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Section D - COLLECTION MANAGEMENTPolicy Number D040ADULT COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT POLICY
The District’s Mission is to provide excellent and economical public library services to residents of the District. Special emphasis shall be given to three areas: providing information services to county residents, children’s services, and popular library materials.
The SCCCLD is comprised of the General Administrative Offices, containing administrative personnel and departments, and: Two mini-branches serve smaller communities--North County Branch in Portage des Sioux and South County Branch in Augusta. These contain 4,000 to 6,000 volumes of mostly popular and recreational material. These branches provide their patrons with a variety of popular materials in fiction and nonfiction, an adequate reference collection and children’s materials and programs. They contain from 50,000 to 70,000 volumes. They do not have any specialized collections; however, Deer Run Branch currently houses the Bookmobile and Outreach Services. The district has three regional branches which, in addition to the materials and services described under General Purpose Branches, have collections of greater depth, as well as special focus collections. They provide support to the smaller general purpose and mini-branches. They contain 100,000 to 120,000 volumes. These special focus collections have been established at the three Regional Branches: The SCCCLD will purchase and make available the following types of materials to comprise its adult collection:
Central to the philosophy of the district are the standards contained in the following documents of the American Library Association: These documents provide for open access to the entirety of the library district collections by all age groups. Children are not restricted to particular areas of the library buildings or shelves. The responsibility for borrowing or use of materials by a juvenile rests with the parent(s) or legal guardian(s), not with the library staff; however, community standards, as well as federal, state or local laws, may mandate some limited access, such as to "R" rated videos. The ultimate responsibility for the contents of the collection rests with the library director, operating within the framework of this and other policies as determined by the district’s board of trustees. The director has assigned the task of overseeing collection development to the deputy director and the children’s services coordinator. An adult collections coordinator works under the direction of the deputy director. The adult collections coordinator and/or the deputy director may assign to specific individuals or groups the task of compiling orders for a given category of materials. These orders will be evaluated by the adult collections coordinator and/or the deputy director before being submitted for purchase. Although the privilege and responsibility for assisting in the selection of materials belongs to every staff member, each branch and department will have professional or paraprofessional staff whose specific duties include collection development. They will consider and review suggestions from all staff members, especially those who are familiar with checkout patterns and patron requests. Various staff members may be asked to participate in the selection process in their areas of specialization and expertise. County residents are encouraged to recommend titles to consider for purchase on the form provided for this purpose (#D032.1), available at all branches. Individuals or organizations known for subject expertise may be asked to assist by recommending titles for purchase as needed and to assist with weeding. In considering which materials to place in the library, an attempt will be made to provide a diversity of viewpoints in all areas, including political, social, and religious. The district’s selectors will not automatically include or exclude an item based solely on any of the following criteria:
Some criteria for selection of materials may include:
Non-repairable damaged items, missing items (those 6 months or more overdue), and items lost and paid for by patrons should be evaluated for possible replacement, based upon the factors listed below:
The SCCCLD does not attempt to provide exhaustive collections for the serious researcher; these are considered to be the province of the academic and special libraries in the metropolitan St. Louis area. Also excluded from consideration are items which require long-term usage in excess of the library’s normal loan period and those materials which should be in school or academic libraries, including: Some of these excluded items might be purchased if nothing else is available on a needed subject. They also may be in the collection as donations, which are governed by the Collection Management Gift Policy (#D064). At this time, the library does not participate in any blanket order plans. Although the library has participated in on-approval plans for adult nonfiction, the cost in staff time overrode any benefit gained, and the plans were discontinued. There are no plans to reinstate a rental plan at this time. Sufficient numbers of bestsellers and other high-demand books will be purchased to fill patron requests (see sections VI and XIII).
In order to maintain a current and appealing collection, evaluation of materials must be done on a continuing basis. All materials in the collection need occasional refurbishing. Staff do this on a continuing basis as they observe problems. In the larger branches a designated person does much of this minor repair work. More seriously damaged materials still of value to the district and able to be repaired are placed in a designated area in each branch, where a trained staff member repairs them using supplies made expressly for the purpose. Some items can be repaired only by rebinding. Since rebinding is an expensive process, it will be limited to those items whose:
When damaged materials cannot be repaired or rebound, they must be discarded, or "weeded." In addition, professional collection management dictates the timely removal of materials from the collection for other reasons.
The decision to weed will be made on an individual, item-by-item basis, using the following criteria: Besides aiding in the retention of a current and appealing collection, weeding facilitates effective use of available space and helps define categories in which additional material is needed. A systematic assessment of both the circulation and reference collections for weeding purposes will be done on an annual basis. Periodicals will also be reviewed each year for retention or weeding when the next year’s list is compiled. The removal of materials on this basis will be guided by established collection management procedures. The disposition of materials which have been removed on the basis of accepted professional practices will be at the discretion of the director and/or deputy director. Items no longer useful or repairable are sent to the Technical Operations Department for official withdrawal from the collection in accordance with policy #D096. The adult collections coordinator will selectively redistribute items, placing them in the most appropriate branch. Redistribution will be based on:
The working collection of the mini-branches will be at the popular or recreational level. The branches will only acquire current popular materials. Their level of collection development will be of minimal depth and be use-centered. This includes reference materials, which will be broad in scope and meet the general interest of the community. The mini-branches will retain only relatively current periodicals, keeping issues for 1-2 years. The collection of these branches is maintained through ongoing weeding of outdated, outmoded, and worn materials. An inventory of items is performed once a year to keep the collection usable. Materials that are infrequently used will be discarded, or selectively redistributed, in order to maintain space for new materials. The working collection of the general purpose branches will be at the general information level. The branch selects for purchase a large number of current titles and a limited number of retrospective titles on topics of interest to the clientele served. The number of copies of these popular materials will be sufficient to fill current customer requests in a timely manner as described in section XIV. Significant works and classics, as well as retrospective works in the different subject areas, will be acquired as needed. Collection of these materials will be determined by the information gathered on circulation statistics and the interests of the community served. Reference materials will be of general interest and broad in scope. Periodicals at the general purpose branches will be retained for three years or less. The collections of these branches are maintained through ongoing weeding of outdated, outmoded and worn materials. Within a three year cycle, a complete reexamination of materials that are infrequently used must be done to maintain space for new items. The working collection of the district’s regional branches will support the general purpose and mini-branches. Each regional branch will include a core of essential materials in all subjects as is necessary to meet demands and interest of the community at large. Like the general purpose branches, the regional branches will buy a large number of current titles on topics of interest to the clientele served. The branches will acquire current titles from reviews, lists of bestsellers, and staff knowledge of which titles are likely to be important books on current topics. The number of copies of these popular materials will be sufficient to fill customer requests in a timely manner as described in section XIV. The regional branches will also purchase and retain items in all major subject fields. Each of the libraries will buy many current titles and will purchase a wide assortment of retrospective titles on most subjects. Doing so ensures a good selection and serves to augment the collection of other branches. Each regional branch will maintain a strong, in-depth collection in its own specialty area. Periodicals will generally be retained for five years; however, those pertaining to the subject specialty of the branch will be maintained as required. The collections of these branches will be maintained through on-going weeding of outdated, outmoded, and worn materials. Within a five year cycle a complete reexamination of materials will be done throughout the branch. Resource needs will be evaluated and materials that are outdated or infrequently used will be discarded in order to maintain space for new purchases.
Each of these collections is supervised by a professional librarian and has a separate budget line. A current list of best-selling books will be posted each week for the public. Holdings within the library system will be noted for reserve usage. Call numbers (or other status) will be written beside each title, along with branch designations. The branches will generate a special high-priority "rush" selection list for orders that are in demand by patrons.
The SCCCLD recognizes the need for a diverse book collection to satisfy the needs of its patrons. Any library patron may make a suggestion for consideration of a book to be purchased and included in the library collection. Such requests for purchase will be submitted on form #D032.1, included at the back of this policy, and will be considered first by the adult selector at the branch where the request is submitted, and if not deemed useful for purchase at that location, sent on to the adult collections coordinator for further action. A library patron may submit a request to reserve any item in the library district’s circulating collection. No more than five reserve requests will be held for a particular title before an additional copy will be purchased by the holding branch. If multiple requests are held, sufficient copies will be purchased to fill the number of requests in a timely manner. Patrons can request that the library district consider removing an item that has been purchased for patron use. Form #D032.4, "Request for Reconsideration of Library Materials", will be available at all public service locations. The branch manager will explain the district’s choice to the patron. If there is no resolution, the matter will be passed from the branch manager to the collections coordinator, the deputy director, the director, and if necessary the Board of Trustees, which is the only body authorized to remove the material. The library welcomes donations of materials and funds to purchase materials. Donors are encouraged to place as few restrictions as possible on these gifts to allow the most effective use of the donation by the library system. Donations of funds for the purchase of specific materials are accepted with the approval of the library director, deputy director, or children’s services coordinator. Gifts of materials become the property of the library and are accepted with the understanding that they are subject to the same selection criteria as are applied to purchased materials. Determination of housing, processing, and access to donated materials rests with the library district, as does the discard of those materials and/or donations to the Friends of the Library for the annual book sale. Acknowledgment of gifts for tax records will be provided, but appraisal of the value of donated items is not made. The library district purchases a large variety of test books and videos for the public to check out. There is a constant demand for many of these and the loss factor is quite high for some. Due to the enormous turn-over of certain test books (i.e., GED, ACT, ASVAB, and SAT), the branches will:
The SCCCLD recognizes the need for materials for adults learning to read. The library will provide both fiction and nonfiction materials at several reading levels. These materials will be classified as ABE or Adult Basic Education. The library purchases numerous large print books for use by the visually impaired or physically handicapped. Large print books are selected based on community interest and availability. The large print collection includes both fiction and nonfiction materials. The basic collection in each branch will contain general fiction and bestsellers, mysteries, westerns, science fiction, and nonfiction books. Special considerations are: Both general purpose and regional branches will maintain a working collection of large print materials. This core collection will consist of 350-400 items in the regional branches and 250-300 titles in the general purpose branches. Deer Run Branch will hold 2500 volumes, due to its role in Outreach Services, and will be used as a resource for the other branches in the library system. North and South County have no permanent large print collection, but rely on the Deer Run Branch, along with branch loans from other sites in the system. (Approved 1/13/97) |
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