Some of the more difficult weeds in libraries are award winners. The Newbery, Caldecott, National Book Award, Hugo, Bram Stoker, Nebula, etc. etc. etc. awards are wonderful choices for most public libraries – and even some school, university, and special libraries. However, they should be held to *almost* the same standard as every other item in the collection when it comes to weeding. I would likely hold on to an award winner longer than a non-award winner, but when hard choices have to be made for space reasons, you may find yourself considering an award winner for weeding.
Awards do not make books sacred. They make them more likely to be popular with patrons, but that is not always the case. It is really a win some/lose some situation. If an award-winning book was not popular with your patrons and didn’t meet your usage benchmark, by all means weed it.
You can try to generate interest with an award-winners display or create programming around the book. Hold a book club or fan event, or maybe a social media trivia contest about the book. Include it in a Battle of the Books, make bookmarks featuring the cover art, or make a read alike list including the title. There are plenty of ideas that might give the book a second chance before you ditch it. The difference between award winners and non-winners is that award winning titles might be worth this extra effort before they are weeded. The award lends the title a bit more authority, credibility, and potential for use.
In the end, though, if a book is not of interest to your patrons, let it go no matter what award it won!
Holly
Awful Library Books 