Collections Development: Collection Development Policy Analysis

For my Collection Management class, we were asked to choose two collection development policies from the same types of libraries, and analyze them against a collection of standard elements.

I. Introduction

This paper is an analysis of the Collections Development Policies of the special collections found at the libraries of two, large research universities in North Carolina. The first is Wake Forest University Z. Smith Reynolds Library Special Collections and University Archives, henceforth referred to as “ZSR Library.” The ZSR Library holds several special collections, most related to the history of Wake Forest University, henceforth referred to as “WFU” (ZSR Library Collections Development Policy). These collections include the North Carolina Baptist Historical Collection, a Rare Books Collection, a collection of Manuscripts, the University Archives, as well as Official Records, Papers, and Publications of Wake Forest University (ZSR Library Collection Development Policy).

The second special collection is the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Rare Book Collection, henceforth referred to as “UNC-CH RBC.” The UNCH-CH RBC holds rare printed material for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, henceforth referred to as “UNC” (UNC-CH RBC Collection Development Policy). The UNC-CH RBC holds codexes, maps, as well as close to 200,00 printed volumes (UNC-CH RBC Collections Development Policy).

This analysis will look at some standard elements of collection development policies, how the specific institutions have written their collection development policies, will make some recommendations for improvement to the specific policies, and then how those policies compare to each other.

A. Standard Elements of Collection Development Policies

According to The Fundamentals of Collection Development and Management, (Johnson 2014), there are several standard elements that collections development policies should have. They are as follows (Johnson 2014: 105-106):

• purpose
• background or history
• responsibility for collection development
• library mission, goals, and objectives
• target audiences
• selection criteria
• patron-driven acquisition
• pay-per-use
• formats and genres included or excluded
• government publications
• treatment of specific resource groups
• special collections
• cooperative collection development and resource-sharing agreements
• services
• selection aids and handling of user recommendations
• copyright
• intellectual freedom
• acquisitions
• gifts and exchanges
• collection maintenance including weeding
• collection evaluation
• challenges to materials in the collection
• policy revision\definition of terms or glossary
• bibliography
• appendixes

To see which elements mentioned in the collection development policies of the respective institutions, please see the attached graph.

B. Not applicable to special collections

As with any collection of standard elements, there are several that are not applicable to this type of policy statement. As ZSR Library and UNC-CH RBC are both special collections, the following are not applicable: patron-driven-acquisition, pay-per-use, government publications, the treatment of specific resource groups, and user recommendations. These are included on the attached graph, Figure 1. Special collections have a specific purpose, one that does not usually lend itself to needing user recommendations. Unless an archive is specifically collecting government documents, there is no reason for a collection development policy to mention them. 

II. Wake Forest University Z. Smith Reynolds Library Special Collections and University Archives (ZSR Library)

Figure 1: Standard Elements of Collection Development Policies – ZSR Library

Figure 1: Standard Elements of Collection Development Policies – ZSR Library

A. Overall

Overall, the ZSR Library Collection Development Policy is well-written and easy to follow. There are specifics to each special collection at the University, as well as a well-written, clear purpose and a well-defined user community (ZSR Library Collection Development Policy).  The standard elements as defined in Section I, specific to ZSR Library, are shown in Figure 1 above.

a. Specifics

There are some specific standard elements that are missing from the ZSR Library Collection Development policy, which are shown via graph in Figure 1. There are the 5 “non-applicable” elements, as well as several others. ZSR Library is missing sections on responsibility, budgeting and funding, any sort of cooperation or resource-sharing, services offered ZSR Library, selection aides, copyright and intellectual freedom, collections management via weeding, challenges to the materials, as well as neither a bibliography or appendix (ZSR Library Collection Development Policy). Although, one could look at the collections development policy of a special collection at a university library as an appendix of the collections development policy of the larger academic library. 

B. Suggestions for Improvement of the Collections Development Policy for ZSR Library

The suggestions for improvement would be for ZSR Library to include the above missing items, if applicable to the collection. As WFU is a privately funded institution, the inclusion of budgeting and funding information might not be necessary (wfu.edu). The information that, which added, would lead to the largest overall improvement would be the inclusion of the responsibility of collection development, the collections maintenance policy, the procedure in case of a challenge of material, and the strengths and weaknesses of the Wake Forest University Z. Smith Reynolds Library Special Collection and University Archive (ZSR Library Collections Development Policy).

III. University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Rare Book Collection (UNC-CH RBC)

Figure 2: Standard Elements of Collections Development – UNC-CH RBC 

Figure 2: Standard Elements of Collections Development – UNC-CH RBC 

A. Overall

Overall, the UNC-CH RBC Library Collection Development Policy is well-written, but not entirely easy to follow. There are numerous headings and subheadings, which are specific elements of the collection development policy, as well as a well-written, clear purpose and a well-defined user community (UNC-CH RBC Collection Development Policy).  The standard elements as defined in Section I, specific to UNC-CH RBC, are shown in Figure 2, above.

a. Specifics

There are some specific standard elements that are missing from the UNC-CH RBC Collection Development policy, which are shown via graph in both Figure 2. There are the 5 “non-applicable” elements, as well as several others. UNC-CH RBC is missing sections on copyright and intellectual freedom, challenges to the materials, as well as an appendix (UNC-CH RBC Collection Development Policy). Although, as with the ZSR Library Collections Development Policy, one could look at the collections development policy of a special collection at a university library as an appendix of the collections development policy of the larger academic library.

B. Suggestions for Improvement of the Collections Development Policy for UNC-CH RBC

The suggestions for improvement would be for UNC-CH RBC to include the above missing items, if applicable to the collection. The information that, which added, would lead to the largest overall improvement would be the procedure in case of a challenge of material held within the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Rare Book Collection .

IV. ZSR Library and UNC-CH RBC: Compare and Contrast

Taken together, the two collections are very good. When compared and contrasted, the ZSR Library Collection Development Policy comes out ahead of the UNC-CH RBC Collections Development Policy in three distinct areas: the ZSR Library Collection Development Policy is more timely, is more overall meaningful, and is more readable. The ZSR Library Collection Development Policy specifically mentions “Web-based Content” as being something that the Special Collections and Archives collect (ZSR Library Collection Development Policy).  The ZSR Library Collection Development Policy is more overall meaningful to the institution, as the Special Collections and Archives collects information about North Carolina Baptist History, a nod to the founding of WFU (ZSR Library Collection Development Policy; wfu.edu). The ZSR Library Collection Development Policy is more readable, as it does not have headings and subheadings to keep track of while reading (ZSR Library Collection Development Policy).

That being said, the UNC-CH BRC Collection Development Policy would win in two separate and distinct categories: it is more complete and it has a description of the collection. The UNC-CH RBC Collection Development Policy has more of the standard elements of collection development policies, including how they maintain the collection (specifically deselection), and who is responsible for collections development (UNC-CH RBC Collection Development Policy). The UNC-CH RBC Collection Development Policy also has a very good section on the strength and weaknesses of the collection, including what areas they want to improve (UNC-CH RBC Collection Development Policy). Adding a section about the strengths and weaknesses to the ZSR Library Collection Development Policy would greatly improve it (ZSR Library Collection Development Policy).

Both the ZSR Library Collection Development Policy and the UNC-CH RBC Collection Development Policy have the same standard elements that are not-applicable to their policies, they both do not have any mention of the procedure for questioned or challenged material, and they are both updated annually (ZSR Library Collection Development Policy; UNC-CH RBC Collection Development Policy). They are both special collections found at the libraries of two, large research universities in North Carolina: Wake Forest University Z. Smith Reynolds Library Special Collections and Archives, and the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Rare Book Collection.

V. Conclusion

In analyzing the collection development policies for Wake Forest University Z. Smith Reynolds Library Special Collections and Archives and the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Rare Book Collection, many elements are the same. The policies mention things that are relevant to their respective university. The policies have similar things that they do not mention. The UNC-CH RBC Collection Development Policy mentions things that the ZSR Library Collection Development Policy does not. They both could improve in certain areas. They both are good examples of collection development policies of special collections found at the libraries of two, large research universities. 

VI. Figure 3: Standard Elements of Collection Development Policies, specific to ZSR Library and UNC-CH RBC

Figure 3: Standard Elements of Collection Development Policies, specific to ZSR Library and UNC-CH RBC

VII. Reference List

Johnson, Peggy. (2014). The Fundamentals of Collection Development and Management (3^rd             Edition). Chicago, IL: American Library Association.

University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Rare Books Collection. (2014). Collection             Development Policy of the UNC-Chapel Hill Rare Book Collection. Chapel Hil, NC:             http://library.unc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/RBC_collection_development.pdf

Wake Forest University. (2014). Accessed via: www.wfu.edu.

Wake Forest University Z. Smith Reynolds Library Special Collections and University Archives.             (2014). Collection Development Policy. Winston-Salem, NC: http://zsr.wfu.edu/special/             about/collection-development-policy/

 I received full marks for this assignment, as my professor liked my graphs.