Karla M. Schmit and Bernadette A. Lear Frog and Toad’s ongoing journey Cooperative acquisition of award-winning children’s and young adult titles at a multicampus university rog and Toad were reading a book to- developing collections within multicampus Fgether. universities.3 As “one library, geographically “The people in this book are brave,” said dispersed,” PSUL is well-positioned to experi- Toad. “They fight dragons and giants, and ment with better methods of distributing ma- they are never afraid.” terials and workflows across campuses. For “I wonder if we are brave,” said Frog. many years, we have enjoyed a shared public —Arnold Lobel, Frog and Toad Together1 access catalog, centralized technical services, and expert librarians who are willing to work Two years ago, we reported the beginnings together. of a collaboration between Education librarians At Penn State, Education-related collections at two locations within Pennsylvania State Uni- and services, in particular, are good candidates versity Libraries (PSUL): the Education Library for coordination. Six of our campuses offer at University Park and the Penn State Harrisburg baccalaureate Education programs: Abington, Library. We described our methods of coop- Altoona, Berks, Erie, Harrisburg, and University erative purchasing of PreK–12 textbooks and Park. In addition, Penn State’s World Campus instructional materials, which represented sub- offers a master’s program in children’s literature. stantial costs and challenges to both locations.2 At University Park, the Curriculum and Instruc- Since then, we have explored additional ways tion Ph.D. program includes an emphasis in of sharing collection development tasks, while children’s literature. Also, Harrisburg’s American retaining much of the autonomy that librarians Studies master’s and Ph.D. programs attract within PSUL prize. This article focuses on our students with interests in youth culture. efforts with our juvenile literature collections. Besides the locations already mentioned, at least five others—Brandywine, Fayette, Juvenile literature collections within a Great Valley, Lehigh Valley, and York—have multicampus system collected children’s or YA items at some point Few, if any, research articles document the in their history. In addition, our juvenile and usefulness of children’s and young adult (YA) curriculum materials are widely used by area literature collections within academic librar- educators, homeschoolers, and local families. In ies. Nonetheless, anecdotal evidence suggests that they can be heavily used, especially if the parent institution offers an Education program Karla M. Schmit is interim head, education library and director, Pennsylvania Center for the Book at Penn State and its faculty strongly encourage library use. University Park Library, email: [email protected], and While many college libraries have been col- Bernadette A. Lear is behavioral sciences and education lecting juvenile items for decades, there is still librarian at Penn State-Harrisburg Library, email: bal19@ psu.edu room for innovation. Selection tips abound, but they seldom address the complexities of © 2018 Karla M. Schmit and Bernadette A. Lear February 2018 89 C&RL News other words, Penn State provides a variety of (best writing),6 Caldecott (best illustrations),7 holdings for more than 100,000 constituents Geisel (best easy reader),8 and other com- who wish to obtain children’s and YA titles for mittees. Furthermore, University Park’s Edu- course work, scholarly research, lesson plans, cation Library is the home of the Pennsyl- and pleasure reading. vania Center for the Book (PACFTB), which While much easier to obtain and process is an affiliate of the Center for the Book at than PreK–12 textbooks and instructional kits, the Library of Congress.9 Education Library children’s/YA literature also presents certain faculty and staff have dual responsibilities in challenges. Over the past decade, “best book” promoting literacy initiatives across the Com- lists have proliferated, not only within ALA, monwealth of Pennsylvania. To that end, the but also among educational associations, PACFTB administers three books awards, A advocacy organizations, and other groups. Baker’s Dozen—13 best books for family Checking dozens of lists on an annual basis literacy,10 the national Lee Bennett Hopkins and purchasing every wanted title is labor- Poetry Award for Children,11 and the Lynd intensive and expensive. Ironically, limited Ward Graphic Novel Prize.12 budgets, expertise, and time compel many Administrative copies of publisher sub- academic librarians to rely heavily on ALA’s missions for each of these awards have long recommendations, resulting in substantial been part of a pool of children’s/YA titles that duplication of effort and purchases among are shared with other Penn State campuses. libraries. University Park typically keeps three copies For example, a Newbery medal winner of every winning title among the awards that such as Jacqueline Woodson’s Brown Girl it manages. One copy goes to the Education Dreaming, which is held by five Penn State Library collection, another goes to the PACFTB locations, represents, at minimum, the toil of collection, and a third, working copy is housed five selecting librarians who checked their at the PACFTB in case it is needed for the many libraries’ holdings and submitted orders for speaking engagements and promotions that that particular title. faculty at University Park participate in on a regular basis. Improving distribution of review and To dispense with additional, unneeded gift copies duplicates, University Park maintains a priori- In the past, University Park and Harrisburg tized list of campus recipients. The order of used approval plans to ensure they would this list is flexible and can change depending receive books that had won major awards. on the needs of each location. For example, However, automatic acquisition of titles of- Harrisburg was once near the top of the list, ten proved unnecessary because librarians but when its faculty members began donating and Education faculty at University Park and large numbers of juvenile titles on an annual Harrisburg frequently serve on award com- basis, regular donations from University Park mittees and thus receive review items. For to Harrisburg ceased. Furthermore, certain example, Karla M. Schmit at University Park locations prefer to receive picture books and served on two national book award commit- lower-level nonfiction, instead of YA titles, tees in 2014: the Sibert Committee for best because they offer degrees in early childhood/ nonfiction published in a given year spon- elementary rather than middle school or sec- sored by ALA,4 and the Phoenix Award,5 ondary education. Acquisitions and cataloging sponsored by the Children’s Literature As- staff are well-aware of these priorities and sociation and given to a book published forward materials accordingly. Meanwhile, 20 years ago that did not receive a national review copies donated by Harrisburg faculty award in the year of publication but has are typically added to the Harrisburg library’s stood the test of time. Additional Penn State Juvenile Literature Collection, while unneeded colleagues have served on the Newbery items are forwarded to the York campus, the C&RL News February 2018 90 Penn State location nearest to Harrisburg that example, we found that PSUL only had single has an interest in children’s books. Thus, Uni- copies of most titles on the Amelia Bloomer versity Park and Harrisburg have distributed Project list, endorsed by ALA’s Feminist Task additional copies to each other and other Force. Harrisburg pledged to order any needed locations for many years. second copies.16 Also, a quick tally showed that PSUL was completely lacking about half of Coordinating catalog checks and title the items on the recently established Rainbow purchases and Stonewall (LGBT) literature awards lists.17 Despite the fact that redistributing review University Park and Abington committed to copies has saved significant funds and effort, purchasing them. Harrisburg has continued to we remain eager to identify other opportu- search juvenile award holdings on the system’s nities for efficiency. Repeated discourage- behalf, and this has helped to ensure that at ment of duplication by PSUL administrators least two copies of important titles are avail- prompted Bernadette A. Lear at Harrisburg able within Penn State, while reducing effort to rethink how Penn State selects juvenile and allowing some locations to specialize their award titles. With various channels for ob- collections. taining books in mind, some campuses wait a year before ordering new materials, hoping Conclusions and next steps that desiderata will appear in the gift pipe- Within multicampus universities such as line. Yet, sooner or later, a significant amount Penn State, there is great potential to share of duplicative effort and purchasing occurs the burden of collection development tasks, as each location checks its holdings and or- reduce unneeded duplication, and ensure ders needed items. Although every location that the system as a whole offers comprehen- wants (and probably should have) Newbery sive resources for a large and diverse student and Caldecott winners, we believe other body. This is particularly true for coursework honorees could be acquired cooperatively in Education, which is commonly offered at and selectively. several locations. In the winter of 2014–15, after returning When University Park and Harrisburg