Collections Management in a Public Library Term Paper

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Total Length: 3259 words ( 11 double-spaced pages)

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Collection Development Policy

Overview

The Jericho Library is a small branch within the Okie County Public Library, a fictional library system in the mid-West. Its organizational structure consists of the following: The library employs a branch manager, three library assistants, and four shelver/pages. The branch manager is tasked with supervising the library’s operations. The library assistants oversee the reference desk and schedule programs and events at the library. The shelver/pages retrieve materials, shelve materials, and assist in daily cleanup and maintenance of the outdoor road sign, which carries weekly announcements for the public.

The Jericho Library serves a modest community of 17,000. Its clientele consists of members of its middle-class community. Because the library is also near a tourist destination (a large lake where visitors come to ski, sail, hike, and camp during the summer months), it also caters to tourists by providing them services, access to genealogical records, computers, Internet and other materials, which they can check out with a guest library card.

Mission Statement

The mission of Jericho Library is to tend to the informational and developmental needs of the community and seasonal visitors by offering community services, specialized programming, quality materials for in-house use and for check-out, and educational support. The library’s goal is to maintain a positive relationship with the community and the seasonal guests. Through excellent staff assistance, a cultivated collection, and digital technology that many patrons require in today’s digital information age, the library is a top destination for one and all.

Community Profile

The community consists of mainly Caucasian, middle-class mid-Westerners who use the library both for informational and entertainment needs. There are several schools within the area—from primary to college—and many students come to the library for extra help with school work. There is a small minority population of Mexican-Americans who patronize the library for materials too. There is also a strong elderly population in the community.

The members of the community work for one of the major corporations in the nearby city or for one of the other organizations: there is an insurance corporation, a hospital, a plastics company, an Amazon warehouse, and a college. The unemployment rate is very low at under 2%. Still, there has been a rise in drug abuse in recent years, with an influx of heroin usage in the community. There are several church groups that are working with community advisory groups, the local police and the library to promote sobriety and accountability within the community to help stem the tide of the recent drug scourge.

Patrons Needs Assessment

Patrons’ needs have been assessed through community surveys, record keeping of what materials are circulated, comments left by patrons using comment cards available at the front desk, social media, and staff communications with patrons.

Surveys are conducted twice a year to help give the library a sense of what is in demand by patrons. Seasonal guests are also invited to make recommendations during their summer visits so that the library can be better prepared to administer to their needs while they are in town for the summer weeks and months.

Social media is a particularly effective tool that the library staff uses to gauge community interest in programs, events, and materials added to circulation. The circulation statistics themselves are also helpful tools for assessing the needs of patrons and evaluating what materials receive the most and least interest.

Digital materials are what have been assessed as being most in-demand among patrons. These include DVDs, games for Xbox, Playstation and Nintendo; music CDs, e-Books, audio books, and Internet access. The community’s elderly population has a genealogical group that frequently requests genealogical materials from the library and there is a growing need among this population to house more such materials as the group itself is growing in number and more researchers are interested in establishing their families’ genealogies. Seasonal guests have shown that they are interested in regional information—books, guides, maps, history, and tourist info regarding the county and the state. Students have requested more access to computer technology, software, digital materials and Internet usage.

Goals

The goals for the Jericho Library’s collection are to maintain a high-standard level of materials that are both useful and in-demand among members of the community and the seasonal guests who frequent the library during the summer months.

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By subject area

· Entertainment – The library’s entertainment area is already quite robust with a very healthy selection of DVDs, CDs, video games, audio books, e-Books, and Internet access. However, during the summer months there is an even greater need for these materials and it is necessary to add to the collection to ensure patrons are content.

· Regional History/Tourism – The library’s goal is to add more updated maps, current guides and history on the region to its collection.

· Genealogy – The goal for this subject is to increase its collection of genealogical materials by 2x its current size to accommodate the needs of the genealogical group in the community. This collection will utilize microfilm and microfiche to accomplish this goal.

· Education – There is a need among students for more access to computers and digital information, so the library will increase its computer space by 1.5x to meet the growing need for access to educational materials used via digital technology.

By format

· Online databases – These will be offered via an expansionary program to grant users access to more collections not available in print or in-house at the library. This will accommodate the needs of students and researchers.

· Digital materials – Movies, games and audio discs are in high demand throughout the year and the library recognizes the need to expand its collection of these materials. It will grow the collection by 2x over the coming two years.

Selection Process

Who selects?

A selection committee is utilized in Jericho Library and is headed by the library’s manager, who has final say in all selections. However, the manager receives substantial input from the library assistants who are tasked with making recommendations for materials based on circulation, requests, surveys and comments. The manager is also in touch with the Main Library in the city to expand online database access.

How are materials selected?

Material is selected to be part of the collection based on date of publication, popularity of the author/producer, utility of the material and whether it meets the demand among patrons (i.e., tour guides for the region are in demand and a variety of them should be made available). New content is continuously sought for digital materials collections and for students. Library assistants are tasked with cultivating a list of items to be selected and the reason for the item’s selection. This list is then given to the manager, who makes the final decision based on budgetary concerns, what other libraries are holding in the county, whether the item will have a large circulation, or whether the item should be obtained in digital as opposed to hard copy format. The manager works with the library assistants in cultivating this list and gives the assistants budgetary criteria to follow.

Miscellaneous Issues

Gifts

Donations to the library are welcomed but are not always kept with the library’s collection. Based on the age of the materials donated and their relevancy within the library’s overall purpose towards the community, they may be kept or sold at the ongoing library book sale which is always open in the library’s lobby, where books for sale are shelved.

Monetary donations are accepted and placed in the library’s fund for purchasing of new materials. Accounting records are kept and donors are apprised of how their donations were spent accordingly, which conforms with sound librarianship as described by Evans and Saporano (2012). By promoting transparency and trust, the library builds effective relationships with the public in this manner.

De-selection and Discards

The method of weeding described by Johnson (2014) is the one used by Jericho Library: it uses objective and subjective criteria for its weeding process. This method is described in more detail in the “Evaluation” section of this report.
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