Created: 2025-09-25 13:11:01 - Touched: 2025-10-05 15:25:50 - Status: Seed

Publish these policies so that patrons can yell at the policy instead of the library workers.

Six steps for collection development/cataloging:

  1. Identify new resources to consider
  2. If they're compound, examine the individual components as well as the whole
  3. Group resources into collections fit for particular purpose
  4. Create a list of the resources within the collection with a standard format (MARC, RDA, BIBFRAME)
  5. Annotate records with normalized vocabulary, subject headings, references to related works, etc
  6. Provide an easy way for the user to search the list and use the found record to retrieve the original information resource

These overlap with Ranganathan Laws of Library Science.

From Wong, M. A., & Saunders, L. (2024). Reference and Information Services: An Introduction. Bloomsbury Libraries Unlimited. chapter 11:

Relevance to served community, including potential community and historically underrepresented community. Scope, intent, accuracy, completeness, currency. Fit within the rest of the collection (one book on cooking+baking vs one on cooking and one on baking). Intended age/sophistication of reader, illustration quality. Beware the habit of always ordering from the same author/publisher as this can amplify bias. "In order to disrupt this stream and incorporate non-majority voices, we must deliberately acquire materials through non-traditional publication channels." (MIT Libraries, 2017). Choose a binding suitable for expected duration of stay within the collection (things that get outdated quickly can have less durable bindings). Organizational structure (alphabetical, chronological, topical etc). Read reviews.

MUSTIE: Misleading (or inaccurate), Ugly (physically damaged), Superceded, Trivial (no longer useful), Irrelevant (to the served community), Exists elsewhere (in the collection or somewhere else).

CREW: Continuous Review Evaluation Withdrawal.

WORST: Worn out, Out of date, Rarely used, Supplied elsewhere, Trivial or faddish.

Print goes like this:

  1. Identify new item
  2. Consider new item
  3. Place order for new item
  4. Receive and physically process item
  5. Put item on shelf
  6. Review item to either retain or discard.

Electronic is more complicated:

  1. Identify
  2. Consider
  3. Select or reject->end
  4. Acquire and maintain (license, format, troubleshooting and support, stale links, etc)
  5. Evaluate (MUSTIE/CREW/WORST, cost per use)
  6. Renew->4 or cancel->end

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