Core Collections includes four recommendation levels to help you make informed decisions on which books your library should buy, repurchase, or weed. 

Essential 
Essential titles are books your patrons will ask about for years. These include many award winners, long-standing popular titles, and great new titles getting immediate buzz. You'll want to make sure to buy these titles and keep them on your shelves. 

Recommended 
Recommended titles are great books for a well-rounded collection. Ideally, all libraries would have these books too, but we know that different communities have different needs, and are limited by space, budget, and community interests. 

Supplemental 
Supplemental titles are great for filling out collections especially popular to your community, from baking to romance to biography. 

Weeded 
Core Collections is maintained like a library, which means we also weed books that don't need to be in the collection any longer. Weeded titles are a quick way to see older and less relevant titles you can remove to make space for newer items. 

Because different collections have different needs, one book may be "essential" for a middle school collection but only "recommended" for a senior high collection. We make sure the recommendation levels are clearly associated with different collections so you can keep reading needs in mind as you're buying and weeding.