIE is an acronym for six negative factors that frequently ruin a book’s usefulness and make it a prime candidate for weeding: M = Misleading, U = Ugly, S = Superseded, T = Trivial, I = Irrelevant, E = Easily available elsewhere.
WORST (for media) stands for Worn out, Out of date, Rarely used, Supplied elsewhere, or Trivial and faddish.
