Pruning Lessons The Literature Did Not Teach Me

Abstract

This paper presents practical lessons that I learned while preparing, conducting, and reviewing a significant pruning project at Colorado Christian University (CCU) between 2018-2024. I will first share some details about CCU and its library collection, provide a definition for “pruning,” and then share practical lessons I learned in the past few years that I did not see discussed while reviewing publications dealing with library pruning: Lessons how to better prepare for such a project, lessons about how to formulate evaluation criteria, lessons about the workflow, lessons how to use the library’s integrated library system (ILS) and Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC), lessons I learned about better communication, post-project lessons (and potential future plans), and finally the lessons that should not be repeated by anybody: foolish lessons.