The Windsor Free Public Library is located in the Berkshires with holdings numbering 5,453 and serving a community of 958 residents. The collection is available also to seasonal residents and visitors as well as having access to the WMRLS bookmobile. My first visit took place on March 21, 2008 when Becky (the project coordinator) and I met with the library director, Margaret and we talked about about what she needed from me and discussed the project. Then it was down to work with Margaret and I working as a team weeding the Fiction collection starting at Z since usually the beginning of the alphabet gets all the attention when any time for weeding pops up.
The fiction collection was in great condition and very current so we focused on making room and facing out some books so that they were more visible and attractive to browse through giving the shelves a more open and airy feeling. Going through each book, Margaret not only saw when it had last circulated but who took it out while making a mental note of what other books she could suggest to her users next time they came in. On that first visit we were fortunate to have a volunteer there who pulled Author/Title cards from the catalog, we boxed the books and put them aside until I could haul them to headquarters and into the Got Books container. A key factor is to complete the cycle of weeding, discarding, and boxing on each visit so that no loose ends remain and work piles up.
Now nearly two months later, the adult sections are completed and I have 2 or three more visits and we will be done. Both Margaret and I are very pleased with how the collection is more accessible and inviting.
If all that isn’t enough, Margaret is a retired librarian from NYC and we soon discovered that we both had worked at the same New York Public Library branch on 23rd Street, she in the 70’s and me just last year and here we were meeting up in Western MA.
UPDATE
Work was completed on June 2. Completed in the sense that the bulk weeding is complete and books are more visible and accessible. Of course weeding never ends but it should be easier now to manage the collection. One option is the "one book in, one book out" system of weeding which should help the ongoing process. Windsor library was my first exposure to a small, rural library and it was a pleasure working there. I hope to take some of what I learned there and share it with other libraries. I have added some after pictures to the slideshow below.

Susana Villar

Windsor & Chesterfield Libraries

Circuit Riders have been out riding and libraries are being visited on a regular basis with new ones being added to the mix. It has been two months since we met as a group for the first time and and now a method and rhythm is quickly developing. We were able to get together for a meeting yesterday to exchange experiences, impressions and get feedback so that each of us can do our best work. The general consensus is that we are as happy to be at the libraries as they are having us there.

I have a unique opportunity to be working in two libraries simultaneously - the Windsor Free Public Library and the Chesterfield Library with the focus being on weeding. A few things have stood out for me and hold true for both libraries.
First is how welcome I feel and how willing both director’s are to get this important and necessary task done. They are well aware that weeding a collection is vital, as anyone who works in a library knows, yet it is often neglected due to overwhelming other demands. In the long run it increases circulation and just as important, allows patrons to see books which may have been overlooked before in jam-packed shelves. Also in regards to non-fiction, the collection will be current in certain areas such as health, business, law and have depth in other areas like gardening, cooking, history, art, and community needs. Both have nice selection of local history documents and area guides which we are of course keeping and the focus there is how to make them more visible and attractive.
At both libraries the directors and I have become a team with sharing not only the physical work but just as important the intellectual process that takes place. We are each others second opinion. Decision making works smoothly and we are in agreement almost all the time. More than once each director has told me that having me there once a week has really helped them to set aside a block of hours when weeding is the sole priority. Weeding takes time and effort and cannot be rushed if a good job is to be done. Even so, we have accomplished so much at both Windsor and Chesterfield.