Selection is Privilege

Christopher Fluetsch

Koester, A. (2015, February 8). Selection is privilege. Retrieved from http://showmelibrarian.blogspot.com/2015/02/selection-is-privilege.html

One of the fundamental questions that must be answered when considering collection development is “What shall I collect?” Do we just consider what our patrons want right now? Do we try to anticipate their needs? Do we purchase items that we feel they ought to want regardless of their expressed desires? Do we identify objectively “good” or “important” works and collect those with the intention of educating our patrons about these works?

In school libraries, my milieu, we are responsive to patron needs while also acquiring and providing materials that are meant to aid a student’s education. While this sounds simple, this policy has many implications and consequences.

In this blog post, Koester discusses issues around racial, gender and sexual orientation privilege and how it relates to patron interest in certain materials. Because patron interest impacts library purchasing, understanding these issues is vital to properly building and promoting a collection.

The main thesis of the article is that librarians ought to be buying excellent and diverse books, even if their patrons are not interested in that diversity. There is a tendency amongst readers to seek out books and protagonists that are familiar. Therefore, library collections can sometime reflect the perceived majority population in an area.

According to Koester, this both reflects and reinforces a kind of privilege of thought. Because patrons only read about people like them, they tend to think that all people are like them. This is another manifestation of the self-inflicted media bubble that has become an outgrowth of an increasingly splintered media environment.

Koester believes that librarians should buy books, even if those books are not popular with library patrons. It is incumbent on the librarian to market and promote these books to encourage patrons to read them.

Koester also points out that expanded collections will do a better job of providing for all patrons, not just the most visible or privileged ones.

This is an excellent think piece. While some of the author’s conclusions might be overreaching, particularly her conclusion that proper library marketing can get readers to read anything, the article will make the reader consider ways to better use the collection budget to better serve all patrons, even those who are already satisfied with their library experience.