Collection development is the practice of understanding your library collection and helping it grow as your communities areas of interest change. It also means that you are keeping an eye on the age of your collection, deciding what you will add and what you will not add, and weeding items as they age out or start to fall apart. If you receive donations or gifts we recommend you have a Donation policy and a Disposal of surplus materials policy. Collection development also includes handling reconsideration of materials requests, and appeals to board decisions on reconsideration requests.
Reconsideration of materials or challenges to items can be a highly emotional process. If you don't already have a policy we recommend that your board review, edit, and adopt one as soon as possible. We have multiple policies available for you to choose from.
Book challenges are an expression of an individuals or groups first amendment rights. By acknowledging their right and allowing them to voice their opinion to the board through the steps of a policy and procedure, you are learning more about your community no matter the outcome of the challenge.
If you get a challenge even if it is not brought to your library board please contact us at CKLS so that we can report it. By reporting challenges, even the small ones, we are able to better understand the climate within our communities.
Weeding is the process of removing materials from the library due to out of date information, lack of interest in the topic, information is found elsewhere in your collection, or the item is falling apart, dirty, or smelly.
We recommend using the CREW manual. It works with the MUSTIE and WORST guidelines to keep your collection healthy.
CREW: Continuous, Review, Evaluation, and Weeding.
MUSTIE: MIsleading, Ugly, Superseded, Trivial, Irrelevant, Elsewhere
WORST: Worn out, Out of date, Rarely used, Supplied elsewhere, Trivial and faddish.
CREW MUSTIE and WORST cheat sheet
We recommend weeding 3% or more of your library collection each year. If you have any questions about CKLS helping with a weeding or you would like some training on how to do an inventory please contact CKLS.