Use the basic concepts and principles related to the selection, evaluation, organization, and preservation of physical and digital information items
Introduction
Every library manages some type of physical or electronic collection be it books, image files, or just about anything one can think of. The process of selecting, evaluating, organizing, and preserving these items is called collection management. Collection management starts with two vital documents: the collection development policy and the budget (Wong, 2018, P. 138). A collection development policy includes the library mission statement, community analysis, selection guidelines, and collection evaluation information. Collections exist to satisfy information needs of their community. Details about the community and current collection are included in the collection development policy and provide valuable insights and guidance for the collection development life cycle. The second necessary document, the library budget, determines the funds available.
Selection
Selecting materials demands a specific understanding of the community the library serves and their information needs. A librarian in charge of selection needs to be knowledgeable about current publishing trends, classic selections within the genre, and gaps in the current collection. For example, a school library might find an emerging need for more high-low books within the student community. Knowing the best publishers who offer this content is essential to selecting purchases.
Evaluation
Beyond just identifying possible purchases, the librarian needs to evaluate the content of each item. Care needs to be taken to include representation of all sides of an issue. A focus should be made on gathering volumes from historically marginalized groups. Since it is impossible to review each purchase individually the librarian needs to rely on a variety of credible review sources to evaluate the content. Major library publications like Library Journal, School Library Journal, BookList, and Publisher’s Weekly all provide reviews on books and online resources. During the evaluation process the librarian also needs to weigh the authority of the publisher, the format of the item, and the cost. Finally, the librarian needs to be aware of how this purchase will fit within the collection. A nonfiction collection where 10% of the books are about birds might not need another bird tome, even if the particular title is fantastic.
To manage the overall balance between the different collections many purchasing budgets are divided into individual budget categories. Thus, a library might have budget categories for picture books, easy readers, fiction, graphic novels, and nonfiction.
Organization
Once items are purchased, the next step in the collection management life cycle is to make these items available to the community. This is done by adding the item to the catalog and either placing the physical item on the shelf or making the digital item available. All items need to be accessible to all patrons, including ones with disabilities. Special attention should be taken when adding digital items so that patrons that use screen readers or other accessibility functions are not disadvantaged. Once items are available to patrons, many librarians aid patrons by creating LibGuides to highlight resources.
Preservation
The final step in the collection development life cycle is deselection and preservation. Most items will eventually need to be removed from the collection. Outdated and damaged materials degrade the entire collection. Weeding is an often overlooked but necessary step for keeping a collection current. Depending on the library environment some items may be archived. In the school media center this is rarely the case. Rather, torn and tattered materials need to be disposed of regularly. The collection development policy should include a well thought out section on weeding and disposal of materials so that consistent decisions are made over the life of the collection.
Competency development
I have found most of my experience with collection development occurred in my professional capacity as the school librarian. When I arrived in this position I was confronted with a collection that had not been in the care of a professional librarian within the last 15 years. The books were dated and tattered. I immediately bought a book on collection development, wrote a strategic plan, and started gathering collection statistics. INFO 233 also included two projects that helped me expand my understanding of the collection development life cycle with modules focused on writing a policy statement and a libguide.
Evidence Description
Professional Experience – Collection Evaluation Report and Proposal to Home & School Club
This piece of evidence is a presentation I did to the Home and School Club. It details the community analysis I have done to understand our community needs and the statistics on our current collection publication dates and usage. Understanding the existing collection is a major part of evaluation as one must know what community needs are not being satisfied by the current collection.
In this project, our group of five developed a deselection policy for a school media center. Using the American Association of School Librarians’ standards framework and the Library Bill of Rights we show how a deselection policy can support the standard of diversity and currency within a collection. This paper clearly shows the challenges of deselection in practice, including disposal of materials. Our group worked collaboratively but I contributed the initial introduction, schedule, guidelines, and part of the justification discussion. During editing some of these contributions were moved around and adjusted for clarity.
INFO 233 – LibGuide School Librarians & Literacy
Finally, to demonstrate my understanding of selecting resources I am including my LibGuide that I developed for school librarians. This LibGuide pulls together electronic resources for school librarians on their unique role within the school environment. Only ten electronic resources were able to be included in the annotated bibliography so understanding the school librarian’s needs was essential to curating the most appropriate resources.
Concluding Remarks
Every library manages some sort of collection of items. Good collection development practice starts with a collection development policy and a budget. The steps to collection development include selection, evaluation, organization, and preservation. Collection development may seem straight forward but one needs to be aware of preserving access and diverse representation.
References
Wong, M. (2018). Developing and managing library collections. In K. Haycock & M.-J. Romaniuk (Eds.), The portable MLIS: insights from the experts (Second edition, pp. 137-151). Libraries Unlimited, an imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC.
Last updated October 3, 2021 10:28 am
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