Background Essay on Collection Development, Evaluation, and Management for Public Libraries

Huynh, A. (2004). Background Essay on Collection Development, Evaluation, and Management for Public Libraries. Current Studies in Librarianship, 28(1/2), 19–37.

Timothy Wager

Summary:
    The author surveys the history of the philosophy of collection development from the early 20th century to the beginning of the 21st, focusing on public libraries and examining seven influential monographs. Huynh points to the general shift over this 100 year period away from selecting “great” literature in an effort to educate the public to acquiring books that circulate more frequently, meeting public demand. Furthermore, she outlines the transition of library acquisition philosophy from book selection in the early 20th century (selection policies and processes derived from community assessment), through collection development in the 1960s (which includes activities like budget management, community outreach, and collection analysis), and eventually from the 1980s onward, broadening to collection management (which includes acquisition, weeding, storage, preservation, marketing, and organization). The article points out that the librarian’s role, then, has evolved from selector and keeper of books to a manager of items, information, and systems, including electronic resources.
    Huynh provides a brief history of public libraries in the US, pointing out that the Boston Public Library (the very first major public library in this country) was founded with the goal of providing an education for those people who could not afford it. Most libraries that were founded in its wake held the same principle as central to their mission, and book selection was consequently focused on choosing “great” books that would provide some form of educational uplift. As a secondary education became more readily available to the American populace, several influential mid-20th century librarians argued that a library’s purpose was not to educate, but to meet the demand of its patrons, making itself useful to the public at large. Later, by the 1970s, the philosophy of the “great” books was rejected as elitist, and so a librarian’s service to the public shifted to meeting its demands.
    Huynh broadly and briefly summarizes how libraries have traditionally worked up their collection development policies, beginning with a needs assessment of patrons; continuing with identifying resources and constraints; and developing written policies based on these factors and the driving philosophy behind the library (educating the public with “quality” resources or responding to public demand, or perhaps a combination of the two). Early collection development policies, based on selecting the best books, were time consuming and demanded that librarians know literature broadly and deeply. As policies shifted to meet public demand (and more and more books and materials were published), librarians began to rely on market-driven data provided to them by contracted services or gathered from periodicals and newspapers to make buying decisions. Earlier librarians needed to know books to fulfill selection policies; current librarians need to know their readers.
    The author then runs through each of the seven monographs’ stance on acquisition, de-selection, and evaluation, illustrating how the purported purpose of a library has always been a strong guiding principle in decision making about collection development. She concludes by noting just how much competition there is in the information marketplace, and that libraries need to define and advocate for their relevance, and collection development has a large role to play in accomplishing this goal.

Evaluation/Review:
    This is an excellent summary article, written when the author was a graduate student in a collection development course. While it may seem basic to veteran librarians, as a primer for students or new librarians, it provides a valuable introduction to the history of and philosophies behind collection development. To a degree, Huynh drives the central point — the shift from education to entertainment as the main purpose of library collections — into the ground. This point is repeated multiple times, but it is, while perhaps simplistic, interesting and applicable. Overall, she does a very good job of summarizing the publications she covers, each of which she treats as representative of an era in library history. Whether these monographs actually are representative I leave to others more versed in collection development history. While it is isn’t really an entertaining read, it is informative and well structured. This would make a great article to assign in a collection development or collection management course.

Revisiting 1918's Ideals of the Future

The Future of Library Work, according to St.  Louis Librarian Arthur E.  Bostwick

Jessica Fibelstad
INFO 266 - Spring 2019

Perhaps the favourite article I stumbled across in JSTOR dates from 1918 and offers the author's vision of libraries in the year 1950.  His prognostication of the future library requiring a patron-centric operation and prioritization of outreach to non-users.  Some of this is downright eerie in its familiarity!

His factors of a positive operation are:

1.  Size of the libray's physical establishment: Awareness of the geographic and socioeconomic conditions that may limit patronage, and Cost: another limiting factor

2.  Professionalization: Development of industry standards and respect for the profession

3.  Popularization:  Opening libraries for "the many, not the few....provid[ing] something for EVERYONE who can read..and picture books for those who cannot." (thank goodness more imaginative thoughts have come along)

4:  Socialization:  People use libraries for more than reading - they need spaces for meetings and other activities of groups

5.  Nationalization: Regulation and identity as a public fixture, like public schools, in the eye of the government.

Isn't this fascinating? Over 100 years ago these standards were philosophized upon.  These same factors pop up in many contemporary policies, and articles regarding needs assessments.  Becoming familiar with the library's heritage of great thinkers is a fantastic thing.  Thank you, JSTOR.

Arthur E.  Bostwick, ALA President 1907-1908

Reference:

Bostwick, A.E.  (1918).  The future of library work.  Bulletin of the American Library Association, 12(3), 50-57.

Photograph: 

From Lydenberg, H.M. (1917). History of the New York Public Library, Part V: The New York Free Circulating Library. Bulletin of the New York Public Library 21: 226-7

Enabling Inquiry Learning in Fixed-Schedule Libraries: An Evidence-Based Approach

Enabling Inquiry Learning in Fixed-Schedule Libraries: An Evidence-Based Approach

Stubeck, Carole J. Knowledge Quest; Chicago Vol. 43, Iss 3, (Jan/Feb 2015): 28-34

Summary: Libraries often adhere to a fixed schedule for class lessons and classroom room teachers are provided prep time or grade level professional learning community time. This supports the learner in a minor way and often supports for instructional development is missing.  Working with fixed schedules limits time for an important teacher to teacher collaboration and slashes the time needed to build inquiry-based studies. As a result, it creates challenges for the teacher librarian. The author addresses one middle school librarian’s efforts to create collaboration and collaborative lessons while on a fixed schedule. Some solutions are offered. She creates a strong argument that small measures should be taken to ensure learner-driven project learning in our school libraries.

Evaluation: The fixed schedule model, where students are cycled through the library or tech area without a core teacher, often creates low expectations. Often open library hours are limited, and there are strict procedures based on class management concerns. The alternative, flex time, as we like to say, benefits the community as a whole and is more reflective of what libraries aim to do, provide access. With time to co-teach units and direct research, the school will develop fluid use of a librarian's skills and all will benefit. To reach this goal the teachers need to be part of the selection process during the school year. The our collection development will support core curriculum.

A Century of Change

 Lamb, A. (2015). A century of change. Knowledge Quest, 43(4), 62-70.

I recently read a great article by Annette Lamb entitled A Century of Change. In it, Lamb (2015) takes us through the last 100 years of school libraries from 1915-2015! She starts with an introduction about an article which ran in the September 1915 issue of Library Journal called "the best-equipped and most up-to-date high school library to be found anywhere in the country." The article referenced the library at the Girls' High School in Brooklyn. By today's standards, their lantern sliders and Victrola records would look like something in museum, but at the time, it made their collection stand out! At the time, they were one of the few libraries whose offerings went beyond print books to give patrons more options in accessing other types of materials.

Lamb (2015) notes that “the past century has seen tremendous changes in school library resources. However, the mission of school libraries has remained the same (p. 63).” She adds that school libraries have sought to both meet the needs of students while also fostering a lifelong love of reading. The article goes on to offer a mini library history lesson and highlight the changes in the following areas: instructional resources, books, information collections, visuals, audio/video, computers and access.

Instructional Resources
The article points out that school libraries were becoming more widespread in the early 1900’s because of a shift in teaching instruction. Schools were starting to be “viewed as laboratories where students used books and visual resources for information exploration, small-group discussion, and project-based learning (Lamb, 2015, p. 63).” This is a lot like instruction today, only the libraries have expanded upon available resources for instruction.

Books
The author notes that around 1915, children would read Shakespeare in printed books, while today, a century later, a software app called Shakespeare in Bits allows students to learn Shakespeare through high-quality animation. This is just one of the many examples she provides to illustrate how printed materials have changed in libraries over the years. “The evolution of the book from text on paper to multimedia digital formats occurred gradually as each new technology added a new dimension to the classic form (Lamb, 2015, p. 63).” Lamb (2015) points out that print was combined with other media as far back as the 1910, when students would listen to poetry on phonograph records. In the 1970’s books on cassettes became popular, only to be quickly replaced by books on CD in the 1980’s and 1990’s and digital downloads in the 2000’s. In the past few years, we’ve seen the rise of e-books and graphic novels geared specifically toward young adults have become very popular.

Information Collections
The article discusses how, since 1915, librarians have spent a lot of time and energy organizing materials for vertical files. In the 1920’s and 1930’s, libraries began converting newspapers, books and manuscripts to microfilm. Thirty years later, libraries had microform readers available to patrons. Today, many reference materials are available online with subscriptions.

Visuals
In the article, a librarian from 1923 notes that she provides her students with visuals of maps, plants, insects and animal life on the bulletin board. Today, librarians are able to access a world of visuals with the internet. Lamb (2015) notes that “a quick search of the Web would provide students with access to millions of visuals including easy-to-access digital collections (p. 64).” She goes on to provide a brief history of visuals in library settings including the 1920’s use of photographs, slides and filmstrips, the 1940’s use of charts, graphs, maps and cartoons and the recent use of infographics and data visualizations.

Audio/Video
The article gives a quick overview of the changes in audio options from the Victrola to podcasts. It highlights that in the 1920’s and 1930’s instructional radio was briefly used in some schools while in the 1960’s and 1970’s audio tutorials were placed in library study areas. Today, audio is used in, for example, language programs such as Rosetta Stone and Mango, which libraries use for patrons to explore and learn other languages. As far a video, the 1910’s saw the use of low-cost portable projectors in schools. In fact, Thomas Edison once said “books will soon be obsolete in the public schools” (Lamb, 2015, p. 67). Imagine that! From the 1960’s through the present day, video is still widely used in instruction through the use of videotapes, laserdiscs, CDs and DVDs. Modern streaming services make it even easier for libraries to access and share the videos they seek, be it small clips or full-length programs.

Computers
One fact I was unaware of, was that “computer-assisted instruction emerged in the 1960’s” (Lamb, 2015, p. 68) and later, microcomputers of the late 1970’s and 1980’s. Today, as we know, computers are in nearly all schools and/or libraries and are used frequently for instruction. Software programs and social media are getting incorporated into daily curriculum as technology continues to grow and change.

Access
But as Lamb (2015) notes, “it’s not just the resources, but how we gain access to the information that has changed (p. 68).” As we see from the details above, the resources certainly have changed, but as librarians, our need to provide quick access to information has remained the same. Today, we have Google and other search engines which put multitudes of information at our fingertips. When I was growing up, I used the school library’s card catalog. It is interesting to note that, “in 1916, only 16.5% of school libraries in the South had card catalogs (Lamb, 2015, p. 69).” The card catalog became automated in the 1980’s with the use of microcomputers, and today, the physical card catalog of old is basically gone and in its place, online searching and databases. Technology and other inventions have sought to make information access easier and faster for school libraries and other kinds of libraries as well.

Lamb concludes by noting that, although school libraries have existed since the 8^th century, it took us until the 20^th century to view them as a “source of enrichment for the curriculum (p. 70).” She adds that “while the formats available and tools for accessing information have changed, the school library’s focus on providing access to quality content and designing engaging learning environments remains the same (p. 70).” As an educator, I was very interested in this article. It really got me thinking not only about where we’ve been in the history of school libraries and their collections, but also where we’re going. What will an article such as this one say about US in the future? Will our libraries seem as archaic as the ones from 1915 do to us now? What changes will come about? How will collection development develop and how will be better serve students in the next century to come? All interesting points to ponder.