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