Collection Development Policies
Why Have a Collection Development Policy?
A collection development policy, also referred to as a collection development guideline, provides guidance for library personnel with selection responsibilities. It also demonstrates that decisions are made thoughtfully and it specifies the rationale used to decide how collection dollars are spent. Collection development policies should:
- State the priorities and goals for the collection
- Explain the criteria used in making collection decisions
- Articulate the programs, clinics, patrons, etc., that are served by the collection
- Make clear why collection development is important
- Use plain language whenever possible so that your community can understand your library’s policy
A collection development policy should be flexible to accommodate changes in formats, publication models, publisher pricing, etc. It should also be reviewed on a regular basis and the process for making changes to the policy should be outlined.
What Should a Collection Development Policy Include?
Elements of a collection development policy can vary based on a library’s needs. There is no perfect formula for creating one, but the following items should be part of any policy being developed:
- An overview or detailed list of programs and patrons supported by the library
- Any advisory groups that are involved in collection decisions
- Selection criteria
- Formats collected (e.g., print, electronic, audiovisual/media, software)
- Subjects collected
- General overview of core and supplemental subjects
- Depth and scope of the collection
- Are materials collected to support research, teaching/curriculum, and/or clinical needs? Consider how these match your patron needs and program requirements.
- At what level does your collection support students throughout their academic career? Are you collecting for undergraduates, graduate students, residents, etc.? This will inform the format and reading level of materials you purchase (i.e., undergraduate to professional levels).
- Other selection criteria that describe factors to consider before acquisition. For example, scope, publication date, cost, authority of author/publisher, language, geography of the subject, reviews, etc.
- Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) considerations should be integrated throughout your policy to make clear your library’s collection development values, goals, and efforts. A standalone statement can also be considered since it can strengthen communication and the reasons why it’s important to diversify your collections. Please read the section below on DEIA in collection development policies for more guidance.
- De-selection (weeding) guidelines:
- Criteria for the general de-selection of outdated and damaged materials.
- Frequency of de-selection.
- Special considerations for patron requests to remove materials deemed inappropriate or controversial. See Simmons’ College’s policy guide on materials challenges in the academic library, as well as MLA’s Censorship and Library Practices Toolkit. The following are also examples of general challenged materials policies:
- Challenged Materials Policy from Clemson University Libraries
- Challenged Materials Policy from Northwestern Libraries
- Withdrawal Request Policy from George A. Smathers Libraries at the University of Florida
- Digital Content Takedown Request Procedure for University of Illinois Library
- Identification of materials which are stored in perpetuity
- How often is the collection development policy reviewed and what is the process for making changes to the policy? Who has the authority to change and/or approve the policy?
You may also want to consider including the items below, although some of these may be covered by broader institutional library policies if the health sciences library is part of larger system:
- Compliance with accessibility standards
- Course reserves
- Donation/gift procedure(s) and/or policy(s)
- Endowment funds and materials specified to be bought by that fund
- Licensing considerations
- Non-disclosure clauses for state-funded institutions
- Governing law
- Non-negotiable terms, as defined by institution
- Definition of authorized users should cover the patron population needed
- Policies related to special collections and archival materials
- Protection of patron data
- Research Libraries Group (RLG) Conspectus collection intensity levels for each subject area (see https://www.loc.gov/acq/devpol/cpc.html)
- Resource sharing rights and restrictions; Controlled Digital Lending (CDL), InterLibrary Loan (ILL), document delivery.
- Technical requirements for all electronic resources. (See the Assessment section.)
- Technical support
- Usability and patron experience
The length of your policy will vary. Some institutions may prefer to separate policies or combine them all in one document. For instance, you may want to have a separate special collections policy. This will probably depend on the size of your special collections and if there are different library personnel in charge of special collections.
Sample Collection Development Policies
Academic University Libraries
- Michigan State University Libraries
- University of Colorado – Strauss Health Sciences Library
- University of North Carolina – Health Sciences Library
- University of San Francisco – Gleeson Library
Community College Libraries
Hospital Libraries
- Children’s Mercy Kansas City
- Gerald Tucker Memorial Medical Library (National Jewish Health) – Scroll down and click on Library Policies, then scroll to the bottom for their Collection and Donation Policy.
- St. Luke’s Library
Special Libraries
- University of Pennsylvania – Veterinary Library
- University of Pennsylvania – Levy Dental Medicine Library
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) Considerations in Collection Development Policies
DEIA considerations should be integrated throughout your collection development policy. Selection criteria may be used to improve DEIA such as intentionally including works from and about diverse voices and perspectives, materials about historically underrepresented and/or marginalized populations, texts about inclusive medical practices, collecting in a various languages, or choosing a variety of formats for accessibility such as print, online/electronic, and audio books (for low literacy or dyslexia). Some collection development policies will have explicit statements about how DEIA is woven into their development strategies. For others, it may be more implicit – they may collect in a variety of languages because it meets the needs of their patron population but this may be identified simply as collecting in non-english languages.
Sample DEI Collection Policies
- Sample DEI language used in collection development policies from the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois
Collection Development Manuals
Some libraries have a collection development manual to supplement their collection development policy. In addition to staffing considerations, licensing and other issues mentioned elsewhere, a manual describes:
- Collection development responsibilities
- Standards for technical requirements for new resources, such as resource interoperability, post-cancellation rights to content, availability of technical support, etc.
Sample Collection Development Manual
- University of New Mexico’s Collection Development Manual
Collections Philosophy
Some libraries also have a separate Collections Philosophy, which serves as a guiding ethos for their acquisition and collection maintenance practices.
Sample Collection Philosophy
- Galter Health Sciences Library & Learning Center, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine’s Collection Philosophy
References and Further Reading
American Library Association. (2019). Diverse collections: An interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights. https://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/diversecollections
Association of College and Research Libraries. (2019). ACRL statement on equity, diversity, inclusion, and the print collecting imperative. www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/acrlissues/ACRL_Print_Collecting_Statement.pdf.
Gregory, V. (2019). Collection development and management for 21st century library collections: An introduction. American Library Association.
Chapter 3 is on collection development policies.
Johnson, P. (2018). Fundamentals of collection development and management. American Library Association.
Chapter 3 covers writing policy statements.
Kubilius, R.. & Lawrence, J.C. (2022, April 15). Staying ahead of the future: Developing your library’s collection philosophy and policy [Handout]. https://doi.org/10.18131/g3-f1xx-2d08
Handout that summarizes relevant resources and participant takeaways from an on-site Medical Library Association session held May 5, 2022 in New Orleans, LA.
Rodriguez, J., Kanungo, C., & Macias, A. (2020). Appraising the community of practice at a hospital library system using a critical librarianship lens. Medical reference services quarterly, 39(3), 269-279.
Sender, J. S., & Schroeder, H. M. (2018). Usability and accessibility for health sciences collections. Health sciences collection management for the twenty-first century (pp. 197-211). Rowman & Littlefield.
Swogger S. (2018). Managing a health sciences collection. In S.K. Kendall (Ed.), Health sciences collection management for the twenty-first century (pp. 33–78). Rowman & Littlefield.
Health sciences collection development policies are covered from pages 38-43.
An item or collection that has been purchased, rented, or subscribed to by an institution. It can also refer to a department or unit within a library that acquires items (e.g., purchase, rent, subscribe) for the library.
Weeding is also referred to as deaccessioning or deselection. It refers to both the process of evaluating items that can be withdrawn from the collection, as well as the physical act of removing those items. Physical items (e.g., multimedia, print books, A/V equipment) and electronic items (e.g., ebooks) can be weeded from library collections.
Money donated to an organization that has been invested to support a particular purpose. Most endowments keep the principal (i.e., original) funds untouched, and only allow the organization to spend the income (i.e., money in excess of the original amount). The use of these funds may have donor-imposed restrictions, such as only being allowed to purchase books about cancer.
The process by which a library digitizes a print book to create a digital version. To conform to accepted copyright law, the individual print book must be removed from circulation, and the digital surrogate – which cannot be downloaded, printed, or shared – may only be made available to one user at a time.
A library service where copies of parts of works or whole works are sent physically or electronically to other libraries to loan to their patrons. Physical copies must be returned to the lender and digital copies may have digital rights management applied to restrict access.
A library service where non-returnable digital or physical copies of library owned materials are provided to an institution’s library patrons. This usually refers to scanning and emailing a print book chapter or journal article to members of that institution.
