Use the basic concepts and principles related to the selection, evaluation, organization, and preservation of physical and digital information items.

Introduction

Information organization is the process of providing access to resources to users through name, title, and subject. A key part of this process is the selection of materials that institutions will make available to their constituencies. Information professionals working in libraries and archival repositories accomplish this by curating collections of resources that both align with their institutional goals and are relevant to their patrons. Curation is a process of selecting, evaluating, organizing, and preserving digital and physical resources. In this document, I will present an overview of these procedures from the perspective of libraries and archive and manuscript repositories.

Today’s physical CD, DVD, and Blu-ray formats will be left behind for new technologies. The proliferation of streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and Disney+ have set a high bar—acclimatizing the public to expect instant access. Hoopla and Kanopy are subscription services that library patrons can use to grant instant access to films, magazines, and music. The Fresno County Public Library uses Freegal to grant music streaming to their population of patrons as well as five downloads of songs per week (for them to keep). From the acquisition of physical and digital material to the purchase of a subscription to online resources and services, there are many options in which libraries can meet the demands of the public. The crux of collection management is how to spend allocated funds amongst these choices.

Explication

Selection

For any library or archival repository, collection development begins with the mission of the institution. From the mission statement, one should see how various collections of the institution support that mission. The “collection development policy” of the library or repository explicitly details “who is ultimately responsible for making selections; how selections are made; what priorities exist for the collection” (Disher, 2014, p. 35). On a side note, a collection development policy does not only specify the policy of on acquisitions but should articulate the management of the entirety of an institution’s holdings. This includes digital and electronic collections, funding and allocations, weeding, gifts and donations, cooperative relationships, and the handling of complaints and challenges. The collection development policy is a public document.

There are noticeable differences between academic and public libraries, but they share many similarities when it comes to collection development. Academic libraries prioritize literature that supports the coursework of their respective parent institution. Academic libraries of colleges that award Bachelors, Masters, and Doctorates also prioritize materials and resources that support campus research. In comparison, public libraries place greater priority to current works of literature.

The purchase of printed materials, such as periodicals and books, remains straightforward. Librarians scan Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, and Kirkus Reviews for potential selections. Selectors for specific collections will also keep abreast of other publications that are unique to specific genres of materials that they purchase, but not all of this selection need necessarily be done in-house. Some libraries have found that it is cost-effective to outsource the selection of materials to varying degrees to vendors. Two of the biggest providers are Baker & Taylor (B&T) and BWI. Some libraries limit such selections to “best sellers,” while others such as the Queens Library claim that “It’s most efficient when the vendor does the first cut and the library does the second cut” (Hoffert, 2007). Whatever cost savings are found through outsourcing though must be weighed against the frequency that materials ill-suited for the clientele of the outsourcing library are purchased on behalf of said institution.

For electronic materials and digital resources (including database subscriptions) librarian selectors must weigh a variety of considerations and options. Should they purchase or pay a subscription fee? Who are the authorized users? How many users can access the material concurrently? Can the resources be downloaded and easily printed? What access to older materials will the library have after a cancellation? The answers to these questions will weigh on a selector librarian’s distribution of limited funds.

In comparison, manuscript and archive repositories collection development policies radically diverge from that of traditional libraries. Decisions on acquisitions or accessioning for archival collections of primary resources must be taken with great care. From a practical perspective, limitations on shelf space that an archival repository can only house the most noteworthy of materials pertaining to the narrow focus. Considerations of whether the repository has the facilities and expertise to preserve the donated artifacts are also a consideration. Standards of professionalism and ethics demand that all donations of primary materials undergo extensive processing before primary resources can be made available to the public. It is not uncommon for there to be a processing backlog that stretches into the years. If a manuscript repository or archives is unable to process a donation within a suitable period of time, it would be ethical for the institution to reject the donation on those grounds. Finally, donors may retain legal rights that restrict the use of these materials. If these legal rights prove too constricting, repositories would be better served by declining to add the materials in question to their holdings. Donor agreements or purchase agreements are vital to accessioning. They lay out the responsibilities and duties of all parties involved with the donation or purchase.

Evaluation

A library’s collection should be evaluated on how well those resources meet the needs of their patrons. Collection managers should be continually evaluating the collection to understand its breadth, depth, currency, and usage to discover any weaknesses. In the field of librarianship, librarians employ quantitative and qualitative assessments to determine acquisitions, how long to keep materials, and when materials should be weeded. Librarians may use established lists or compare their holdings with similar libraries. Usage statistics—such as checkout frequency and interlibrary loan data—are also used to evaluate the collection. In particular, repeated ILL requests may be an indicator of an unfilled demand either for a particular subject or a specific item.

Organization

All resources are cataloged according to standards recognized by the field of information science and specifically in accordance with the standards used in the institution’s online public access catalog (OPAC). Physical materials should be classified and ordered in accordance with a standardized classification system such as Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) or Library of Congress Classification (LCC). The OPAC is one of the primary access points at which patrons discover library resources and retrieve information for their curated collections. There is much work to be done in boosting the accessibility and improving the user experience of OPACs. Some libraries have made more progress in this respect than others.

Preservation

For physical materials, measures to preserve the integrity of those materials from exposure to light, water, extremes in temperature, and animal activity with user access. Depending on the circumstance, cameras and other security devices may be warranted. Libraries may also wish to assign security duties to line staff or employee security officers to ward off vandalism and theft.

The field of archiving, in particular, places special emphasis on the preservation of the papers and records within their collections—as any harm incurred by the primary sources within a repository’s care may result in unrepairable damage; and by definition, primary sources are irreplaceable should they be either lost or destroyed.

Archivists “should guard all records against accidental damage, vandalism, and theft” (Society of American Archivists, 2012). Archives and manuscript repositories require well-formulated plans to respond to disasters that would threaten the integrity of the collections under their care.

The long-term storage and accessibility of digital resources is an evolving field of which no widely recognized standard or best practices as yet to be established. This author concedes that this is partially due to the evolving nature of technology itself. Many practices become obsolete upon the advent of new standards from the field of computer science and its related fields. As new standards are developed, the field of information science will have to grapple with converting existing digital resources to these new standards to preserve access. This parallels an existing trend among archives and manuscript repositories to convert analog recordings into digital files. Archives and the wider information science community have yet to settle on a method to authenticate the provenance of digital resources. Whatever measures institutions decided to take to secure the content of their digital collection, they should formalize their decision in a security policy.

Evidence

Evidence 1: Jason Sue’s Teen Materials Blog

As evidence of my knowledge of the selection of materials for a subset of patrons, I offer a blog detailing a collection of materials for a young adults. The blog can be accessed at this following URL: https://jasonsueinfo203blog.wordpress.com/

Evidence 2: Catalog Assessment Project (FCPL)

The Catalog Assessment Project (CAP) was a comprehensive evaluation of Children’s and Adult Nonfiction collections for the Fresno County Public Library (FCPL) during the Summer of 2021. It was divided into 12 parts (six for the children’s collection and six for the adult collection). I used the statistics of CKOs/yr and last checkout to identify the demand for an item or subject. The publish date provided a benchmark on how current or out-of-date a volume of nonfiction was. Drawing from these two considerations, I made my recommendations for the Nonfiction Collection of the Sunnyside Regional Library.

I am submitting one portion of twelve of this Catalog Assessment Project of my ability to evaluate a collection of library materials and to make recommendations to enhance the collection to improve the patron experience.

Evidence 3: Mini Activity 7 Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, Etc. and Mini Activity 8 Finding Facts

There is a wide variety of resources and library materials to choose from when making purchasing to meet the future information needs of patrons. To attest to my knowledge of this variety I am uploading Mini Activity 7 Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, Etc. and Mini Activity 8 Finding Facts (from INFO 210 Reference and Information Services) as evidence of my knowledge of these physical and digital resources.

Conclusion

The process of collection management can be divided into four phases: selection, evaluation, organization, and preservation. These four phases are guided by the institution’s collection development policy. This collection development policy is often derived from a strategic planning process. Regardless of the mission of the institution whether it be a public library, an academic library, or more narrowly defined—such as in the case of an archival repository—or specialized towards a single field—such as law or medical libraries; librarians will flow the best practices of their forebears and adapt these practices to accommodate future developments in the transmission and storage of information.

References

ALA Digital Reference (2021, April 19). 2022 Pricing for RDA toolkit announced. RDA Resource Description & Access Toolkit. https://www.rdatoolkit.org/node/245

American Library Association. (2019, January 29). Library bill of rights. https://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/

Hoffert, B. (2007, September 1). Who’s selecting now? As Phoenix Public Library boldly passes on selection responsibilities to vendors, some libraries follow—and others dig in. Library Journal, 132(14), pp. 40–43.

Society of American Archivists. (2012). SAA core values statement and code of ethics. https://www2.archivists.org/statements/saa-core-values-statement-and-code-of-ethics

Sue, J. (2016, January). Jason Sue’s teen materials blog for su2015 LIBR-265 section 10 materials for a library’s young adult collection. https://jasonsueinfo203blog.wordpress.com/

Wayne, D. (2014). Crash course in collection development. (2^nd ed.). Libraries Unlimited.