Almost There!
Posted December 2, 2020 by Amie Grosshans
I’m on to my third (and last!) paper of the semester. It’s not due until December 15 but I want to complete it early so I can get it done and enjoy the holidays. Plus, the assignment has several parts and is better done one step at a time. The assignment incorporates much of what we’ve learned in class throughout the semester, and deals with collections development, which I love.
In the first part of the assignment, we choose a library and examine its collections development policy. Each library has a unique collections development policy that explains how it will build its collection. The policy is heavily geared towards the library’s community. For example, a school library will tailor its collections development policy towards its students, and a public library will tailor its policy towards its community. If a community has a large Spanish speaking population, the library might focus on buying Spanish language materials, whereas a community that does not have a large Spanish speaking population would not focus on this area. This is where the community statistics from the census come in handy, because they allow librarians to get a feel for the makeup of their community so they can tailor their policy towards it. Collections development policies (as well as mission statements and other library policies) can usually be found on a library’s website. Once we’ve read the policy, we need to write about how it affects collections development for the young adult collection.
In the second part of the assignment, we examine annotated book reviews from a library journal. These journals review books that have yet to be published, providing information about the book’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as a recommendation about whether or not they will be good for a library’s collection. Our professor has chosen a selection of book reviews from January 2020 and put them up on our class Google drive. Once we’ve read all of them, we will select six titles that would fit with our library’s collections development policy. Then, we will write about why we chose these books. I’m excited to do this part. I’ve dealt with reading collections development policies before, but I’ve never used review journals or chosen books for a collection. I’m looking forward to it and think I will learn a lot by doing it.