025.2 Library Collection Development Thoughts

Get an opportunity to share my 30+ years of education experience with a group of library students this week so I decided that I would put my collected, random (or randomly collected) thoughts on the matter here.

So if you see a nugget you can use...have at it!

Three things to remember when looking at developing any collection:
1. Curriculum--school libraries do have a limited focus (unlike public libraries, we do have parameters!)

2. Collection--know what you have BEFORE making any major decisions. A new Librarian should not weed! You should find out what teacher depends on that worn out copy of that American history title because of the map on p. 69.

3. Community--know who you serve! If you don't, you are asking for trouble.


Since all of my campus library experience has been at the secondary level, I have been directed to talk for the level...good thing!

When looking at a secondary collection that has any age to it, there are several things to watch for:
1. In high school, the 800s are going to be old...critical reviews are critical reviews. And librarians are hard-pressed to get rid of any sources that have all those valuable reviews for all the classics that continue to be studied as part of the high school curriculum.
2. Many typical reference books are now available online. That is a decision that has to be made. Print or Online. I vote online!
3. Be aware of issues in fiction. There are going to be controversial issues; there are going to be language issues; they will make you squirm a bit. Remember--what is in the kids' best interest.
4. Find things for ALL your readers...graphic novels, nonfiction, easy.


Budgets...ugly word that it is, we all have to deal with it. Be sure you are using it for the kids #1, and then for anything that helps you help the kids #2. Watch for budget pitfalls. Are you having to spend library funds on things that really should be funded out of other campus funds? If so, then use your diplomatic skills and point this out. Be willing to do the legwork....search for the source, fill out the requisitions, but let someone else pay the bill!


Do you have a set 0f tools you use in making selections?
1.The review journals..either in paper or online. And all of us could come up with reasons for having one format or the other! Yes..to see very much, you have to subscribe...even online!
School Library Journal
Booklist (awards list on the blogroll)
Horn Book
I know you can think of others!

2. Vendor resources
Follett's Titlewave
Mackin Collection analysis
and bunches more!

3. Online Bookstore resources
(Caution: For your school library...don't order from these types of sources unless circumstances are such that you must! Let the traditional vendors work for you!)
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Alibris (may be blocked...rare, out-of-print, hard to find titles)

4. Develop a relationship with a "shop around the corner" as well.
Need a way to learn your community...what better place! Need a quick source for something special or in an emergency?

5. BLOGS, BLOGS, BLOGS.
Want to find out about books? Want to know what is hot off the press? Read blogs!
(look on the right side of this blog for a longggggg list of book review blogs!)
Better yet...get yourself a blog reader and set up it up to let you know when your favorite reviewers post something!

Good cataloging helps with collection development. Good solid rules and reasons for what you do in your catalog will prevent confusion...and duplication. Especially important in a union catalog. In your library manual, be it campus or district-wide, have careful specs for your vendors and librarians to follow. Helps keep your collection tight, avoids confusion, and saves money!

Ok, readers! Anything else? Any points brought out by the class...I will add!

020.92 The Missing Parts of Library School: They Add up to the Payoff

Library Stuff led me to this article on what Library School doesn't teach you. Yes, it started off making me laugh and then it got serious as life often does...

I know every librarian, every teacher, every person has these same life lessons that ultimately come together to give us the reason we do what we do...and why the minutia that seems to overwhelm us almost to the breaking point truly D-O-E-S-N-O-T matter in the long run.

For me (on the short list)...
...the kid who came regularly to get book tape to hold his shoes together (and I will have to live with the fact that I did not put him in the car and take him some place to get new ones),

...the tall lanky AV (pre-PC days--yes, some of us worked in the Dark Ages) whiz kid who could fix anything for me as long as I had a hammer who first brought me his baby sister to meet and, later, his own child,

...the day the ESL kids and I bonded over The Polar Express and the chocolate bells that we all could hearing ringing...we could! Just ask them!

...the group of girls I convinced to read This Place Has No Atmosphere for their science fiction assignment by saying if I liked it, they would, and they did! and a special thanks to Paula Danzinger for writing it so all of us non-sci-fi readers could have a fun experience while completing our assignment. And to all the sci-fi followers who shared all their favorites with me so I could pass them on to others. You filled the empty spot in my genre wheel!

...the student assistant who had such art talent and made me the circus train for my desk out of construction paper that I kept until it crumbled because she had no money for Christmas presents and we had had such a wonderful time over some book about circus trains...I can't remember the book or much of the incident itself, but I remember the train...and I remember her.

...the all-too quiet student assistant that all of us should have paid more attention to remembering the old saying that still waters run deep, sometimes very, very darkly deep...there were no signs then and when there were, it was too late.

...and my students-- my assistants and my readers/researchers who are now my colleagues...I have been to their weddings, held their children, and one in particular spent many wonderful hours with her and HER students. They all taught me well.

...and who would have thought some of the surprises of this job have to do with my adult "students"...the people who for a variety of reasons allow me to share a bit of knowledge with them and together we take each other to a new place, a new adventure, a new...

...and ALL the kids who told me time and time again "that was the BEST book I ever read, give me another one!" It was magic, that's what it was, that is what it is...the right book at the right time for the right kid for the right reason that makes it all work...no formula, just magic.

gosh, I looked back once more at the original article and I'm not sure I followed it's list exactly...but for me, these are the things, no, the people that they did not teach me about in library school, but boy, o, boy am I glad I learned from them.