Poestenkill Library Policies & Procedures

Materials Selection & Collection Development Policy

The Poestenkill Library acquires materials for the public that will fill educational, informational and recreational needs of the community and attempts to anticipate and plan for future needs. These materials shall represent the broadest spectrum of print and non-print media available. An effort shall be made to cover all subject areas; concentrations may be placed on particular fields with heavy public demand. Priorities may be determined by budgetary constraints.

Guiding Principles

Free and convenient access to the world of ideas, information, and the creative experience is of vital importance to every citizen today. The materials in the Poestenkill Library shall be selected, organized, preserved, and made available to all library users.

The Library shall make known to the community via website, newsletters, and the media, the availability of its services and attempt to reach unserved areas of the community through such methods as deposit collections, service to shut-ins, and the like, wherever it may be deemed appropriate and feasible. The purpose of the Poestenkill Library Materials Selection and Collection Development Policy is to guide staff and inform the public about the principles on which selection is based.

Objectives Of Selection

Selection may be defined as the decision that must be made to add materials to the collection, or to retain materials already in the collection. The primary objectives are:

To maintain a well-balanced and broad collection of materials for information, reference, and research. Emphasis will not be placed on scholarly works, but on materials that will be considered accessible to the lay reader.
To provide materials which support educational, cultural, and civic activities in the community.
To collect materials of contemporary significance, as well as permanent value.
To provide materials for recreation and enlightenment.
To provide a selection of transitory, as well as experimental, materials.

Criteria used in selecting materials for the collection include usefulness, readability, appearance in standard review sources, authority or significance of author, quality of writing, relationship to present collection and availability of similar material, reputation of publisher, timeliness and permanence, format, organization of work, index, bibliographies, price, etc. For non-fiction works, the primary criteria will be the timeliness of the material, particularly in areas that become quickly outdated.

Responsibility For Selection And Guidelines

The Director has ultimate responsibility for materials selection. The Director may designate other staff with expertise in certain areas to order materials in those areas. Guidelines to be used in materials selection may include:

Favorable review in an accepted review source, or professional library standard lists, including newspaper reviews;
Probability of heavy demand, and/or several borrower requests;
Recognition by the Director of a need for particular material in the collection.

Serving Community Needs

The collections of the Poestenkill Library will serve all ages and groups, from preschool through senior citizens, from the recreational reader to the serious student and layperson. An effort will be made to serve each group with materials appropriate to that clientele. Certain groups may require specialized materials, utilizing additional criteria for selection.

Replacements

Titles withdrawn because of damage or loss are replaced based on the same considerations applied to original selection. Whenever possible, classics should be replaced when copies in better condition, format, or edition are available. In addition, the following factors are to be considered:

Authority and importance of the author.
Value of the individual title, whether for literary quality, subject appeal, etc.
In the area of non-fiction, the availability of newer editions and high quality material in the field.
Timeliness of the material.
Requests for the title or subject.
Comparison with other books still in the library.

Gifts

The Library accepts gifts of books and other materials with the understanding that they will be evaluated in accordance with the same criteria applied to purchased materials. Such factors as duplication, lack of sufficient community interest, processing costs, or inadequate shelf space may prevent their addition to the collection or permanent retention.

The Library receives large numbers of donations each year, and selects some of these for inclusion in the collection.
Some items such as highly technical materials or those with limited interest may be accepted as gifts although they ordinarily would not be purchased. Older items may sometimes be accepted as replacements, although a replacement copy might not be purchased.
Gifts are accepted with the understanding that if the Library cannot use them, the Director may consider other alternatives.
When the Library receives a cash gift for purchase of memorial books or other tributes, the selection will be made by the Director in consultation with the Board of Trustees as appropriate, with consideration given to the donor’s wishes.
Donations of collections in toto, specifically designated for library use, will be subject to approval by the Director and the Board of Trustees. As with other titles, acceptance will be based on usefulness to the collection, potential expense involved, and space available. Donors may be requested to sign a waiver relinquishing ownership.

Discarding

The Library maintains a policy of withdrawal based on the elimination of unnecessary items, outdated material, books no longer of interest or in demand, duplicates when not needed, and worn or mutilated copies if their repair is not warranted. Frequency of circulation, community interest, and availability of newer and more valid materials are of prime consideration. Fiction, once popular, but no longer in demand, may be discarded, as well as non-fiction books which were purchased to meet demands that no longer exist.

The Library will retain materials, however, which may not circulate frequently but are considered part of a core collection. Responsibility for “weeding” the library collection and deciding which items to discard rests with the Director. Materials withdrawn from the collection may be given to other libraries, sold for the benefit of the Library, or discarded.

Approved by Poestenkill Library Board of Trustees on March 25, 2002.