Appendix D - Collection Development

Are you acquiring, organizing, maintaining, and making available information in a variety of formats? The second of the two primary functions of a library is to acquire, organize, maintain, and make available information in a range of formats to meet the needs of your community. Collection management needs to conform to the library's collection development policies. Allocation of the materials budget reflects the library library's long-range plan for meeting the needs and interests of the entire community.

Web sites covering all aspects:

• Memorial Hall Library: Collection Development Manual 2014: Circulating Collection

Collection Development Policy

• Fundamentals of Collection Development and Management by Peggy Johnson. Chicago: ALA, 2009.
• Managing and Analyzing Your Collection: A Practical Guide for Small Libraries and School Media Centers by Carol Doll and Pamela Petrick Barron. Chicago: ALA, 2002.
• Washoe County Library: Collection Development Policy

Recommended collection development policies and plans may include:

• Community profile and clientele description to determine library's customers
• Library mission and purpose
• Challenges to library materials
  • SAILS Library Network: Patron Complaint Policy
• Copyright
  • LLRX.Com's Library Digitization Projects and Copyright
  • ALA Copyright for Videos/Movies Guide
• Disaster and recovery plan
  • ALA Disaster Response: A Selected Annotated Bibliography
  • dPlan (disaster planning software - demo is free)
  • Field Guide to Emergency Response by Heritage Preservation. Washington, DC: Heritage Preservation, 2006.
  • Emergency Response and Salvage Wheel by Heritage Preservation. Washington, DC: Heritage Preservation, 2005.
• Collection parameters
  • Subject areas to be covered and in what depth
  • Media formats
  • Patron requests
• Collection purposes, what are the program and patron needs to be met
• Collection priorities
• E-Books
  • No Shelf Required: E-Books in Libraries edited by Sue Polanka. Chicago: ALA, 2010.
• Multiple copies
• Local materials
• Gifts and donations
  • Austin Public Library 
• Cooperative collection development
• Method used to obtain material not owned
• Conservation and preservation
  • Preservation Management for Libraries by G. E. Gorman and Sydney J. Sheep. London: Facet Publishing, 2006.
  • Promoting Preservation Awareness in Libraries by Jeanne Drewes and Julie Page. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1997.
  • Northeast Document Conservation Center Preservation Leaflets - on a wide range of preservation/conservation topics
• Intellectual freedom
  • American Library Association Freedom to Read
  • American Library Association Freedom to View
  • American Library Association Library Bill of Rights
  • American Library Association: Diversity in Collection Development: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights
• Reference Collection
  • Reference Sources for Small and Medium-Sized Libraries by Jack O'Gorman. Chicago: ALA, 2008.
• Selection
  • Criteria and Schedule
  • Responsibility
  • Methods and Procedures
  • Evaluation
• Weeding Criteria and Schedule
  • The CREW Method: A Weeding Method for Modern Libraries

Some collection development policies also include:

• Breakdown of collection by classification number and fiction genre with accompanying narrative addressing scope and weeding schedule
• Breakdown of media collection by format with accompanying narrative addressing scope and weeding schedule

A review of any collection development plan includes an analysis of collection usage to determine its effectiveness, based on the goals, priorities and/or roles called for in the library's strategic plan.