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