Collection Development and Weeding a La Versace: Fashioning a Policy for Your Library James S
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College of William & Mary Law School William & Mary Law School Scholarship Repository Library Staff ubP lications The oW lf Law Library 2002 Collection Development and Weeding a la Versace: Fashioning a Policy for Your Library James S. Heller William & Mary Law School, [email protected] Repository Citation Heller, James S., "Collection Development and Weeding a la Versace: Fashioning a Policy for Your Library" (2002). Library Staff Publications. 96. https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/libpubs/96 Copyright c 2002 by the authors. This article is brought to you by the William & Mary Law School Scholarship Repository. https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/libpubs Collection Development and Weeding a Ia Versace: ~.shionintj a G}Joticy ~or d}jour df!ibrary Professional Perspectives - Tools and Techniques of the Trade. The Professional Development Committee encourages members to continue to explore topics after presentations at the local, regional and national levels. We welcome your comments and article suggestions. Please contact Lori Hedstrom at 651/687-5891 or [email protected]. --...., l.t j\ ___h.)jbrary's ~J)llection development policy one wants to pay interest on a five-figure Similarly, we consider multiple access .-<=~jsn}\zery1aili~f~nt from something we all credit card debt. when buying library materials. The books =are'f~ar fi~: buying or discarding on our shelves can be borrowed over and <-o Maintenance and Preservation. When t· ___cJotlles. We cbnsider many of the same over again. Items in heavy demand are I buy clothes, I consider not only the ---~factors when choosing clothes or library placed on reserve; they may be borrowed actual cost of buying the item but also materials. (Unlike a library's collection only for short time periods to maximize upkeep. I buy wash-and-wear slacks and development policy, which should be in access. When we acquire digital products, shirts; I don't like to iron, and I don't want writing, hopefully few of us have a written we insist on licenses that permit multiple, a weekly dry cleaning bill. I only buy wardrobe development policy.) Ultimately simultaneous use. cotton sweaters; moths prefer wool over the power behind what stays and what goes cotton. Rain can harm silk, and linen Space. Often the most important factor lies in the subjective hands of those who wrinkles easily. Some library materials - that determines what we acquire- and make acquisition and retention decisions. looseleaf services and CD-ROMs, for what we discard- is space. At home, it's Yet there are common traits that guide most example- also are "high maintenance." our closets and dressers that determine collection development policies. Such policy Many libraries instead choose low the size of our wardrobe. At the library, criteria dictate canceling subscriptions, maintenance Web-based products. for the most part, the size of our library, whether to retain or discard materials no particularly shelving capacity, influences Any discussion of digital products longer updated, and general collection the collection. We may get rid of worn or necessarily brings up the own-versus-rent "weeding." Whether they are official infrequently used clothes because there's issue. We typically purchase the clothes guidelines or unspoken rules, the basic simply no more closet space. We may we wear. But sometimes we rent clothes building blocks of collection development withdraw and discard books because the we need only rarely, such as a tuxedo for policies are inherent to most libraries. shelves are full. We have four options a wedding. when there's no space for new books or To Acquire or Discard? For more than 2,000 years, libraries owned clothes: get rid of the old to make space That Is the Question their collections. When a library cancels for the new; find a way to put more There are at least six reasons why former a subscription to a print journal, it may objects in the existing footprint; use a Philippines First Lady Imelda Marcos retain the volumes it earlier acquired. space-saving format (such as microfiche); had many shoes: (1) She had unlimited Today more and more of the information or find additional space off-site. in "collections" is licensed and leased, resources. (2) Someone else maintained We can get more usable space in our rather than purchased and owned. Law and polished them. (3) She had a huge closets without expanding the footprint. firms and corporations began the "rent-a closet. (4) She didn't want to wear the Some custom closet companies claim that tux" approach to legal information years same pair twice. (5) She enjoyed having a they can reorganize closets so that you can ago. Similar to the rented tuxedo that huge shoe collection. (6) And her husband nearly double the amount of clothes that must be returned after the prom, when certainly wasn't going to tell Imelda what can be stuffed into a closet without a subscription to digital information to do. These six factors - resources, wrinkling the clothes. A library can nearly expires, generally the library has nothing maintenance and preservation, space, double its shelf space by using mobile to show for the money it spent. multiple use, status and outside pressure compact shelving, hopefully also without - are common to the development of Multiple Use. When my wife and I buy wrinkling either books or patrons. library or wardrobe collections. Intrigued? day-to-day clothes for our eldest son, As for remote storage, my wife rotates her Read on. Not? Go shopping. we don't consider whether they'llfit his spring/summer and fall/winter clothes. younger brother in a few years; chances Resources. No need for much discussion In-season clothes are within arms' reach in are good that the fabric will be stained here. If the money is available, anyone can the bedroom; off-season clothes are in a and/ or ripped. But we often consider buy almost anything wanted, or at least downstairs trunk, which also serves as a secondary uses when buying expensive needed. Of course, we ought not spend sofa side table. Many keep older clothes clothes a child will wear only for a our money too early in the year. In a law on the off chance they may come back handful of special events. A sport jacket library, where 80 percent or more of the in style. Watergate co-conspirator Bob can be handed down to a younger son, materials budget may be allocated to Haldeman's thin, solid color ties, "out" nephew or a friend's child. Adults update what is already owned, running for more than two decades, are now "in." certainly consider multiple uses for their out of money three months before the end Someone who kept the tie (and looks like clothes. Can I wear this tie with several of of a fiscal year is not wise. At home, you Brad Pitt) gets to appear in GQ. don't want to run out of cash before my suits or sport jackets? Will this jacket purchasing your winter wardrobe, and no match other skirts or slacks I already own? AALL recognizes major support from BNA, Inc. for the Professional Development Program. 12 AALL Spectrum February 2002 © 2002 Jomes S. Heller by James S. Heller AALL PROFE.SSJONAL DEVELOPMENT A Desktop Learning Opportunity •xPANDINO YOUR NORIZONS Many law libraries- particularly law librarians to discard- but sometimes down? How long will the print indexes school libraries, it seems -store lesser to retain- print materials. Has your retain research value if they're no longer used materials off-site. Although this spouse or roommate ever asked, "Can't kept current? Do we have space to keep may not be the best way to provide ready you get rid of those jeans you haven't worn them around? Is there risk that an access to their collections, it may be since Woodstock?" or "That t-shirt may unsophisticated user won't look beyond preferable to getting rid of the books. have looked good when you were in law the outdated volumes on the shelf? Will Of course, a library that moves materials school, dear, but you're pushing 50 now." the digital version be around forever? to remote storage can return them to the Does my license provide continued access Many firm libraries and some court or main collection if they prove to be in to the part of the licensed materials county libraries are pressured by partners greater demand than anticipated. published and paid for during the or governing boards to get rid of their subscription period should we ever A word about special needs for special old books in favor of a hipper, digital decide to cancel the online subscription? collections. My mother moved from collection that takes up much less space. Detroit to Florida 20 years ago. She could On the other hand, a law school library Many print materials have marginal or no not part with her mink coat, which is may be pressed to keep unnecessary research value if not kept current. When kept in cold storage at a cleaning materials, whether it wants to or not. the law library at the College of William & establishment. (The fact that she won't An American Bar Association annual Mary canceled most of our print Shepards travel north between October and March survey still asks how many volumes Citators, we tossed the print volumes. and hasn't worn the coat in years, is, of academic libraries have, and some deans As far as I was concerned, they were like course, irrelevant.) Like my mother's coat, feel they need to keep up with the worn clothes you don't even want to hand libraries usually store their rare book Vanderbilts and the Dukes.