Episode 707: Collection Development

Oct 15, 2020

We are the Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange, and our members are all types of libraries and their staff.

You can find our full show notes page right here!

Today’s episode is part of our series on Library Basics. We are working through some of the skills people need in every library. Not everyone is going to school for a Master’s degree in Library Science, and that’s fine. We want to be sure everyone has the skills to be comfortable in a library and to be successful for the community you are serving.

This week we are talking about collection development. Libraries are known for their books and the neat things we can share with our communities. But this does not mean buying just anything at all, or only the things we like. It means creating a collection of materials that meet the needs of the community - the things they want and the things that will be useful and helpful to them even if they don’t know it yet. 

This was a quick overview of the foundations of collection development. We hope you feel like you are part of the larger community! Here are a few takeaways for you:

• Write down your collection development procedure and policies. It does not have to be long and complex, just something you can refer to as needed.
• Acquisitions are usually fun. Buy widely, across all kinds of topics and interests. Be very deliberate in not just choosing things you like or know.
• Weed your collection. Don’t let it get choked out by old, junky, out of date books that need to be discarded. Keep it in good shape.