Purpose

Collection development coordinators, guided by the collection development policy while using available collection tools, professional judgement, and knowledge of community trends, as well as through ongoing examination of quantitative and qualitative data, evaluate materials and resources for addition to the collection. Purchase suggestions also come from other staff, as well as the public following the Purchase Suggestions Operating Procedure.

Procedure

Collection development coordinators must make decisions based on varying factors depending on the types of materials they are purchasing and the audiences for those materials. This procedure will establish general guidelines but cannot establish specific rules for each decision.

NEW MATERIALS

1. Collection development coordinators utilize resources to find new materials to purchase. These resources include, but are not limited to:

   1. Advertisements in traditional and online media sources

   2. Bookseller databases

   3. Professional review sources

   4. Publisher catalogs

   5. Public recommendations

   6. Staff recommendations

2. Decisions about purchasing specific titles vary. Collection development coordinators use data from the catalog and other tools at their disposal to identify materials which are more likely to be successful additions to the collection. Those resources include, but are not limited to:

   1. Author’s past circulation trends

   2. Availability of material type

   3. Cover art

   4. Intended audience

   5. Overall circulation trends of material type

   6. Professional judgment

   7. Professional reviews

   8. Recent purchases about similar subjects

   9. Series

   10. Subject’s past circulation trends

3. When an item is selected for addition to the collection, collection development coordinators contact Acquisitions to purchase the materials.

PURCHASE REQUESTS

1. Collection development coordinators rely on staff and the public to request materials that have been missed upon their initial publication. For specific guidelines on how to make purchase requests, see the Purchase Suggestions Operating Procedure.

2. Collection development coordinators consider each purchase request using the same criteria as that for new materials.

3. When an item is selected for addition to the collection, collection development coordinators contact Acquisitions to purchase the materials.

REPLACEMENTS

1. Collection development coordinators rely on staff to inform them when new copies of items should be ordered.

2. Collection development coordinators consider many factors when replacing items. These factors include, but are not limited to:

   1. Availability of item to purchase in the same format

   2. Number of other copies of the item currently in the system

   3. Circulation of other copies of the item in the system

3. When an item is selected for addition to the collection, collection development coordinators contact Acquisitions to purchase the materials.

DONATIONS

1. Branches and collection development coordinators receive donations throughout the year. See the Donations Procedure for guidelines about how to handle these materials.

2. Collection development coordinators consider each donation they receive using the same criteria as that for new materials and replacements.

3. Items that are not added to the collection are redistributed in various ways:

   • Friends of the Library

   • Prizes for library events

   • Housing authorities

   • Daycares

   • Recycling