The document summarizes a project to weed the reference collection at a university library to reduce the footprint by 4-6 ranges, improve traffic flow and visibility, and improve the quality of the collection. It was determined that 50% of the collection could be weeded by moving materials to the circulating collection, stacks with restricted access, storage, or discarding them. The envisioned new reference collection would focus on high quality subject encyclopedias, dictionaries, and unique sources to answer factual or unique questions to support brief periods of focused research with librarian assistance or self-directed browsing.
