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Collection Development Policy

January 9, 2007 - 9:25am — lcei
Mission: In the face of ever expanding areas of information and increasing budget constraints, the members of the Library Consortium of Eastern Idaho (LCEI) agree to join together to coordinate their collection development in order to increase the scope of information resources available throughout the service area. Cooperation among libraries delivers more information from a wider variety of sources than a single library can provide, permits better resource allocation and leads to more intensive use of collections. Through cooperative collection development, LCEI member libraries expect to:
  1. Improve patron access to materials of special interest.
  2. Expand member holdings in traditional and electronic formats.
  3. Minimize expensive duplication.
  4. Coordinate purchase of expensive resources in all formats.
  5. Draw upon the resources of other member libraries.

Cooperative collection development will not save money on resources. It will better utilize existing resources and make better use of already allocated funds.

Standards: Each member library must build its own collection to serve its own clientele and maintain appropriate levels of library acquisitions funding to support core local needs and contribute to the aggregate collection.

Collection Development Committee: LCEI will establish a committee for Cooperative Collection Development to determine primary collection development responsibility for specific subject areas to appropriate member libraries designated as Centers of Excellence.

Centers of Excellence: Centers of excellence will be determined by :

  1. Local interest in that topic.
  2. Number of resources currently in collection.
  3. Currency, relevance and scope of existing collection.
  4. Local expertise.

Once designated as a Center of Excellence, the member library has the responsibility to maintain and build its subject area collection by especially selecting items that are accurate, relevant and current.

LCEI will implement a cooperative process for selecting and funding shared purchases (whether print, media or electronic).

Gifts: Gifts of materials to be included in the member library collection is up to the discretion of that library. If it is decided that the gift is not to be included in the local collection, the library will inform and route that material to other member libraries.

Deselection: Each member library will inform and route information to other members about material in good condition and of current or historical value that is being removed from their collection. This material will be transferred to another member library upon request of that library.

Evaluation: The CCD committee will gather circulation and collection statistics annually to determine effectiveness of the collection development policy.