Use the basic concepts and principles related to the creation, evaluation, selection, acquisition, preservation and organization of specific items or collections of information.
While perhaps the old standard by which a librarian’s profession has been defined in the past, collection development and management remains an integral, but deeply in-flux core function. The more straightforward past role of selection and management; purchasing appropriate materials, maintaining them within collections, and weeding no longer pertinent or damaged items, has been partially supplanted by a multi-tiered collection development model. This may consist of maintaining database subscriptions, managing digital collections, collaborating with consortium purchased services such as e-book portals or other subscriptions, buying appropriately in foreign languages, and even purchasing and maintaining circulating devices within a library system, such as cameras, tools, or e-book readers. These new fronts in collection management necessitate a more robust skill set that includes technological know-how, cultural grounding within service communities, and the ability to collaborate and negotiate with larger purchasing entities. In all truth, forming a clear picture of where collection management will lie in even ten years is difficult. Many questions remain. Will libraries be able to wrestle more control of selection and collection management on the e-book front? Will physical materials be a mere sideline of the core library collection? Will libraries branch out further into circulating non-traditional collections?
While basically unanswerable at this juncture, these sorts of questions will remain important and their eventual answers should be informed by the public need. Understanding the desires and needs of the libraries service area and its constituents has always been important to the collection development process. This value is certain to continue, though it may require more struggles on the part of the institutions that are tasked with serving the public. With slashed budgets, consortium purchases, and third-party collection management becoming more common the necessity for librarians to be advocates for their patrons collection needs will increase likely in necessity and difficulty. Certainly if collection managers, in whatever future role they play, lose sight of the public need, libraries and their collections will risk descending into irrelevancy. This danger should not be taken lightly, especially when the pace of change is so rapid. Staying abreast of change and making the right collection decisions are certain to be functions than can make or break a library in the incipient service environment.
Evidence
In my current position, this competency has been at the core of my work and my success within the institution. When I arrived at this position three years ago, the institution took a sizable risk, tasking me with the overhaul and revitalization of a three branch Spanish language collection in order to provide better materials to a growing Spanish speaking population. Upon my arrival I found the collection in poor physical condition and filled with materials inappropriate to the service community. Using circulation frequency analysis, demographic data, through researching the region’s migration patterns, and through information gathered from surveys and reference interviews I have been able to more than double circulation countywide for the Spanish language collection. This has included shifting the collection focus away from Spanish and Cuban émigré titles toward popular works as identified by the Mexican publishing market, purchasing items appealing to the regional tastes of the County’s various sending communities, creating better collection display schema, and advocating for better collection placement in the library as a whole. In this process I have found that my purchasing methodology has become a resource to other libraries in the region, many of which I have provided with recommendations on collection development philosophy and concrete examples of where to discover bestseller listings that are relevant to their communities.
This task of primary focus has been accompanied by several other smaller collection overhauls, including revitalizing the local history collection, creating Deweyless Home & Garden, Parenting and Wedding collections, a substantial Reference collection weeding project and evaluating proposed database purchases. Looking forward, new tasks include managing Spanish language e-book collections, working toward digitizing and maintaining local history documents and investigating the development of a Tagalog collection for the system’s American Canyon branch.
In LIBR 285, Research Methods, I was tasked with creating a research proposal. To tie this project to my working life, I decided to analyze the Mexican best-seller stock available through two major library distributors. While this project was demonstrative of research design, it moreover shows an in-depth understanding of the Spanish language book market in Mexico and the United States, and the collection development responses necessary in dealing with the inherent dysfunction within these markets. This research proposal shows a working knowledge of foreign language collection development responses within the framework of a popular materials library. In the piece’s literature review I also look at past and best practices where this type of collection is concerned.
In LIBR 263, Materials for Children 5-8, I looked at one particular collection development rubric developed by former REFORMA chair Oralia Garza de Cortes. This critique analyzes a high quality collection development plan for Spanish Language children’s materials geared toward novices in the field. It demonstrates a thorough understanding of market forces, bureaucratic dilemmas and political issues associated with this sort of collection building. The critique even goes so far as to suggest alternate methodologies in regards to specific recommendations by Garza de Cortes in her plan.
In LIBR 275, Library Services for Diverse Communities, I was specifically tasked with working outside my own collection development niche. With that in mind I completed a collection development tool analysis looking at Mosaic Books, a source designed to aid in the purchase of African American themed books. While I found the site useful in some respects, my criticisms include the use of an overly-commercial model and the lack of in-depth reviews. This assignment demonstrates my ability to analyze unfamiliar collection tools for quality and usability and recognize their strengths and weaknesses.
