Giving time to policies and procedures is not a task that many people jump to with enthusiasm and excitement. These documents tend to be thought of as dreary and boring, something to be trundled out every blue moon to conduct a review, for compliance or box ticking.
This was certainly my view, until recently. I have read a variety of pieces of literature that have discussed the value and necessity of policies in school libraries, one being the Collection Development Policy. Ensuring the library collection is relevant and useful is critical as it impacts learners, teachers, and curriculum in so many ways (Phillipi & Calzada, 2022)
(Oberg & Schultz-Jones, 2015) describe a collection development policy as the policy that ‘defines the purpose, scope, and contents of the collection as well as access to external resources and helps to ensure a wide range of high quality resources.’. In their writing they discuss the need for collections to be continually developing, in order to meet the needs of the community that the library serves. In past times, the teacher librarian may have chosen resources that they felt was in the best interest of the patrons, however, I am committed to my library being one that is there to serve the needs and interests of my school community.
I was struck in my readings by the need to ensure that the collection is not static, but an evolving and relevant set of resources. In this way, the collection development policy protects the collection, in its current and future states. This important document sets out the guidelines for who makes the selection decisions, what criteria they are subject to, who the main stakeholders are and carefully reminds staff and the community at large of the vision and ethos that the library is seeking to follow.
The policy is a powerful document that can ensure the library works at it’s best. It can protect the library from bias, censorship and irrelevance. It can guide appropriate budget spending and work against waste. In this way, it feels like a huge task – to ensure that my library has a relevant and well known policy – that it is familiar to community stakeholders and referred to often.
My approach to writing a collection development policy would be as follows:
- Ensure I had read current literature and practitioner knowledge and I was aware of a range of best practice and current research around school libraries
- Read a variety of already established collection development policies to be aware of the different ways policy writing can be approached
- Make a list of what needs to be included in my policy – such items as the school vision and ethos and other important elements
- Collaborate with others – I want to ensure that advocacy forms part of my library policies!
- Draft, edit, re-draft!
It is important that this document is reviewed regularly – to ensure it is best serving the library that is is written for.
Oberg, D. & Schultz-Jones, B. (eds.). 4.3.1 Collection management policies and procedures. In IFLA School Library Guidelines, (2nd ed.) (pp.33-34). IFLA. https://www.ifla.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/assets/school-libraries-resource-centers/publications/ifla-school-library-guidelines.pdf
Phillipi, L. & Calzada, B. (2022) Why Collection Development is Important. Knowledge Quest, Vol 50, Issue 4. American Library Association.