12 October 2021 – 01 November 2021
In 2021, I completed a short flexible online course “ALIAPD Acquisitions – getting it right.” which was delivered over a three week period from 12 October 2021 to 1 November 2021 with a new topic opened each week, with a set of activities to post in the discussion/forum, questionnaires, and an activity to write a collection development evaluation report, etc. This course was organised by ALIA (as part ALIA PD scheme), facilitated by TAFE NSW and delivered by teachers: Julie Barkman, Mary O’Riordan, and Wendy Banister. I spent about 4 hours per week online studying to complete this course (total 12 hours). The course covers aspects such as:
- Week 1: strategic plans, collection development policies, understanding community profile, collecting community special and rare collections.
- Week 2: procurement methods, vendor contracts and monitoring, patron requests and demand.
- Week 3: collections evaluation: weeding/de-selection, library collection based on community needs, and apply diversity audits on collection.
(TAFE NSW, 2021).
The objective of this course is to provide participants or librarians with the knowledge and skills to evaluate a library’s collection based on library collection development policy and client needs or demands via evaluation of relevant data on trends in terms of format, items for inclusion or exclusion, diversity of collections to cater to people from diverse background or ideas (TAFE NSW, 2021).
I registered to do this course because I would like to improve my knowledge and skillset in acquisitions for library collections. Especially, I am working in Acquisitions and Serial team already but not involved in selection and de-selection process or in the procurement/acquisition or library collection. I would like to assist my manager (Manager, Acquisitions & Serials), step into the role if needed and I also believe that by enrolling into this acquisition course, the knowledge gained will assist me to further my career in the Collection Management area.
This course has given me some useful insights into some topics that I was not familiar with before and they are common topics that a library faces such as dealing with controversial materials/books, as the contents of some books are inappropriate for the intended audience, do not meet community standards, represent ideas that might be unpopular or can offend somebody in the community. As an example, the pulling of six Dr. Seuss books from Chicago libraries shelves because the books have racist overtones. (ABC 7 Chicago Digital Team, 2021) or books about self-assisted euthanasia. Through the online discussion forum there was a conversation whether the libraries should conduct censorship or have a conversation with the community to decide. From this discussion, I gained useful insights and awareness of sensitives issues that has helped me to make my own judgement in the process of selection/acquisition of material.
Other knowledge I gained from this course, is a “Diversity audit” on library collection to ensure that the library collection can cater to the community with diverse cultural backgrounds. Throughout my library career, I have always worked in the research library which focuses on providing materials to support the research for Parliament. The idea of a diverse collection I thought, is more relevant for school and public libraries, but then I also thought that it is such a good idea to promote diversity in the workplace via library collection. And now, as part of my task as a Manager of Acquisitions and Serials team who manage the selection process guided by the Parliamentary Library collection development policy, I regularly select materials that represent diverse culture to be included in the library collection where I work, such fiction and non-fiction that tell/discuss/represent LGBTIQ, Indigenous, Asians, and other cultures to be included in the library selection.
References
TAFE NSW. (2021). Welcome, course overview and Moodle help [Introduction]. ALIAPD Acquisitions – getting it right. https://learn.sydneytafe.edu.au/
ABC 7 Chicago Digital Team. (2021, March 11). Dr. Seuss controversy reaches local shelves as Chicago Public Library pulls 6 books over racist, insensitive imagery. ABC 7 Eyewitness News. Retrieved from https://abc7chicago.com/dr-seuss-chicago-public-library-banned-books-list/10403192/
