Collection Development Policies

With the Worldwide Web offering such easy access to thousands of Collection Development Policies it is mighty tempting to just “copy and paste” some other library’s collection development policy. After all it is time consuming to create your own policy, and their policy is so well written. You don’t even have to re-type the document. Believe me there are those libraries that in a desperate effort to meet a Per Capita requirement for the Illinois State Library have done just this. It is very telling though when in the middle of reading ABC library’s Collection Development Policy, you find a reference to XYZ library.

I suppose if you are simply planning on putting this document in you bottom desk drawer that maybe this is the way to go, but I think that you are missing an opportunity to improve the quality of your service to your community and the ability of your staff to explain why you collect what you do. No matter how similar XYZ library is to your own library there are in fact differences, because no two communities have the same collections or serve the same populations nor do they have the same mission or purpose. Your library is unique and your collection development policy should reflect your library’s unique role in your community.

There are those who would agree with Richard Snow and advocate that collection development policies are “Wasted Words .” Richard Snow rightly suggests that in order to write a good policy you need to evaluate the collection and that the never ending cycle of the evaluation process discourages writing a flexible policy that adapts to the changes in the institution. The task may be daunting, but I tend to agree with Elaine B. Smyth that the real benefit of writing a collection development policy lies in the process of creating it. I also believe that words that are properly used and selected have great power to educate, to change and to inspire and are not wasted words.

The creation of a collection development policy offers an opportunity to evaluate the collection and needs of the community it serves. It also offers an opportunity to plan for future needs of the community while providing insights into the past practices. Developing a collection development policy also provides a training opportunity for library staff and board members and maybe even the community being served.

I suspect that the bottom line is, “If you fail to plan then you are planning to fail“. If your only plan is to store the Policy in your bottom drawer, then by all means copy and paste, but don’t be fooled. You’ve cheated yourself and your library out of an opportunity to face new challenges, to gain new insights, to change and even to improve.

Perhaps the best way to insure a successful collection development process is to plan carefully to make the best use of people’s time and talents in the process. Keep the policy flexible. One way to do this might be to express the basic principles in the policy, but pull out the procedural elements of the Collection Development selection process into separate best practices training documents that address the issues specific to various parts of the collection.

References and Resources

• Cassell , Kay Ann and Futas, Elizabeth 1991. Developing Public Library Collections, Policies, and Procedures. New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc.
• Futas Elizabeth 1995. Collection Development Policies and Procedures. Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press.
• Smyth, Elaine B. "A Practical Approach to Writing a Collection Development Policy" (Fall 1999). Rare Books and Manuscripts Librarianship 14:1, p. 27-31.
• Snow, Richard. “Wasted Words: The Written Collection Development Policy and the Academic Library” (May 1996). Journal of Academic Librarianship 22:3, p. 191–93.

Online Resources

Sample Policies from Academic Libraries

• http://www.millikin.edu/staley/services/collection_development/cd_policy.asp - Staley Library, Millikin University.
• http://www.una.edu/library/about/policies/collection-development.html - University of North Alabama Collection Development Plan
• http://www.libs.uga.edu/colldev/cdpolicy.html - University of Georgia Libraries' Collection Development Policy

Sample Policies from Public Libraries

• http://www.joliet.lib.il.us/about/colldevtoc.asp - Joliet Public Library Collection Development Plan
• http://www.mhl.org/about/policies/cd/ - Memorial Hall Library, Andover, MA

Online Training Materials and Resources

• http://www.lib.az.us/cdt/ - Arizona State Library Collection Development Training for Public Libraries.
• http://www.lili.org/forlibs/ce/able/course1/01CD1.htm - Alternative Basic Librarian Education (ABLE) Course 1: Writing a Collection Development Policy
• http://ct.webjunction.org/184/articles/content/434296 - Connecticut WebJunction Collection Development Resources.
• http://www.ala.org/ - American Library Association
  
  
  

Google for Educators: Summertime Fun!

It is summer and time to play. My favorite playground is Google, and it is so easy to signup. Just go to Google, http://www.google.com/ and sign in or “Create an Account now.”

Some of my favorite places to play…

• Google Calendar
• Google Reader (& Google Blog Search)
• Google Notebook (It’s back! Well, I thought it was. Other options.)
• Google Docs
• Google Books
• Google Scholar
• Blogger
• iGoogle ( & Google Gadgets)
• YouTube

Google Calendar - We have a master calendar at Rolling Prairie, as well as a vehicle calendar, and we share our personal calendars. This enables us to view our calendars anywhere we have Internet access.

Google Reader (& Google Blog Search) – I save time keeping up with my favorite websites by having the updates sent directly to my Google Reader. My mailbox is more manageable, and I know where to look for updates, so I save time.

Google Notebook – Well the good news is that those of us who got hooked on I, we still have access. Those of you who don’t’ have a notebook of your own, it looks like if you can get someone to share a notebook with you that you can then create new notebooks of your own. There are also other options.

Google Docs – We share word processing, presentation and spreadsheet documents, both with other staff and other systems. Google Docs allows you to view the edit history of a document, so you can tell who has been working on a group project, and who hasn’t. It is a great way to provide feed-back to students on papers and projects. Students who don’t have to have Microsoft Word, PowerPoint or Excel can create their documents online. Students can upload their projects and teachers can comment on them online. No more lost projects.

Google Books – Now you can search within the books and find the long sought after information that you’ve been looking for. Of course you may have to interlibrary loan or buy the book to get a better look at the information. I’ve ILLed several books, but I’ve also spent several hundred dollars purchasing books that I never would have guessed that I would have been interested in.

Google Scholar – You know they are going to go to Google before going to FirstSearch, so now you can show them how to use Google Scholar and follow it up with a lesson on how to use that information in FirstSearch to access the full text, if you have Wilsons.

Blogger – Share information by creating your own Blog. Rachel, Bev and I, each have a blog.

iGoogle – Pull all your favorite tools and resources together in one place. There are lots of gadgets that you can add, including and RPLS search gadget.

YouTube – What better way to learn how to use these fun tools than viewing tutorials on them on YouTube.

Midlands Conference: Blogs, RSS and other Web 2.0 tools.

I want to share some of my personal experiences with Web 2.0 tools at the conference in the hopes that the attendees will find some resources worthy of their time and attention, particularly Blogs, RSS, LibraryThing and Delicious. Many of the resources can be embedded in your blog for easy access.

Once you decide which of the many available RSS readers you wish to use, subscribe to RSS Feeds that you are interested in. I use Google Reader so that I can access my RSS Feeds anywhere that I can access the Internet. You can search for Blogs on topics that you are interested in using Google's Blog Search, or simply subscribe to sites that you've already bookmarked and return to frequently. Google Reader also has an Web Accessibitly Initiative - Accessible Rich Internet Application (WAI - ARIA) interface for the Google Reader.

I then set up my own blog using Google's Blogger. I've added gadgets and links to my LibraryThing account as well as my Delicious account.

I've used my blog as a way to share links and information with our member librarians, particularly those who've attended our Web 2.0 classes.

Organize your the Web 2.0 tools, so that you can easily find them by embedding them in your blog or iGoogle page, or include the links to them in your Delicious account, while deciding whether to make them public or private.

The quickest way to learn about RSS (a.k.a. Real Simple Syndication) is to listen to or view CommonCraft's YouTube Video.

Web 2.0: Let's Blog

On Monday, a few RPLS member Librarians are going to come into Rolling Prairie's training room so that they can get some hands-on experience blogging with Blogger.

Once we set up their Blogger accounts, we are going to post a blog and then add a Rolling Prairie Library System Catalog Search Gadget to their blog, thanks to Jo McLain, RPLS’s LLSAP Manager.

We'll be talking about some of the reasons why they and/or their libraries might want to have a Blog.

If we have time, we may even visit the Chatham Area Public Library Blog.

Maybe I will get inspired and start blogging more regularly. I still don’t seem to have found my voice.