Marin County Library Presenters
Donna Mettier - Marin County
Technical Services Manager
dmettier@marincounty.org
David Dodd -Sonoma County
Collections Manager
ddodd@sonoma.lib.ca.us
Updating a collection development policy - they updated and took there's before their County Supervisors.
"Outward facing collection policy"
Wanted a clear idea for the public (especially for the public) - copied San Francisco's deselection.
Acknowledged that books will be deaccessioned from collection for various reasons, condition, too many copies. They hold "Teacher Palooza Parties" where teachers can come and take weeded books, they will also give books to any other non profit county agencies. Work with a paper agency where the paper will go back to public use. Deaccessioned books will never go into landfill.
Complaint - allowing patron to complain about shelving / cataloged area of an item. Director will respond within 15-20 days to request, special form. Example - "Million Little Pieces", books with sexual content, etc.
How will you choose to make a comment or complaint, we respect your right to tell us what you think. Training right now, first staff member who hears complaint is trained to listen (whether page or branch manager). Listen so carefully that you repeat the complaint to the manager in the same way. Want to make sure patron feels heard from get go.
Based on Boston's collection development policy - what happens to historically valuable donations.
"Inward facing collection policy" - David
How do you go about constructing policy. Recommendation is to have as little detail as possible - freedom to read, etc. The problem with too much detail is the amount of information, cumbersome to go to constantly go to board with binder to read and update with all these details. Better to stick with higher level purposes and principles - only about 2 pages. Better to put details in procedures.
Better to have each selector who orders their area write out a collection description. Example - Adult 100's - psychology, etc. Then guidelines when you want to consider these areas for age, what is the allocation for the year, who responsible for selecting, guidelines for how much you select, copies, for which branch.
Budget, usage do not stay the same each year - these need to be updated frequently versus updating policy each year.
Local authors - have always said no, required an item to be reviewed in a journal. Now they area accepting all local others. They feel not too much space will be required. About 1/3 of room accepting local authors. Now also collecting local musicians.
E-readers, format evolution - it's accelerating. We have to be nimble we need to decide what formats we are going to keep - are we getting rid of the old format? Be very deliberate about what you will keep and what you will not. Example books on cassette - we cannot buy cassettes or replace them, why keep the collection.
Staff driven collection vision.
What needs, different generational needs, format edge, streaming media (growing edge)?
Collection development policy statement (closely sounds like) - by having a deep understanding of our residents desires and publishing industry this will make us the best provider of information to community.
This statement outlines our strengths, skills, and knowledge as well our dedication and commitment to public.
Guidelines for selection - broad selection on wide variety of topics, not deep because we are a popular collection. Example - NOLO law collection (how long do you dare keep the old ones)
What is a paper agency for the weeded books? Is the library tearing the books up and recycling the paper? Is it a recycling service?
ReplyDeleteI have to double check with Linda, and of course we can always follow up with the presenters on specifics if she can't remember.
ReplyDeleteMy understanding was that it was an agency (probably some kind of recycling service) that took the books away for recycling, but the end result of the paper use was for recycled paper / public use.
They said items were not thrown away.
Also - hit post before hearing one additional interesting comment in the Q & A - regarding adapting the collection policy to account for streaming services. According to their policy streaming service was tucked under the "freedom to view" like internet. They thought it was important to mention as they brought up - back in the day - the internet was an issue. They said the public considered "the internet" like an item on the shelf curated by librarians / should be held up to standards of collection policy.
ReplyDeleteHowever, streaming content, like Hoopla that adds popular items, really needs to be folded under the freedom to view act.
*Better to put details in procedures.*
ReplyDeleteThere are various organizations and companies that help libraries repurpose/recycle deselected materials. Some will pay by the pound. Better World Books is one of the more well known organizations.
ReplyDelete