Collection Development Policy

Introduction

The mission of the Jefferson Township Public Library (the “Library”) is to be a haven for the investigation of life skills and interests; connecting a diverse community socially, culturally, and intellectually.

To this end, the Library will be a place for people to gather, to explore, interact, and imagine. The  Library will do this by offering the community a variety of collections, programs, and events that are free, available, and accessible to everyone.

Purpose of the Collection Development Policy

The collection development policy (the “Policy”)  serves the following purposes:

• It serves as blueprint to guide staff in the selection and retention of materials
• It informs the community of the principles and criteria used to determine the content and scope of the Library’s collections

Responsibility for Selection

Responsibility for collection content selection lies with the Library Director (the “Director”) who operates within the framework of policies and guidelines determined by the Trustees of the Library (the “Trustees”).  The Director may delegate to Library staff (the “Staff”)  members the authority to make content selections.

About the Collections

Adult Collection

The adult collection of library materials supports the educational, cultural, recreational, and informational needs of the adult community. In so doing, the Library will establish and maintain a circulating fiction and nonfiction collection, a periodical collection, and a digital collection. 

The fiction collection will consist of a broad selection  of established classics, current popular titles and authors, and additional literary titles.. Nonfiction works will include established authoritative titles, those recognized by scholars and authorities, and those which are representative of diverse points of view to encourage critical thinking.  

The periodical collection will emphasize those serials that reflect the interests of the community and that are indexed in standard library indices. Newspapers are selected to provide current information, and to satisfy casual interest in current events. Purchasing priority will be given to local, regional, and state publications. Magazines are selected to represent a wide variety of general interests of the community. Newspaper and magazine selections follow the same process as the selection of other print items

The digital material collections shall include a wide range of electronic books, audio, video, and other related materials. 

Both the periodical collection and digital material collections will maintain the same standards and broad emphasis as in the book collection.

Children’s - Youth Collection

The children’s - youth collection supports the educational, cultural, recreational, and informational needs of children and youth, from babies and preschoolers through children in elementary, middle, and high schools. In selecting children's and youth materials the basic skills and criteria of adult selection policies and procedures shall also apply. Additionally, the selection of children's and youth materials can also include the relative artistic merits, the clarity of content, and the suitability for the appropriate age group of the material under consideration.

Guidelines for Collection Content Selection

When recommending materials to be added to the Library’s collection, selectors use their training, knowledge, and experience along with the following general criteria to select materials.

General Criteria:

• Relevance to current and anticipated community needs
• Suitability of subject and style for intended audience
• Critical Reviews
• Reputations and qualifications of the author and/or publisher
• Cost
• Relation to the current collection and other materials on the subject
• Local significance of the author or topic
• Potential borrower appeal
• Holdings of other Main Library Alliance Libraries
• Connection to other titles in a series
• Comprehensiveness of Treatment
• Authority, competence, reputation, and purpose of author
• Currency or accuracy of the information
• Long-term significance or interest
• Representation of diverse points of view
• Anticipated demand, 
• The interests of library users, 
• Physical space available in the library.
• The total cost of materials.

The Library recognizes that users have differing abilities and backgrounds and thus provides materials on varying levels of difficulty and scholarship.

Specific Collection Criteria

Nonfiction Criteria

The established criteria for selection, acquisition, duplication, reconsideration, replacement, and withdrawal of nonfiction materials are:

• Potential use
• Public demand
• Literary quality
• Critical reviews
• Space limitations
• Local or national significance
• Quality of the physical format
• Scarcity of material on the subject
• Contemporary and permanent value
• Price and budgetary considerations
• Comprehensiveness and depth of treatment
• Effectiveness of the medium to the content
• Reputation and standards of the publisher
• Importance of the subject matter to the collection
• Clarity, accuracy, logic, objectivity and readability
• Availability of the material through interlibrary loan
• Clarity of index, illustrations, and table of contents
• Authority, skill, competence, reputation of the author

Fiction criteria

Additional criteria for selection, acquisition, duplication, reconsideration, replacement, and withdrawal of materials representing fiction, drama, poetry, and other works of imagination may include:

• Originality
• Plot development
• Strength of characterization
• Authentic reflection of the human experience
• Reputation and qualifications of the author
• Community interests, needs, and demands
• Recommendation of reviews from professional journals or publications
• Literary, artistic, historical, or intellectual merit
• Suitability of format
• Price and availability for purchase
• Author or creator already has popular works in the collection
• Significance of the author’s work to Jefferson Township and the area
• Suitability of subject and style to intended audience
• Previous demand or lack of demand for similar items

The importance or weight of each of these factors will vary from one acquisition to another.

Digital Collection Criteria

• Ease of use
• Availability to multiple users, usually simultaneously
• Required equipment, technology, and training
• Search capabilities
• Comprehensiveness of content
• Licensing terms
• Reduction of space requirements over print products
• Cost  

Gifts

The Library accepts donations of materials. The Director or their designee will determine acceptance. All donated materials become the sole property of the Library upon receipt and cannot be returned. The Library reserves the right to decide whether donated items are added to the collection or their disposition is handled in another manner. The Library cannot legally make a determination of the value of the donation or act as an appraiser. The Library maintains the right to refuse donations at any time based upon the Library’s stated policy for material as outlined in this Collection Development Policy or at the discretion of the Director.

The Library accepts monetary gifts for unspecified acquisitions or for specific materials subject to approval by the Director.

Collection Maintenance

To maintain the quality and relevance of the collection, the Library regularly withdraws materials.

These can include items that are:

• Worn or damaged
• Outdated or irrelevant
• Superseded by current information
• Obsolete
• Have not circulated for a specified period of time

In addition, space limitations require that duplicate copies no longer in demand be discarded.

As materials become worn, damaged, or lost, the decision to replace the items will be based on whether or not:

• The item is still available
• There is ongoing demand
• Another item or format might better serve the same purpose
• Updated, newer, or revised materials would better replace a given item
• Another Main Library Alliance Library could provide the item or comparable item in the future

Intellectual Freedom & Access

The Trustees, Director, and Staff of the Library believe that the right to read is an important part of the intellectual freedom that is basic to our democracy. 

The Trustees, the Director, and the Staff recognize the responsibility of the Library to provide materials representing diverse points of view on different topics. 

The presence of an item in the Library’s collection does not indicate an endorsement of the item’s content. 

No materials are excluded or removed from the Library on the basis of the author’s race or nationality, their political, social, or religious beliefs. 

Selection is made solely on the merits of the work in relation to the collection as a whole and in relation to the needs of Library patrons. 

The Library follows the principles presented in the following:

 ▫ Library Bill of Rights (American Library Association) http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill

▫ The Freedom to Read Statement (American Library Association) http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/freedomreadstatement

 ▫ The Freedom to View Statement (American Library Association) http://www.ala.org/rt/vrt/professionalresources/vrtresources/freedomtoview