Collection Development Policy for a Public Branch Library
This paper presents a comprehensive collection development policy for the Jericho Library, a fictional small branch within a mid-Western public library system. It outlines the library's mission, community profile, and patron needs assessment, then establishes goals for growing subject areas such as genealogy, regional history, and digital materials. The policy details the selection process, criteria for weeding using the CREW and MUSTIE methods, procedures for handling gifts and discards, censorship and intellectual freedom commitments consistent with the American Library Association's Library Bill of Rights, copyright compliance, and a patron complaint process. An annotated bibliography and a Request for Reconsideration form are also included.
- Overview and Mission: Library structure, staffing, and mission statement
- Community Profile and Patron Needs Assessment: Demographics, patron groups, and assessed collection needs
- Collection Goals by Subject and Format: Expansion goals for genealogy, digital, and regional materials
- Selection Process: Committee roles and material selection criteria
- Evaluation, Weeding, and Discards: CREW and MUSTIE methods for de-selection and disposal
- Censorship, Intellectual Freedom, and Complaints: ALA Bill of Rights compliance and patron reconsideration process
- Copyright and Conclusion: Copyright compliance and library service summary
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What makes this paper effective
- Grounds every policy decision in identified community needs — seasonal tourists, elderly genealogical researchers, students, and year-round residents each receive tailored collection responses.
- Integrates published professional frameworks (CREW, MUSTIE, the ALA Library Bill of Rights) with specific operational procedures, demonstrating how theory guides practice.
- Balances competing values explicitly — intellectual freedom against community standards, in-house space constraints against access — and articulates a workable compromise for each tension.
- Practical appendices (annotated bibliography and a patron reconsideration form) add real-world utility beyond the policy narrative itself.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper models applied policy writing by anchoring each operational decision in a cited professional source (Evans & Saponaro, Johnson, Larson, Alabaster) and then translating that source's guidance into concrete, site-specific procedures. This move — from citation to application — is the core skill of professional librarianship writing and shows the reader exactly how scholarly frameworks become actionable rules.
Structure breakdown
The policy follows a logical administrative sequence: context (overview, mission, community profile) → diagnosis (needs assessment) → prescription (goals, selection process) → maintenance (evaluation and weeding) → governance (censorship, complaints, copyright) → summary (conclusion). Appendices supply supporting tools. This structure mirrors real-world library policy documents and makes the logic of each decision traceable from identified need to stated procedure.
Overview and Mission
The Jericho Library is a small branch within the Okie County Public Library, a fictional library system in the mid-West. Its organizational structure is as follows: the library employs a branch manager, three library assistants, and four shelver/pages. The branch manager is tasked with supervising the library's operations. The library assistants oversee the reference desk and schedule programs and events. The shelver/pages retrieve and shelve materials and assist in daily cleanup and maintenance of the outdoor road sign, which carries weekly announcements for the public.
The Jericho Library serves a modest community of 17,000. Its clientele consists of middle-class community members. Because the library is also near a tourist destination — a large lake where visitors come to ski, sail, hike, and camp during the summer months — it caters to tourists as well, providing services, access to genealogical records, computers, Internet access, and other materials, which visitors may check out with a guest library card.
Mission Statement: The mission of Jericho Library is to tend to the informational and developmental needs of the community and seasonal visitors by offering community services, specialized programming, quality materials for in-house use and for check-out, and educational support. The library's goal is to maintain a positive relationship with the community and its seasonal guests. Through excellent staff assistance, a cultivated collection, and digital technology that many patrons require in today's information age, the library is a top destination for one and all.
Community Profile and Patron Needs Assessment
The community consists mainly of Caucasian, middle-class mid-Westerners who use the library for both informational and entertainment purposes. There are several schools in the area — from primary through college level — and many students come to the library for extra help with schoolwork. There is a small minority population of Mexican-Americans who also patronize the library for materials. There is additionally a strong elderly population in the community.
Members of the community are employed by one of the major corporations in the nearby city or by one of several other organizations: an insurance corporation, a hospital, a plastics company, an Amazon warehouse, and a college. The unemployment rate is very low, at under 2%. Nevertheless, there has been a rise in drug abuse in recent years, with an influx of heroin usage in the community. Several church groups are working with community advisory groups, local police, and the library to promote sobriety and accountability in order to help stem the tide of the recent drug problem.
Patron needs have been assessed through community surveys, circulation records, patron comment cards available at the front desk, social media monitoring, and staff communications with patrons. Surveys are conducted twice a year to give the library a sense of what is in demand. Seasonal guests are also invited to make recommendations during their summer visits so that the library can better meet their needs while they are in town.
Social media is a particularly effective tool that library staff use to gauge community interest in programs, events, and newly circulated materials. Circulation statistics are also a helpful tool for assessing patron needs and evaluating which materials receive the most and least interest.
Digital materials have been assessed as the most in-demand items among patrons. These include DVDs, video games for Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo; music CDs; e-books; audiobooks; and Internet access. The community's elderly population includes a genealogical group that frequently requests genealogical materials, and there is a growing need to house more such materials as the group itself expands and more researchers become interested in establishing their family histories. Seasonal guests have shown interest in regional information — books, guides, maps, history, and tourist information about the county and state. Students have requested greater access to computer technology, software, digital materials, and Internet usage.
Collection Goals by Subject and Format
The goals for the Jericho Library's collection are to maintain a high standard of materials that are both useful and in demand among community members and the seasonal guests who frequent the library during the summer months.
By Subject Area
Entertainment: The library's entertainment area is already quite robust, with a healthy selection of DVDs, CDs, video games, audiobooks, e-books, and Internet access. However, during the summer months there is an even greater demand for these materials, and it is necessary to expand the collection to ensure patron satisfaction.
Regional History and Tourism: The library's goal is to add more updated maps, current guides, and regional history materials to its collection.
Genealogy: The goal for this subject area is to increase the genealogical collection to twice its current size in order to accommodate the needs of the community's genealogical group. This collection will utilize microfilm and microfiche to accomplish this goal.
Education: There is a need among students for greater access to computers and digital information. The library will increase its computer space by 1.5 times to meet the growing demand for access to educational materials delivered via digital technology.
By Format
Online Databases: These will be offered via an expansion program to grant users access to more collections not available in print or in-house at the library. This will accommodate the needs of students and researchers alike.
Digital Materials: Movies, games, and audio discs are in high demand throughout the year. The library recognizes the need to expand its collection of these materials and plans to grow the collection twofold over the coming two years.
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