Collection Management Policy

LIS 610
Stefanie Stephens

Polka Dot Public Library Collection Management Policy 2015

A. Introduction
Mission Statement
The mission of Polka Dot Public Library (PDPL) is to provide all members of the Polka
Dot community the information, resources, and opportunities necessary to educate,
entertain, enrich, and improve their own lives and the lives of the community at large.
Vision and Goals
A public library should be a reflection of the community that built it and its collection a
reflection of the interests, goals, backgrounds, and needs of that community. And just
as a community grows and changes and reshapes itself constantly so should the
collection of the public library. It is the goal of this library to maintain a collection that
satisfies the community while also offering materials that may challenge the community
so as to help promote intellectual and social growth.
Philosophy of Librarianship and Intellectual Freedom
It is the belief of this library that librarianship serves a vital role in every community. It is
the responsibility of a librarian to maintain and organize and preserve the works that
constitute the history of the culture while also providing access to it in such a way that
any person who desires to learn may do so. It is not for the librarian or the library to
decide what information may be learned or by whom. To do so would be tantamount to
censorship which is the antithesis of learning.

B. PDPL Patrons and their Needs

The PDPL is a small public library system that serves the coastal area of Pattern
County with a main location and two branch locations, Stripe and Argyle. The population
of the area is about 90,000 and is in line with national averages for income level, race,
education, and life expectancy. Polka Dot is also adjacent to a small public liberal arts
university, Plaid State.
A community needs assessment was performed and the results have identified our
target audiences and their specific information needs. The Polka Dot community uses
the library in a myriad of ways. Our younger patrons enjoy the library mostly for its

childrens programs and our senior citizens take part in our various programs designed
to promote socialization after retirement. Patrons of all ages make generous use of the
collections for their entertainment and education. While Plaid State (PS) has its own
university library, many PS students rely on PDPL as a back-up when popular materials
are checked out or they need a less social atmosphere for studying.

C. Material Formats
Materials come in a multitude of formats that cater to the needs and desires of the
community. It is important to keep these various formats in mind when developing the
collection so as to avoid alienating a portion of the population who would not be served
by a standard format. At the same time we frequently cannot afford to purchase
materials in every format in which they are available. This library has decided its best
course of action in this regard is to use data collected from the needs assessment to
determine which types of materials are most popular in which formats and use this to
give our purchases focus. The formats, other than the standard, we will be most
concerned with acquiring will be large print books and magazines, audiobooks, and ebooks; this is in addition to non-book materials including audio recordings, video
recordings, databases, and digital versions of materials.

D. Collection Policy: Selection Criteria

Library materials are acquired for all PDPL locations based on careful analysis of the
needs assessment and other collected data regarding circulation. Materials are selected
for the library based on certain criteria:

Relevance to the demonstrated needs and interests of the community

Anticipated or current demand
Price in relation to the library budget
Relevance to the existing collection (with particular regard to its strengths and
weaknesses)
Local significance of the author or subject matter
Date of publication
Suitability of the format to library circulation and use
Past performance or reputation of the author or publisher

Patrons may also request items for purchase by the library. Requests are reviewed and
subjected to the same criteria. It may be determined that the material is available for an

interlibrary loan in which case the patron may be directed to that option rather than the
library purchase another copy.
The PDPL accepts donations of library materials although the library does retain the
right to accept or refuse gifts. Final decisions regarding the acceptance of gifts are to be
made exclusively by designated library staff and the Friends of the Library organization.
Main Library
The Main Library takes advantage of its central location in town and its proximity to PS
by housing the librarys reference collection to make it convenient to the largest portion
of the population. The core of the childrens collection is also housed at the Main Library
for the same reason. The majority of the alternative formats in the collection also reside
at the Main Library.
Popular fiction and non-fiction are also well represented at this library with a wide range
of subject matter and reading comprehension levels. The Main Library maintains a
subscription to most major periodicals in both newspaper and magazine formats.
In an effort to support its largest patron population, the Main Library seeks to maintain a
comprehensive collection of materials relevant to the most popular majors at PS.
Currently the most popular majors are Central European Dance and Music Studies and
Dotology.
Stripe Branch and Argyle Branch
The branch libraries contain materials that are suited to the specific needs of the
neighborhoods and communities in which they reside. The nature of the floating
collection system allows materials to move freely through the library locations to where
they are most useful. As a result the branch libraries do not have any core collections
and instead maintain a mix of fiction and non-fiction for varying age groups and
interests. The exception to this is the Argyle Branch which has a large collection of
materials on the subjects of tearooms and art nouveau art, architecture, and design.
Despite the floating collection these books are rarely requested at the other library
locations so are generally thought to belong to the Argyle branch.

E. Collection Policy: Weeding and Discarding

Periodically library materials need to be weeded and discarded from the collection. This
is not an action taken lightly as those materials had a cost for the library and replacing
them incurs another cost.

Materials are weeded when they meet certain criteria:

damaged or in poor condition

too many copies in the collection (takes space that could be used by other
materials)
information obsolete and not of historical or reference value (i.e. medical texts)
information inaccurate
lack of interest/circulation

Materials that have been weeded, depending on their condition, are placed for sale in
the librarys monthly book sale or, in the case of rare and valuable materials, sold in the
manner that is most financially advantageous for the library.
In the event that a patron thinks that an items place in the collection should be
reexamined, there is a formal request form available on the librarys website.

F. Policy Adoption, Review, and Revision

This policy is to be reviewed every five years at the discretion of the Library Board. It is
to be updated as often is deemed necessary after review. The selection procedures are
the purview of the Head Librarian.