Use the basic concepts and principles related to the selection, evaluation, organization, and preservation of physical and digital information items
Introduction
One of the main components of libraries is to provide their communities with access to information. By participating in collection development, the library is able to provide this access. It is important for libraries to purchase new information, whether in physical or digital format, for their communities to access and fulfill their information needs. For an academic library, providing institutional capital (collections) is one of three basic purposes (Evans & Greenwell, 2018). Two key documents guide librarians in developing the collection, a collection development policy and the library budget. The budget is a significant tool used to determine the amount that can be used toward specific information. While it may seem like the budget primarily goes towards physical items, the majority of collection development and acquisitions budgets go toward digital information resources, primarily databases. One issue libraries are constantly battling is the declining budget to sustain library services and resources, and the rising cost of big deal databases that serve a primary function. A collection development policy is a standard among all libraries, and it is the governing body of work that determines how librarians provide collection development.
Collection Development Policy
The collection development policy outlines the purpose of the collection and what will and will not be purchased (Wong, 2018). “The goal of a collection development statement is to guide librarians in making consistent, reasoned decisions about the library’s collection” (Wong, 2018, p. 138). These policies communicate the purpose of the collection process to various internal and external library stakeholders (Wong, 2018). Collection development should involve strategic planning and a collection policy should be created from the library’s strategic plan, mission, vision, and values statements which provide a framework for the growth, selection, and scope of materials the library collects (Disher, 2022). “Strategic planning helps collection managers recognize when user demands are shifting, enabling them to respond to those shifts by adapting collection management plans” (Disher, 2022, p. 336). Understanding this aspect of user needs involves a SWOT analysis process where evaluating internal value allows librarians to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the collection and paying attention to external trends to understand any opportunities and threats (Disher, 2022). Collection development policies provide a broad view of the relationship between the collection development and the library’s mission (Evans & Greenwell, 2018). A typical collection policy would include the library’s mission statement, a statement of purpose of the collection, guiding principles such as the Library Bill of Rights, general guidelines, any patron challenges, selection process criteria, evaluation process criteria, and subject profiles (Wong, 2018). Libraries that succeed in their collection development practices work to understand their users and use the collection development policy as a working document to evaluate every year for needed changes.
Collection Development Life Cycle
The collection development life cycle includes four primary stages and involves various LIS professionals to ensure access to information. The stages in this cycle are selection and acquisition, evaluating collection material, organization and maintenance of the collection, and preservation.
Selection
Selection is the first stage in the collection development life cycle. This process is typically done by librarians. The collection, depending on the size of the library, is separated between subjects for various librarians to manage. At a larger library, various librarians will manage their section and be referred to as selectors, and it is the job of the acquisitions librarian to coordinate the selection process with both print and digital resources and collections (Wong, 2018). There is often an extensive acquisition process that determines the selection process including having a blanket purchase process with standing orders to purchase from trusted reliable publishers, approval plans of items sent to the library to determine whether it will be purchased or returned, blanket orders which represent the library’s commitment to purchase a certain class of materials, subscriptions to big deal packages and specific serials needed for courses, gifts and donations from patrons accepted by the discretion of the library, firm orders to purchase a specifically requested or desired title, and sometimes patron-driven acquisitions to allow a purchase to occur if a patron is interested (Uziel, 2017, pp. 103-104). Depending on the acquisition type, selectors are able to have complete control over the items they would like to purchase for their given sections of the collection.
Evaluation
Evaluation is the second stage of the collection development life cycle. The evaluation process primarily consists of criteria used to determine the type of content to purchase for the collection (Wong, 2018). Evaluation is about understanding the information needs and interests of the library community in order to match them with the collection. Depending on the type of library, selectors consider various criteria to determine if an item or material should be added to the collection. Following the Library Bill of Rights and the Code of Ethics, selectors aim to be free of bias and are urged to bring in more marginalized perspectives into the collection, particularly those that match their community’s demographics (Wong, 2018). Evaluation criteria that selectors use include authority or reputation of the publisher, the type of format most used by the community whether that be physical or digital, and the cost of an item and if it fits within the library’s budget (Wong, 2018). The evaluation stage of the life cycle is critical to ensure the information needs of the community are met and also that the current collection is considered in order to not duplicate information but to see any gaps in knowledge (Evans & Greenwell, 2018). It can be important to assess the collection periodically in conjunction with understanding community needs and interests to ensure a usable and likable library collection.
Organization
The third stage of the collection development life cycle is organization of the information material. “Once items are selected and acquired, they need to be made available to library patrons” (Wong, 2018, p. 143). This process includes cataloging, barcoding, and scanning physical items before shelving them in the library according to a particular classification system such as Library of Congress classification. This process often involves other LIS professionals and departments such as technical services to catalog and prepare the item for patron usage. It involves the circulation department to scan the items in and get them shelved into the collection with the help of library pages. For digital items, organization can be made according to the needs of the integrated library system (ILS) such as Ex Libris Alma and Primo through the acquisitions librarian and technical services professionals.
Preservation
The fourth and final stage of the collection development life cycle is preservation. The maintenance or preservation of physical items is a very important component of the collection development life cycle. “Preservation is about ensuring abiding access to an object or collection through whatever means necessary” (Skinner, 2022, p. 180). For most libraries, preservation practices include shelf reading to ensure items are findable, dusting to ensure the cleanliness of the item, and periodically shifting the collection to make room for more. Preservation focuses on the upkeep of the collection items to ensure longevity, especially at more research-based libraries such as academic and archival to ensure the item remains available for people today and in the future (Skinner, 2022). Many large academic research libraries, particularly those with graduate programs, do not remove items from the collection unless necessary, but smaller libraries go through a deselection process to make room for newer items. It is the collection selectors job to maintain the collection and deselect or weed any items that meet a certain criteria. Weeding criteria includes anything that is misleading, ugly, superseded, trivial, irrelevant, or elsewhere in the collection (Wong, 2018). There are many deselection methods librarians choose to use, but it is recommended for weeding to be a continual process and not just done annually. There are many discarding methods to physically remove the items from the library including resell to a place like Better World Books or by the Friends of the Library, or by being recycled. Digital collection materials have a different weeding and discarding process, but typically a report is generated to determine old unused items to be automatically discarded at a certain time.
Evidence
Info 230 Discussion #6 - Collection Development Policy
My first piece of evidence is a discussion post for Info 230 Issues in Academic Libraries. The prompt for this discussion was to explore a collection development policy and ask a collection development librarian on how the policy affects their selection process. I analyzed the College of Southern Nevada (CSN) Library Collection Development Policy which had been recently edited in May 2022. In this discussion I explain what I found in the nine-page policy document and what aspects of typical policies it included such as an equity, diversity, and inclusion statement, selection criteria, a maintenance policy, discarding policy, and the parameters about accepting gifts and donations. I also mention in this discussion that the policy also discusses collection assessment procedures. This discusses the push toward digital collection materials in the post-pandemic atmosphere and the work of the library on beginning a large weeding project with removing DVD’s from the collection due to lack of use. This discussion posts shows my knowledge on collection development practices including the use and aspects of a collection development policy, trends that influence the evaluation process, and the importance of including budget parameters in the policy document.
Info 285 - Research Paper Draft #2
My second piece of evidence is the second draft to my research paper for Info 285 Research in Academic Libraries. My research proposal is titled Exploring CSN Students’ Utilization of the Reserve Textbook Collection. This proposal consists of a literature review of the concept of textbook reserves. It includes the fifteen year history of textbook reserve collections across the academic landscape, which was meant to address the issue with rising costs for college students to ensure academic success. This proposal also discusses the trend in usage toward digital textbooks, from a user perspective and a publishing perspective and how this affects the ability to purchase physical textbooks to place in the reserve collection. This proposal also discusses threats to the physical textbook reserve program by the Covid-19 pandemic, particularly the lack of access to materials when a library is closed and the copyright parameters of photocopying a textbook to fulfill student needs. This evidence shows my knowledge of the evaluation and selection process of the collection development life cycle including the understanding of library user needs and interests with digital access.
Work Experience - Collection Development of Academic Library Reserves Collection
My third piece of evidence is a document written about my work experience with collection development. As the circulation supervisor for my campus library, I am responsible for selecting, evaluating, organizing, and preserving textbook reserves and anatomy model collections for student usage. This document describes the budgeting process for these two collections, how I select and evaluate which items to purchase, primarily from patron request or an identified lack in the collection for specific course materials or anatomy models. This document also mentions the organization and weeding process that I go through, including analyzing an annual report of textbooks that have not been circulated within a one year period. This piece of evidence shows my knowledge of all stages of the collection development life cycle and my experience with these practices.
Conclusion
As a future academic librarian, I will continue to provide collection development work whether with the reserve collection that I do currently or as a librarian with a larger collection. I am currently the project lead of a diversity audit project for the CSN Henderson Library collection and plan to continue to seek professional development through ACRL and ALA to understand changes in collection development and matching community needs to the materials available.
References
Disher, W. T. (2022). Managing collections. In S. Hirsh (Ed.), Information Services Today (3rd ed., pp. 332-341). Rowman & Littlefield
Evans, G. E., & Greenwell, S. (2018). American librarianship (2nd Ed.).
Skinner, K. (2022). Curation and preservation. In S. Hirsh (Ed.), Information Services Today (3rd ed., pp. 179-191). Rowman & Littlefield
Uziel, L. (2017). Collection development: General and special, print and digital, and resource sharing. In T. Gilman (Ed.) Academic Librarianship Today (pp. 101-114. Rowman & Littlefield
Wong, M. A. (2018). Developing and managing library collections. In K. Haycock & M.J. Romaniuk (Eds.), The Portable MLIS. (2nd ed., pp. 137-151). Libraries Unlimited.