Collection Development

You want to be a librarian? You really want to be a librarian? Let me point out some things that you may not be aware of. You can hate and loath to read everything under the sun cover to cover, but you can still be a fantastic librarian. I think that being a good collection development librarian has less to do with reading or any sort of love of reading, but instead with knowing trends, how to notice trends, knowing  shortcuts to these trends, and loving to throw shit out. Let us first concentrate on these trends and maintenance of your collection. By trends, I am referring to the ability of keeping a popular but well-balanced collection. This article will now take a look at these shortcuts when you are weeding your collection. Shortcuts are key in your ability to handle large areas of literature at a time. Forget reading the actual books, but instead learn about the books and the areas in which they are published. One of the key points to remember is something that I have come across in attending any workshops on weeding. The basics of collection development are constantly changing and you need to always be aware of this fact. For example, I recently heard a Booklist webinar where they talked about books for student assignments in reference. Uhh, hello McFly? No student comes to the library for books for assignments in reference anymore. Another observation may emerge in the relative uselessness of databases, which falls under reference. I will discuss this at length later in the book. Yet, let us now move on to the unpleasant task of weeding. 

The following is a look at how I am deciding to weed my nonfiction books.  

Factors (In Order of Priority) 

1. Last Checkout: When was the last time an item checked? As we are a popular materials library, this should always get top priority. 

2. Condition of the Book: Does the book seem to be falling apart? Does the book look like crap? Is the book yellow? 

3. Balance: Is this the only thing that the library has on the subject? Is it hard to get books on the subject? Is it important we get something on this topic?  

• Now, not all of these factors are created equally. Some are more important than others. For example, when weighing last checkout versus balance, you have to understand that you cannot keep everything. Sacrifices must be made and we cannot save everything just to have a well-rounded collection. They will always make new books, always and forever. Now, there is a way around this if it is something in poor condition that you wish to keep. See, if you can order a replacement instead. Someone will take a shiny brand new copy more than a ratty, yellow 1950’s copy. 
• Each factor has other conditions to go along with it as well. Last checkout can be hard because you need to decide how recent is allowed for you to weed something. My system is I usually do not touch this year and last year for most recent checkout. Yet, the year before which 2011 is borderline. Something with heavy usage, I really don’t want to get rid of, but something that never checked out, but just happened to go out sometime in 2011. I have a system of 10 checkouts or less and that will be discarded. 10-20 checkouts will be evaluated based on the other factors. 25 or more and I simply need to keep it.  
• As for condition of the book, here you will to be considerably ruthless if a book is still in print. Forget trying to tape, glue, bind a book back together. Just buy a new one if possible. If it is out of print, try to keep it on the shelf for as long as possible because a reprint may come on the horizon.  
• Finally, we come to balance. One of the things to remember is that balance in the age of the Internet isn’t nearly as important as it used to be. Books are not the end all that they once were in the late 90’s. The second thing to remember is that we are a popular materials library. Nowhere is this more than in history where the general histories of countries, cities, and states are simply not going out. Students do not come here anymore if they access to Google and their school’s website.  Here are some other tips and tricks that I have learned over the years: 
• Go into the stacks. Do not be afraid of the stacks. This is how you see the physical condition of the books. 
• Discard duplicates when it is no longer necessary to keep multiple copies. Some you will want to keep, but others you will not. Do this at your own discretion. 

Now the following is a look at how I weed my fiction materials. 

1. Last checkout  

2. Physical Condition (Always look for replacements) 

The following shows how much easier it is to weed for fiction when compared with nonfiction. Now, there are a few subtleties involved here like whether an author is out of print, alive or dead, still writing, but it seems to me that these things pale in comparison when considering nonfiction materials. Let me just say this: reference and nonfiction can be a gigantic pain in the ass. 

Now we can take a look at purchasing books for your collection. There are times when you read a really good review and that prompts you to make the purchase or a staff member tells you about a book, which leads to a title you were not aware of at all. First things first, you should always try to act like you totally knew about the book when this is the first you have heard about it. This philosophy will be seen as sneaky, deceptive, and never ever a reason for a patron to complain about your purchasing in a certain area. Purchasing something has a lot less guidelines attached to it when compared with weeding. With fiction, all you need to do is either find one decent review, receive a request for a title, or designate a title as a replacement. Nonfiction combines good reviews and a balanced collection. The question in your gut should be: Do we own something on this topic? Is it current? Could we use more? With public libraries, an even greater question to ask is whether this book is more esoteric and academic. Yet, in your mind as a librarian, the decision to purchase something should be a much quicker one than the decision to weed. We simply do not have the time to spend on evaluating each and every title if you have a medium to large  sized budget. You will never get anything accomplished.  I hate to say this, but there is a certain truthfulness to a kind of gut feeling where you know in your heart that a book would be good for the collection. No need to always worry about a decent review in nonfiction because that is why collection balance is such a great concept.  

People will come up to me and say, you're a librarian? I will usually answer yes. You must really love to read? I smile and say, "No, I really love to weed." I smile and explain that it means throwing out books. I believe that weeding can be a cathartic experience. There is no better feeling than to see a shelf previously packed with newfound space. There is no better feeling than to see a book series that looks brand new, but it was really published ten years ago. Related to that, there is no greater feeling knowing that yellow book is going away for a dirt nap. There is no greater feeling knowing we no longer carry Microsoft Word 2003 books. Like I said, there is no greater feeling.