Collection Development Policy by Dr.

Grace Kamau

TOPIC 2 – COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT POLICY FORMULATION

Effective collection development has always been a balancing act of formats. E-resources have
added another layer of complexity to the process albeit probably the most costly and complex
layer. The complexity requires an up-to-date written policy statement.

Collection Development Policy

A Collection policy statement is a kind of framework and set of guidelines for a library that
guides the selection decisions and maintenance of the collections. It must reflect and relate to the
library’s other plans especially those that are long-range and strategic in character. It also must
be up-to-date in terms of library’s overall mission and goals.

In addition to describing current collections, it forces the staff involved to (re)consider the aims
and objectives of the organization, both long and short term, and the priorities to be attached to
different activities. It assists with budgeting, serves as communication channel within a library
and between the library and outside constituents e.g. those who provide funding, supports
cooperative collection development, prevents censorship, and assists in overall collection
management activities, including the handling of gifts, deselection of materials and serial
cancellations.
Due to technological developments, libraries are, in the main, moving from holdings (‘just in
case’) to access (‘just in time’) strategies. This implies that collecting policies are significantly
changing and that libraries need to disseminate widely information on their collecting policies.

Rationale for a Written Collection Development Policy

1. E-resources create new challenges that cannot be left to chance. There is need to be
flexible in our collection development policies. We must embrace all appropriate formats
for the collection and service population.
2. Another argument for a written CD policy is the problem of lack of continuity by both
staff and funding. A written CD policy helps assure continuity and consistency in the
collection program despite changes in staff and funding.

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Collection Development Policy by Dr. Grace Kamau

3. CD policies can be used as the foundation for a practical manual or handbook to assist
librarians in the selection of materials for the library e.g. a manual by LC which is
available online.
4. Informs everyone about the nature and scope of the collection.
5. Forces thinking about organizational priorities for the collection.
6. Generates some degree of commitment to meeting organizational goals.
7. Sets standards for inclusion and exclusion
8. Reduces the influence of a single selector and personal biases.
9. Provides a training and orientation tool for new staff
10. Guides staff in handling complaints
11. Aids in weeding and evaluating the collection.
12. Aids in rationalizing budget allocations.
13. Provides a public relations document.
14. Provides a means of assessing overall performance of the collection development
program.
15. Provides outsiders with information about the purpose of collection development (an
accountability tool).

Elements of a Collection Development Policy

A. Section 1: Introduction to the Policy

1. The first elements of a collection development policy will be a mission statement of the
library and how it links to the broader organizational mission, the purpose of this policy
and the audience to whom it is addressed.
2. A brief statements about the community or user group(s) (town, country, school or
business).
- What is the composition of the community?
- What changes are occurring?

NB: Needs assessment if done thoroughly will be useful to this section and other
sections of the policy.

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3. Specific identification of the service clientele.

- Who are the primary clients e.g. all staff and students? All employees? Will you serve
others? If so to what extent? Will the service to others be free? Or will there be a fee?
- Are there differences in service to various groups (e.g. adults, children, faculty or
students?
- Will there be a service for users with special needs? Or other community?

4. A general statement regarding the parameters of the collection.

- In what subject fields will the library collect?
- Are there any limitations on the types of format that the library will acquire? (E.g.
only printed materials, e.g. books, periodicals and newspapers).
- What are the limits in audiovisual areas?

This section should provide an overview of the areas covered in detail in the second
major element of the policy.

5. A detailed description of programs or patron needs that the collection must address e.g.
Academic libraries need to consider how much emphasis to place on research material in
comparison to instructional material. Statements about collection goals are important.

The introduction section should also address general limitations and priorities, including
an outline of how the library will develop the collection.
- To what extent will the library collect respective materials?
- Will the library buy duplicate copies of an item? If so what factors will the library use
to determine the number of copies to acquire and how long to retain them?
- Discussion of the library’s role in cooperative collection development programs –
should explicitly say whether the basic philosophy is one of self-sufficiency or
cooperation. For subject areas that the library does not collect, the policy should list
the libraries that do collect them.

B. Section 2: Details of subject areas and formats collected

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Break down the collections into constituent subject areas, identify types of materials collected,
and specify the primary user group for each subject.

Examples of categories:

Patrons

Adults, young adults, school-age children, preschool children, people with special needs, persons
in institutions e.g. hospitals, prisons etc.

Teaching faculty

Researchers

Staff and administrators

Undergraduate students

Graduate students

Post-graduate students

Alumni

Formats

Books (hardbound and paperback)

Newspapers

Periodicals (Print and electronic)

Slides, films and videos, Pictures, audio recordings, online resources, musical scores, Pamphlets,
Manuscripts and archival materials, Maps, Govt. documents, CD-ROMs and DVDs, Realia,
Games and toys, specimens, software, databases or other electronic formats.

Also to be addressed are the special collections (rare books, archives etc.), reference works,
reserve materials, multiple copies, multiple editions of the same copy and languages.

Responsibility for Selection

This section identifies where responsibility for collection development lies. Ultimately,
responsibility lies with the head of the library but h/she can delegate.

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This section should contain a clear statement of who will be responsible for selection, what
guidelines the selectors are to use in making decisions, and the basis for evaluating the selectors’
performance.

Potential selectors include:

- End users
- Librarians
- Subject or service specialists with advanced training in a subject or service area
- Departmental heads and
- Head librarian

A library may utilize one or more of the groups listed here.

Selection decisions may be made by:

- Independent selectors
- Committees and
- Individuals or groups using a centrally prepared list from which selections are made.

Educational institution libraries usually have more user (teachers and students) involvement and
greater use of subject specialists than public libraries.

Special or technical library staff often has advanced training in the field in which their library
specializes. That staff, with substantial input from primary users is responsible for selection.

Public libraries normally use librarians, often departmental heads from the public service
working thro’ selection committees or from lists prepared by a central.

Often library staff has primary responsibility for the reference collection.

Users recommend current books and monographs and librarians do most of the retrospective
buying and selecting of serials and other media for the collection.

Selection Criteria

This section of the library policy should also provide general guidelines concerning what, and
what not to select. This is more important in public libraries and school library media centres
than in academic libraries or special libraries due to the concern on impact on children and young
adults.

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Also decide whether to collect older materials or not. In academic libraries for example, users
may be interested in the historical aspects of a subject for the purpose of research. How will the
library balance the need for newer materials against the need for historical materials?

The following are some sample selection guideline statements:

- Select items useful to clients.

- Select and replace items found in standard lists and catalogs.
- Select only those items favourably reviewed in two or more selection aids.
- Do not select items that received negative review.
- Try to provide both, or all points of view on controversial subjects.
- Do not select textbooks.
- Do not select items of a sensational or inflammatory nature.
- Select only items of lasting literary or social value.
- Avoid items that, though useful to a client, are more appropriately held by another
local library.

C. Section 3: Methods of Acquisition

How will the library materials be acquired? There are normally three methods of acquiring
materials in a library i.e. Purchase, Gifts and Exchange.

What will be acquired through for example approval plans, standing orders, subscriptions, gifts
and exchange.

Gifts

Golden rule – Do not add a gift unless it is something the library would buy. Consider process
costs for gifts.

- A written gift policy must make it clear whether the library accepts only items
matching the collection profile or accepts anything with the proviso that the library
may dispose of unwanted items in any manner deemed appropriate.

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- Is it better to accept all gifts regardless of the conditions attached to them, or should
the library avoid conditional gifts?

Also to be considered would be Cooporative collection development. This is a cost-effective

way for libraries to expand the materials available for users.

D. Section 4: Other Areas

Deselection (Weeding) and Discards

The policy statement records staff decisions regarding criteria, scope, frequency and purpose
of a deselection program.

E.g.

- The responsibility of discarding falls on the director of the library.

- Involve representatives of library reference, service, processing, heads of university

departments, researchers and those in charge of collection development in the library.

How will materials be removed from the collection when they become dilapidated or out-of-
date?

How will these materials be disposed?

The length of time, number of readers, nature of use, and local conditions influence how many
text books are purchased and how long they are retained.

Collection Evaluation

Involves examining a particular collection for currency, condition, reading levels, use, variety
and depth. The collection needs continuous evaluation to ensure that the library is fulfilling its
goal to provide materials in a timely manner to meet patrons’ interests and needs.

The policy should indicate the methods that will be used in evaluation e.g. Statistical tools i.e.
circulation reports, collection turnover as well as patron input via community surveys, requests
for titles and feedback are also useful in evaluating the collection.

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Complaints

The library should establish procedures for handling complaints before the first complaint arises.

Censorship

The library defends the right to provide an unbiased source of recorded knowledge and ideas for
all clients. The collection aims to be representative and balanced.
The library does not initiate censorship of any material, although it is obliged to abide by
Government law on banned and restricted publications.

Review and Revision

This section should state how often the policy will be reviewed e.g. this Policy will be reviewed
and revised as new resources and technologies become available and old ones disappear, and as
the needs of the Library and its patrons demand.

This policy supersedes any and all earlier policies adopted by the university library.

POLICY FOR ELECTRONIC RESOURCES

Electronic resources pose challenges not encountered with the acquisitions of traditional library
materials, such as access, interface, and technical support and licensing. Libraries therefore need
to formulate a separate Electronic Resources Collection Development Policy to address these
issues.

The policy for electronic resources follows the same pattern of the print policy and comprises of:

1. Introduction – states the purpose and outlines the context of the policy e.g.
the purpose of this policy is to provide guidelines in choosing appropriate electronic
resources and to establish consistency and priorities in managing this important part of
the Library’s collection.

2. Scope – includes a definition of electronic resources and scope e.g. this policy covers
both free Internet resources and electronic resources purchased or licensed by the
libraries from a commercial source, a non-profit organization, a professional organization
or any external institution.

Some of the common types of e-resources included are:

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 Indexing and abstracting databases

 Full-text (aggregated) databases
 E-journals
 E-books
 Reference databases (directories, dictionaries, encyclopedias, etc.)
 Numeric and statistical databases

3. Selection Criteria for fee-based electronic resources

This section provides guidelines for the selection and acquisition of electronic resources.
All policies and guidelines in the Collection Development Policy, including the General
Selection Criteria and Duplication Policy, will also apply to electronic resources. 

Subject/Content: The electronic resource must support the needs of the patrons. There
should be a target audience and an expected level of use. The resource will add depth or
breadth to the existing collection.

Functionality and System Reliability: The electronic resource will provide sufficient
added value over the print equivalent or other formats.

The interface should be user-friendly. Some common user friendliness features are
introductory screens, online tutorials, context-sensitive help, and pop-ups and menus.

Access-Related Technical Considerations: Preferably, the electronic resource should be

available for remote access. Standalone CD-ROMs and dedicated workstations that
require in-library use are generally discouraged. The Libraries prefer access to remote
hosts via Web to other formats and methods of access, such as CD-ROM, local Web
mount, etc., because it offers optimum access, faster updating, cost savings in storage,
and presents fewer problems in maintenance and preservation. Acquisition in other
formats is discouraged, unless there is no alternative or the cost difference between the
formats is significant.

Vendor Support: The vendor of the electronic resource should be established and
reliable. The electronic resource should be available for trial. Preferably, the vendor will
provide product demonstrations if needed.

Pricing Consideration: The vendor should offer a choice of pricing models from which
the Libraries may select. These models could be based on various criteria, including the
number of simultaneous users and user population.

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Licensing Consideration: ‘Authorized Users' should be defined as broadly as possible.

E.g. Bona fide faculty members, students, researchers, any employees and contractors
engaged by the University as well as on-site users of the University should be included as
authorized user.

4. Selection Responsibility
Statement on who will select e.g. same as print selectors.

Shared Electronic Resources e.g. a committee of members of the consortium.

5. Acquisition process
E.g. additionl sources to be consulted to identify electronic resources:

Database listings of other university libraries

Minutes, trial pages and reviews of other libraries' collection development committees

Consortia's reviews and listings

Mailing lists

6. Free Resources – the above selection criteria will apply plus other criteria such as:

- Authoritativeness
- Up-to-date
- Reasonably stable URL

7. Duplication
e.g. Internet resource which duplicates an existing print resource is deemed acceptable if
no fee is incurred and its inclusion provides greater access and convenience than the
single point of access which a print resource provides.
The Web format is preferred generally, and print duplication is usually discouraged due
to space and processing costs.

8. De-Selection e.g.

The resource is no longer available or maintained.

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No longer current, reliable or relevant.

Overlaps another resource which offers more comprehensive coverage or treatment of

subject.

9. Copyright

In order to protect the Library and its users from copyright infringement in establishing
hyperlinks to Internet Resources, the following policy should be observed:

 Effort will be made to identify and acknowledge the owner/creator of the Internet
resource.
 A disclaimer is placed on the Electronic Resources webpage, announcing who may link
to our information, and to remove any of the hyperlinks made to remote
webpage/resource if the copyright owner requests.

GETTING THE POLICY APPROVED

Having invested considerable staff time in preparing a comprehensive collection development

policy, it is important that the library’s governing board approve that policy. With board
approval, everyone agrees on the ground rules for building a collection that will serve the
community.

An ideal policy approved process might consist of the following:

1. The director appoints a staff committee to draft a basic policy statement for
submission to the director.

2. The director reviews and comments on the draft and distributes it to the library
staff for comments and suggestions.

3. The original committee incorporates the comments and suggestions into an

interim draft. Perhaps the committee will call a general meeting to discuss the
interim draft before preparing the final version.

4. The director presents the final draft statement to the governing board for review,
possible revision and approval.

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5. Between board review and final approval, the library holds an open meeting for
community feedback about the proposed policy. At the meeting, members of the
drafting committee, the director and representatives of the governing board
explain, describe, and, if necessary defend and modify the statement.

6. The final step is to prepare multiple copies of the final document for the library
staff and patrons who may request for a copy. In this digital era, the electronic
copy should be posted on the library website.

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