Ted & Grace Bachhuber Memorial Library Collection Management Policy
Objectives
The Collection Management Policy is intended to provide guidance for the selection and evaluation of materials. The policy supports the Ted & Grace Bachhuber Memorial Library mission statement and aligns with the ALA Library Bill of Rights.
The Library seeks to satisfy the diverse educational, informational, and entertainment needs its community through the selection, acquisition, organization, and management of library materials, as well as to provide skilled guidance in the use of library resources. The library is directed by the mission statement, the philosophy of selection, and the following objectives:
The Library seeks
- To serve the community as a center of reliable information
- To support educational, civic, and cultural activities of local groups and organizations
- To facilitate continuing education, both formal and informal, for all ages
- To continually identify community needs, to provide programs, services, and materials to meet such needs, and to cooperate with other organizations, agencies, and institutions which can provide programs, services, or materials to meet community needs and interests
- To encourage child and community literacy
Philosophy of Selection
The philosophy of selection is based on the Library Mission Statement: “The Mission of the Ted & Grace Bachhuber Memorial Library is to provide people of all ages and backgrounds in Mayville and the surrounding communities free and impartial access to a broad range of information resources and services and to be a hub of lifelong learning, cultural enrichment, and community engagement.” The Ted & Grace Bachhuber Memorial Library upholds the right of the individual to secure information, even though the content may be controversial, unorthodox, or unacceptable to others. Materials available in the Library present a diversity of viewpoints, enabling citizens to make the informed choices necessary in a democracy.
The American Library Association’s Library Bill of Rights and The Freedom to Read and The Freedom to View Statements have been endorsed by the Ted & Grace Bachhuber Memorial Library Board of Trustees and are a basic tenant governing the selection of materials for the Library.
Scope of the Collection
The primary responsibility of the Ted & Grace Bachhuber Memorial Library is to serve the citizens of Mayville, but the Library also strives to serve surrounding unlibraried communities. As funds and space afford, the Library also seeks to support member libraries of the Monarch Library System to serve their communities.
The purpose of the Ted & Grace Bachhuber Memorial Library is to provide all individuals in its service community with carefully selected materials to aid the individual in the pursuit of education, information, research, pleasure, personal growth, and the creative use of leisure time. The Library collects materials in a wide range of topics, formats, and levels of complexity to meet the needs of its clientele.
Responsibility for Selection
The ultimate responsibility for selecting library materials rests with the Ted & Grace Bachhuber Memorial Library Board of Trustees, who delegate the management of the collection, including the duty of selecting materials, to the library director. Qualified staff overseen by the director may carry out the responsibility of materials selection and other collection maintenance duties. Their selection of materials is guided by the Library’s Mission Statement, budget, scope, selection criteria, and the directives of the collection management policy.
Criteria for Selection
The following list, though not exhaustive, contains the main criteria used for selecting materials:
- Public demand, interest, or need (current and anticipated)
- Contemporary significance
- Factual accuracy
- Authoritativeness; qualifications of author
- Historical or cultural significance to the community
- Critical reviews, publicity, or awards
- Duplication of content in other formats
- Physical format
- Reputation of publisher
- Relevancy to existing library holdings
- Price of item and impact on budget
- Contribution to the diversity and scope of the collection
- Quality of production
- Availability of materials through other libraries in area
- Contribution to balance of treatment of a subject
Material selectors may use a variety of selection aids including but not limited to catalogs, professional review periodicals, newspaper review publications, insights from large book publications, and special reports run on library systems.
An item does not have to meet all criteria to be acceptable, nor is the lack of review or an unfavorable review the sole reason for rejecting an item. Materials are considered based on the work as a whole.
Patron material requests will be considered, and such items will be evaluated using the same criteria as those applied to staff-selected materials.
Gifts and Donations
The Library welcomes gifts and memorials of funds, books, and other materials. The Library reserves the right to keep, sell, discard, or make other appropriate disposal of any donated books or materials.
In general, only materials that are recently produced and in like-new condition will be considered for addition to the collection. However, library staff review all donated materials for potential addition to the library collections. Materials may also be used for book sales. Materials that are moldy, dirty, broken, or carry a bad odor will not be accepted.
Collection Maintenance
The Library keeps its collection vital through thoughtful collection maintenance. Selecting new materials is part of the maintenance process, but replacing and withdrawing items are important functions as well. Many of the same criteria are used for the withdrawal of items as are used for selection of new items. On a systematic and continuous basis, the library removes items which are worn, outdated, of little historical significance to the community, or are no longer in demand. This weeding of materials is necessary in order to maintain collection that is useful, accurate, inviting, and easy to navigate.
Approved by the Board of Trustees 2/9/2023