October 2025

IMMS weeding for circulation/ excess copies

Quick Facts

• All open locations of MCL are weeding excess copies of less-used items starting in September 2025 using IMMS devices.
• IMMS uses a formula to find titles with three or more copies that, as a group, have low circulation.
• IMMS will not weed beyond two circulating copies
• IMMS will not target WSYL items,  last copies, or materials tagged Black Resources Collection or Indigenous Collection
• IMMS will only review items that MCL has owned for at least 365 days
• In addition to using the Weeding picklist from IMMS, you should continue to weed for condition, superseded editions, and relevancy, as you always have. IMMS will update each morning and account for any discarded items.

Procedure

IMMS Workflow - Pick Lists, Weeding has steps and screenshots.

If there are problems with an item on an IMMS weeding picklist:

• If you have questions about an item IMMS is recommending for weeding, click “scan later” on the IMMS device and put the item on a decision shelf for a librarian with a note.
• Do not divert items to the decision shelf only because they are in like-new condition (they are in great shape because they aren’t circulating!)
• The “Protect item” option on the weeding screen will bypass that specific copy from being weeded for one year. A different copy will be picked the next day for weeding.
• If the item on the weeding picklist is not there, click “not found”. IMMS will adjust the number of copies and weeding formula the next day.

Rationale:

• The collection is shared now, so traditional branch-level Collection HQ reports no longer make sense
• We need to make room for new materials, especially opening day collections
• MCL buys multiple copies of new titles, which lose popularity as time goes by, or are not as popular as we’d thought they’d be

Known issues uncovered by the pilot project:

• Some items targeted for low lifetime circulation may also be on order for ECL’s opening day collection.
• Items that are not tagged BRC or InCo may be targeted for weeding, even though they have Black or Indigenous subject matter
• Items currently checked out by a patron may have very high circ, but IMMS will weed a low circ copy currently on the shelf
• Items which are stolen or missing, but haven’t yet been marked missing, may skew the low circ figures, so IMMS will incorrectly want to weed an item that circs well, or has fewer than three actually available copies.
• Items from closed branches (HWD, BMT) that are packed up currently show as available and are counted as available, even though they aren’t accessible.