Each collection development policy (CDP) is different and changes according to the setting of the library; whether it be in a government public system or a school establishment. Every policy unpacks the relevance and process of managing the library collection for a particular area or region. The CDP aims to focus on one or numerous library branches that needs to be continually updated in order for efficiency to take place. The difference between policies can vary according to the money provided for each centre (also known as a grant), the general population, stock take of items and accommodating to the community’s needs. Each of these contributions and changes allows the dynamic of the library collection to constantly evolve:
Grants– the amount of new resources that are able to be obtained can be significantly different depending how much funding a state public library or even a school library has access to. The state library in particular can look at the including donations from the community in order to gain access to new material (SLQ, 2013). Whereas the school library depends on the overall school budget that the principal and teacher librarian (TL) can organise and evaluate during throughout the year.
Population– I found it interesting that local library size can vary depending on the population of a particular place (whether it be a whole region of NSW or a local library in one of the suburbs). This point encouraged the exchanging of resources particularly if the library has connections throughout regions of the community. The fact that so much of the collection depends on where the library is located makes it interesting to think about what types of resources might be cut back due to a lack of physical space.
Equity– making all of the library centres easily accessible for all users was an interesting point that was discussed in the reading by VCTL & ALIA (2017). Allowing the community to contribute their thoughts to the library staff through reconsideration forms pinpoints some of the problems or issues citizens might have with particular resources. These forms also provide more opportunities for the citizens to participate in discussing their likes or dislikes when using the resources in their local library. Ensuring that the library collection stocks a variety of resources, whether it be in physical or digital form, will hopefully encourage more people to return on a regular basis.
Updating resources– the TL has a huge task of selecting which resources will be included a library’s collection; particularly as new volumes become more easily accessible on a topic of interest. This task can often be incredibly difficult as the librarian needs to decide if the resource is going to be readily used or borrowed out of the collection. The new texts might be incredibly similar to the old resources and the librarian’s job is to make an informed decision about the resources that they keep in stock and the ones that they update or replace. This can happen when books are damaged as well and the TL might seek further advice from their principal if they want to discuss the status of the library budget before obtaining these new resources.
Maintaining a constant mindfulness as well as continually evaluating the collection, the librarian has an enormous task ahead of them but I’m sure many of their colleagues will be willing to help in this process.
References:
State Library of Queensland – SLQ (2013). Queensland Public Library standards and guidelines: Library collections standards. Retrieved from http://www.plconnect.slq.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/146261/Library_Collections_Standard_2013.pdf
VCTL & ALIA (2017). A manual for developing policies and procedures in Australian school library resource centres. Retrieved from https://www.alia.org.au/sites/default/files/ALIA%20Schools%20policies%20and%20procedures%20manual_FINAL.pdf
No Comments