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Selection

What is selection?

When you choose items for your library, you are in the selection part of the collection development process. Selection includes books, magazines, videos, donations, and electronic resources. Take some time to think about your selection policy. You will want to develop a selection policy, because it will help you make tough decisions and will give you some protection if a customer complains about an item in the library.

Questions to consider in selection

  • What is the mission of the library? What are your goals? If your library is primarily for recreational reading that will change what you purchase. If you would like to be a resource center for local history that will also determine what you purchase or collect.
  • Who is my audience? Do you serve everyone in the community? You may think the answer to that question is yes, but there are some groups that you may not serve. For example, doctors need pretty advanced medical information that you probably could not afford. You don't actually serve doctors, but you do serve customers who need medical information that appears in layperson's terms.
  • What do you think each group you serve needs in terms of library information and services?
  • Who doesn't use the library? Why don't they use the library? Is there something you could purchase for your collection that might entice them?
  • How much of a budget do you have? Unfortunately money does make a difference. You can still have a good collection on a smaller budget, but you must choose wisely.
  • What part of your collection gets the most use? What part of the collection gets the least amount of use? Why?
  • Who is responsible for selecting materials?
  • What formats will you collect? What will you not collect? The library is in a position where it has to decide whether or not a particular format is worth purchasing. 16 mm film is probably not a high demand item in your community, but are DVDs?
  • How will you select items? You don't want to use just one source. Here are some possibilities to consider:
    1. book reviews from library, popular, and subject magazines
    2. patron suggestions
    3. local bookstore owners and/or local publishers
  • Will the library purchase multiple copies of an item? Most of the time you won't need multiple copies, but if an author is a bestseller or popular you may need multiple copies.
  • Will you collect foreign language materials? This depends upon your community. One example of this is if a colony of Hutterites lives near your library. You may want to consider purchasing German materials.

Donations

Customers will ask if they can donate items to the library. For public relations purposes as well as the potential to add quality stuff to your library, you should consider accepting donations. You are not obligated to add these items to the collection, but you must be honest with the patron about what will happen. Let the customer know what the process is for donations. What happens if you don't add the book to the collection? Do you offer it to another library? Do you sell the item? Be sure and let the customer know. S/he will appreciate your honesty.

Homework

Are you sensing a theme? In the section where you weeded, develop a list of 5 to 10 books that would improve your medical section. You can use whatever selection tools you like. That includes book reviews, suggestions from patrons, and/or suggestions from local bookstore owners. Once you have created your list, email me - Maggie Meredith - your list with one sentence describing what source you used to choose that book. We'll talk about any questions that have come up, as well as why you've added certain books and how you selected the ones you have.