Assembling Selection Criteria and Writing a Collection Development Policy

Bridget Sievers

Schleicher, M. C. (2010). Assembling Selection Criteria and Writing a Collection Development Policy for a Variety of Older Medical Books. Journal of Hospital Librarianship, 10(3), 251–264. https://doi.org/10.1080/15323269.2010.491424

In this article, Schleicher explains how the Cleveland Clinic Alumni Library created a framework for selection criteria and collection management for the library’s medical texts. These texts differed from the general collection in that many were historical texts or first editions, eliciting the need to create a new organization system. This was, some could be shared and not just kept in a storage closet.

By evaluating the books in the special collection, the library could potentially fill gaps left in the general collection, share resources with their consortium, and free up physical space in a building where that can be a precious resource. A unique factor in rare and special book collections that was considered in the creation of the criteria was, if the book was already available in the region/consortium, sale of the book to a collector or another organization. This is interesting to compare this to public and school library collections, where profit is rarely a consideration in selection criteria. The article gives a great insight into the considerations that need to be made for collection management of a special or academic library.