Holistic Collection Development and the Smithsonian Libraries

 Bethany Hadlock

Summary

This article focuses on Smithsonian units that do not have a dedicated librarian staff. It suggests that a holistic methodology, especially in lower staffed areas, leads to better results in collection management than just focusing on data. Collection management is labor intensive and constant, and certain places can not keep up. When collections are specialized or understaffed, data is not something that can always be relied on since it might not tell the whole story. In this particular study, they look at how these smaller Smithsonian units may not have constant usage, but they are still necessary to keep because they keep collections that have high usage during special occasions such as yearly festivals or other specific research needs. Since these collections are also largely unstaffed, they still have items that are not cataloged and used, These instances also make it hard to keep accurate data on what is being used. Overall, they found that there is no one size fits all collection management strategy for the libraries and museums within the Smithsonian and that the collections should be looked at and considered case by case by taking into account what and who the collections serve.

Evaluation

I found this article to be very informative and it made me think broader about collection development.

Many of our libraries are a part of larger organizations whether it is county, state, academic, or a multi state

organization. These multi library systems should not all have the same approach when it comes to collection

management because they do not all need the same things nor do they all serve the same exact community. For

example, if one library is in an area with a large Hispanic population and another is in an area with a small

Hispanic population, both libraries will have very different needs when it comes to what books, movies, music,

and resources they need. If those libraries relied on the exact same collection management strategy, or even a

collection management strategy that combined their data to determine what to weed and what to add, both

libraries would be missing what they truly need and they would not be able to accurately serve their communities.

While data is important, it is also important to remember what needs your community will have - even if some

items will only heavily circulate once a year or once every five years.

Reference

Abumeeiz, S., & Wingreen-Mason, D. (2020). Holistic collection development and the Smithsonian libraries. Library Resources & Technical Services, 64(1), 26–38. https://doi.org/10.5860/lrts.64n1.26