What criteria do consumer health librarians use to develop library collections?

Washechek, Evan

References: Papadakos, J., Trang, A., Wiljer, D., Mis, C. C., Cyr, A., Friedman, A. J., & ... Catton, P. (2014). What criteria do consumer health librarians use to develop library collections? a phenomenological study. Journal Of The Medical Library Association, 102(2), 78-84. doi:10.3163/1536-5050.102.2.003

This article was a fascinating read, it detailed problems with Collection Development Policies (CDP’s) in Consumer Health Libraries. Many problems in this field (like many libraries) was the quickness with which their patrons and potential patrons would go to Google to find facts about their own health. This is obviously problematic in any field, but the article notes just how much out of date, incorrect or otherwise malicious information is on the internet. Patrons have either no additional information or inaccurate and potentially dangerous information. The point of their study was to have Consumer Health Librarians create their CDP’s and then compare them to their actual description of the Collection process. This would hopefully display any disparities and point out the need to increase the inclusiveness of different policies in their Collection Development Plans. Collection Development Plans becoming more accurate and reflective of actual effort may lead to a host of positive outcomes including additional funding, better allocation of resources and being a boon for similar libraries looking to compare policies. After painstaking research, interviews and questionnaires the authors found that the libraries wrote CDP’s that included all of the steps they went through, but that they left out a majority of the criteria they utilized for collection development in reality. It was the author’s suggestion that work be done in the future to create parity in Collection Management Policies to actual standards and effort.

Reflection

These studies, even though not everyone who will be reading it will be affiliated with the medical field, I found it particularly valuable. This is mostly because of the comparisons between the standards that the Librarians took with regard to selection and what they actually noted in their CDP’s. I seriously wonder if my collections librarians would be able to completely and totally list all of the criteria they have. I have in the past asked my media Librarian and she has told me at least 10 standards she has, however there have been about 3-4 standards that have floated into and out of the list with seemingly no specific relevance. If these standards aren’t specifically listed it becomes very difficult for others who work in the library to tell patrons what the standards are when they ask why the 14^th season of their favorite show isn’t on the shelf. It also is very important for official documents such as a library’s policy manual.