Competency Description and Scope:

Peggy Johnson, a frequent speaker and instructor on collection development and management, writes in "Fundamentals of Collection Development and Management" that collection development should start with a common knowledge of the concepts. So, for this competency, I want to use Johnson's definitions of the terms "collection," "collection development," and "collection management" from the beginning of Chapter One before going through the development process (2014).

Collection: comprises of all the books, media, and genres that a library possesses or has access to remotely through purchase or leasing.

Collection Development: includes selection, determination and coordination of selection policy, assessment of user and potential user needs, budget management, identification of collection needs, community and user outreach and liaison, and planning.

Collection Management: includes decisions on weeding, serial cancellation, storage, and preservation, as well as the activities that influence these decisions, including use data and cost-benefit analysis.

With these terms in mind, I want to add that to hold a collection (virtual or physical) in an information space should overall satisfy its target client group while responding to staff resource limits and expectations. So, while professional organizations such as the American Library Association's (ALA) Collections Management Division, the Reference and User Services Association's (RUSA), and the Collections Development and Evaluation (CODES) have different guidelines, I believe there is a shared concept of collection development practice and purpose. As Carrigan puts it, "the essence of collection development is choice." With my declaration of terms above and my established shared concept of responsibilities, I believe the collection development process are best broken down into five parts including (1) selecting, (2) budgeting, (3) evaluating, (4) planning (or organizing), and (5) preservation goals (which may depend on the institution and may even trigger an assessment of collection policy).

Selecting
Choosing between two or more items is a component of practically every decision that information professionals must make. An organization must think about the item itself, how it will be shelved or stored, and how it will be circulated. The selection of materials is the first step of collection management. These materials should represent the institution's development policy while also meeting the users' information demands. When deciding what materials to make accessible to the public, collection management considers diversity principles, a balanced collection of accessible materials, and the maintained objectivity of the collection in order to give the best service possible and make decisions that are reflective of the community's needs and interests. For a long-term mission, a policy might be developed, or at the very least, the selector has to be acquainted with the four steps of selection: (1) identification of the relevant; (2) evaluation (is the item worthy of selection?) and assessment (is the item appropriate for the collection?); (3) decision to purchase; and (4) order preparation and sometimes placement. (Johnson, P., 2014, p.139)

Budgeting
The information specialist must take into account if the budget can support annual growth when selecting items. As part of the selection process for additional resources, it should also be considered to operate within existing budgets. For instance, I will use my experience ordering for the public library and academic library since they have contrasting goals. At the public library, I had a budget for children's picture books, board books, and graphic novels. My spending was based on the fiscal budget of the specific library branch and their community needs. There were times I had to readjust how much I spent each month if another coworker needed more money for their section. Additionally, I was at one of the 32 branches in Orange County, California, which also means my budget greatly differs from smaller branches not in my same tier list. In contrast to public libraries, when I transferred to an academic library, I had never heard of "blanket order plans" (a contract with an individual publisher or vendor who promises to furnish things within particular limitations) until I started ordering music books and negotiating with vendors. I had to be extremely mindful of where my budget was coming from and why I would want to either reduce or increase my order with publishers.

When I first started being mindful of budget decisions, I found that it was best to start out with what was known. In other words, the most recent complete records tend to be from the previous fiscal year. Because information specialists may have to make a budget request for the next fiscal year soon, it was less overwhelming and safer to base decisions on trends and progress through extrapolation. To successfully budget for library materials, the LIS student must understand the institution's political and legal realities and make sure the budget's mission and goals are aligned with the monetary value. “As budgets remain tight, the allocation of scarce resources requires that libraries answer important questions about their primary functions so that they may make these allocations wisely” (Rubin, 2007, p185).

Evaluation
The purpose of an evaluation is to determine the level of inherent quality and value that an item of content has in order to determine whether or not it should be included in an organization. When deciding whether or not to add an item to the collection, libraries should take into account the information community's behavior and demands. According to Katz (1980, p. 89), this may be accomplished by evaluating the content in light of some kind of benchmark. The following are some potential considerations for both physical and digital materials when evaluating:

• It may be about space, durability, ownership, and accessibility when deciding on a format, as well as how users utilize the resources.

• It may assess the credibility of a publisher, author, or work by looking at critical reception, citation counts, and author bios.

• It may determine fair price by comparing items of equal quality, format, and lifespan.

• It may be about the accuracy and freshness of the content.

• It may determine deselection (weeding) due to outdated information, damage, or zero circulation.

The process of assessing and evaluating a collection must include adaptable actions and procedures. The difference between an assessment and an evaluation of a collection depends largely on the sort of library being discussed. According to Disher (2014, p.21), although academic libraries often "assess" their holdings, public libraries are more likely to state they "evaluated" theirs. It is vital that an information professional be able to reference the best checklist or bibliography for their collection or institution.

Planning / Organizing
The institution's planning strategy plan may differ. However, having the materials organized, explained, and made available in a suitable reference context is crucial (Gregory, V. 2014). Only in this way can there be an assurance that staff and patrons will really utilize the items or resources. The goal of material organization is to make it easy for resources to be found and utilized by all members of a company, whether they are patrons or faculty members. From my work experience, public libraries have always organized websites and the overall floor plan to suit the community. For example, there were often meetings on where new books should be displayed. When I shifted the environment to an academic library, my outreach and collection were now based on students and faculty staff members' discoverability. Most of my displays now are about current events happening on campus.

Another important aspect I noticed when it comes to organization was the arrangement of the call numbers. While I will go more into detail in competency G on classifications and metadata schemes, I want to note that academic library resources use the Library of Congress Classification (LCC) and public libraries use the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC). And the main reason is the community we are serving. DDC lets new books be added to a library in the right place based on their subject, and LLC divides subjects into twenty-one basic classes, each of which is identified by a single letter of the alphabet.

Preservation Goals
Preservation should be seen as an essential part of collection growth in any information repository. The acquired materials are of little use if they are not maintained, protected, and made accessible. There has long been a concern for the material conservation of books and other physical objects. In public libraries, there has always been concern over overcrowded volumes and worn covers from use. The preservation of physical items for an archive organization relies on environmental management (including temperature, humidity, or exposure to light, mildew, and insects), security (including theft or mutilation), and disaster readiness (for unanticipated catastrophes like fires or floods).

When it comes to digital materials, numerous technological issues play a role in their preservation, such as having enough data storage, keeping up with the pace at which digital technology is updated or replaced, and maintaining the equipment or software needed to access digital content. Throughout my studies, I saw that assignments and weekly conversations addressed the increase of digitization and digitalization in libraries, as well as how future LIS students may face issues in transferring data and maintaining current with how digital things are maintained. Though, to the inexperienced, digital material seems to be possibly kept for eternity, it is becoming evident that this is not the situation at the moment. Electronic formats are always evolving. Electronic serials and e-books must now be archived. Data CDs and DVDs are increasingly essential components of many libraries' collections.

Concluding Thoughts

Staff employees at all levels of the company must practice preservation, including how they are shelved and kept. Preservation is described as "all those library actions aimed at preventing, delaying, or halting the degradation of items in order to conserve their intellectual content for future users." Gregory (2019), p. 172. Information workers must plan carefully in order to improve both the digital and print repository environments.

Importance to the Profession:

Many information professionals begin their careers with an existing collection that they must assist preserve, develop, and improve. The key to sustaining a collection is to realize that growing it does not just imply obtaining it, but also adapting it to meet the requirements and wishes of the patrons. This involves removing redundant or damaged or unused items from the collection, emphasizing quality over number, and protecting it in the case of a mishap. “Collections development and management librarians have always managed collections; the difference today is that these decisions are made within a much larger context.” (Johnson, P., 2014, p. 53). Every library practitioner should have an understanding of the fundamentals of sustaining a library's collection. The collection is the lifeblood of the library; it generates revenue, attracts visitors, and justifies the library's existence. Maintenance, development, weeding, preservation, and protection of a collection are continual processes that use valuable resources. Libraries must make thoughtful and challenging strategic decisions and persist in enacting those decisions if they are to change quickly enough to meet daily challenges. This competence aims to educate LIS members on the collecting process and the importance of collection management and collection development.

Preparation to Understand Competency F

The following responsibilities helped me understand collection development in an informational profession:

• Selecting and purchasing all accessible versions of resources.

• Analyzing and negotiating e-resource or vendor contracts

• Learning the benefits of weeding and implementing.

• Comparing and contrasting different environments of library collections, services, use and user experiences.

• Understanding the different collection development guidelines such as ALA, RUSA, SAA, and etc.

• Staying knowledgeable of censorship and to evaluate without bias.

• Consideration of the discoverability of the collection.

The most challenging role was ensuring that I adopted an objective approach while selecting the collection to fulfill the clients' demands. Due of my passion for books, I frequently struggled with weeding during my early years working at a library. Through SJSU, I realized it should not have outweighed the advantages. When it comes to collection development, collection management must maintain the collection's focus, purpose, and integrity. Following established guidelines will make the library's collection process simpler, effective, and community-driven.