One of the first questions I often ask audiences at library conferences when I speak is “are you proud of your library’s collection?” The follow up is, “What are you proud of?” The library’s collection exists to help the library
Tag: collection development
…But it was an award winner!
Some of the more difficult weeds in libraries are award winners. The Newbery, Caldecott, National Book Award, Hugo, Bram Stoker, Nebula, etc. etc. etc. awards are wonderful choices for most public libraries – and even some school, university, and special
Slow Your Roll
The best advice I can give to anyone who does weeding of a library collection is to take your time. Go as slowly as is practical and put some thought into the process. Not only will you make better, more
Collection Management and Interlibrary Loan
A submission came in to Awful Library Books recently from a librarian who said they had an interlibrary loan request for an item that they were embarrassed to have in the collection. Rather than fulfill the request, they weeded the
Collection Management Policies
Let’s talk about collection management policies. Stay with me, now! A library’s collection helps it meet its mission. The collection management policy explains how that will be accomplished. I’ve seen selection policies, deselection policies, and a gift policies, but that
The Mission-Collection Connection
A library’s collection exists to help the library meet its mission. When you are having trouble letting go of non-circulating library materials, or talking the Powers That Be into allowing you to do some weeding, this is a great point
Give ‘Em What They Want
Give ‘Em What They Want!: Managing the Public’s Library American Library Association 1992 Submitter: This was not a bad choice for 1992. But holding on to it today is just sad. This was still being used at my local library.
Size Matters: Estimating Shelf Capacity
Once upon a time, Holly mentioned that I had a special formula for determining shelving capacity. This brought about a flurry of requests from many people. The reality is that I had little scraps of paper with a few notes