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Hi. My name is Jessica and I'm a bookaholic. I've been reading since I was 4 and I've never stopped since. I try to tell myself that it's not my fault since I come from a family of readers, but my book addiction has even gotten in the way of my adult life on occasion. I go through phases when spend too much money on books and I stay up late reading every night. These phases happen more often then I'd like to admit. My need to read even influenced my career choice. When it came time to pick my path, I knew I wanted something with both art/literature and math/science. You can find that combination in so many careers, like landscape architecture or video game designer. However, when librarianship came up as an option, it was no contest. I get art/literature and math/science and books, books, books. No contest. Since then, it's gotten worse (better?); as my career has evolved, I have developed expertise in running collections in the subjects I love most.
My joking aside, I really do have a love/hate relationship with collection development because of how much I know. At the center of this love/hate are the hardest/easiest of my areas: education, graphic novels, children's literature, fiction. They are easiest because I've been collecting in these areas for years, so I know and do the kinds of things you need to know and do to have a successful collection: I know who the important authors/researchers are; I'm aware of the trends and up-and-coming voices; I know which publications/publishers to monitor for new directions; and I regularly check in with people in my community who know. They are hardest because of the passion I have for them
If you're confused about why having a passion for something can make it harder to do, let me refer you back to the first part of the title of this post: "The Fox in Charge of the Hen House." I love children's literature so much that it sometimes confuses people that I'm not a children's librarian. My opinions about genre fiction, and fiction in general, are such that I have an ongoing, friendly argument with an English professor about "what is a good book?" I'm a big-time comic book nerd, even though I wasn't before becoming a librarian. And my second master's degree is in education. What I'm getting at here is that it's hard not to let my personal tastes and interests constantly influence what I buy for the collection.
I say "constantly influence" instead of just "influence" because I know it's fine, even expected in some circumstances, for a librarian's personal tastes to influence what he or she buys. If the purpose of a collection is to suit the needs of the members of your community, then it's important to remember that the librarian is also a member of that community. So, sure, there are maybe a few more children's books about cats in our children's literature collection than there might have been with someone else in charge of the collection, but the balance is still there. (In my defense, I'm not the only one in my community with a penchant kitty cat kid lit.) Besides, if you could see the length of my "To Read" list, you'd know that this librarian/fox has learned some self-restraint when it comes to devouring the books/hens.
So, what about you? If you have collection development responsibilities, what are your hardest/easiest areas and how do you find the balance? If you aren't responsible for collection development, what do you think would be hardest for you and why?
Heh. I have some hand in what gets bought every month for the library, though we prefer to take patron requests when possible. Since our patrons are all professional people, they are often very in tune with what's happening in their particular field and can recommend or request items of especial usefulness. I'm glad of that, since I'm still learning about trends and big names in areas like graphic design and advertising.
ReplyDeleteI am more comfortable with areas like art, art history, and creative writing, and that is where I think my hand shows more. We've also somehow managed to buy a graphic novel or trade edition comic book collection every month since I got here...hmmm. All topical in some way, of course! ;D I think between my boss, me, and our patrons, we keep a good balance and an interesting, vital collection.
Gee... I wonder about those graphic novels/trade edition comic books. Must be someone smart making those purchases. Also, I'm all about requests, but people on campus have come to look at me as the expert on comics. Double the temptation/responsibility in that area. (Heck, even my coworkers will a lot of times buy graphic novels that fall in their subject areas if I recommend them.)
DeleteI think I would have more trouble with collection development in an academic library for the reasons you mention. For us, the things I want to buy are often the things that are the most popular. Occasionally I will buy something that's a little more esoteric (for example - Chess: In Concert) and then I get a little satisfaction from seeing it go out 100+ times. But then, my responsibilities are mostly media (the only books I order are mass market paperbacks, and those are going out of style as e-readers become more mainstream).
ReplyDeleteI struggle the most with NC-17 and such type movies that have a lot of holds. I feel a responsibility to purchase them because people want them, but some of them teeter on the edge of our collection development policy, and I hate that one of the movies I purchased was withdrawn from the collection due to a patron challenge. There is a big story that I can't talk about online, so let's just say it was a blow to my self-esteem. I do feel better, though, when I look up the movie in the catalog and see that it still has a number of holds on it, even years later (our copies were given to a different library in the system for their collection). Clearly it is in demand, which is why I bought it in the first place.
Cari, you know about my struggles/successes with adding popular reading. That covers my butt a lot of times. The kitty cat kid lit, on the other hand...
DeleteI'm lucky in that I primarily have collection development responsibilities in areas I enjoy: literature, genre fiction, graphic novels, video games, ancient/European history, language . . . I have the most trouble differentiating between all the many books on World War II that are published every month and figuring out which to buy. At some point, I wonder how many books one library needs on a pivotal battle or somesuch, but people keep checking them out! It probably doesn't help that I have absolutely no interest in reading any of them.
ReplyDeleteOn the other end of the spectrum, I know that the paperback collection has changed under my management--away from general fiction and toward fantasy/SF and romance, which are my particular strong suits. I try to counter that by giving myself ratios of books to buy in each genre, roughly according to their popularity with our patrons . . . but there are definitely still books I am going to put in the cart because I know at least one person (me) will be checking it out.
I've been the liaison to our communication department for the last year-ish, and I'm starting to get bitten by that bug, too. As for WWII... the liaison to the history department has a master's in history. Better him than me.
DeleteWhat are your thoughts on outsourced approval plans? Do you have them? How heavily do you rely on them?
ReplyDeleteI've never been a big fan of that kind of approach to collection development, but I've never used one so I could be wrong. For me, col dev is too tied up in outreach. I like to buy based on the personal tastes of faculty and administrators. Also, I play a game with myself every year with the Newberry and Caldecott and other similar awards, trying to see if I can buy them before they win. I suppose it would be easier in some ways, but it's not really my style.
DeleteI don't do collection development anymore, but when I did, I don't know how I could have done it without the approval plan. My liaison areas were pharmacology, surgery, orthopedics, pediatrics... nothing in which I could claim any personal expertise. In medical specialties there are generally umpteen editions of the same core textbook, and everybody needs the newest one as soon as it's out, so the approval plan helps a lot with efficiency. We didn't do 100% of our collection development that way, though, so outreach was still very important, especially when it came to selecting and deselecting journal titles.
ReplyDeleteOh, yeah. I can imagine how approval plans would be indispensable in a situation like that. When I was responsible for the science materials at a former library, I needed a lot of help.
DeleteI have a hard time with this too. I collect in the Dewey 600s, which I absolutely love as it contains so many of my interests (most especially cookbooks!!). I have neglected the manufacturing and engineering aspects in favor of medical books and cookbooks. :)
ReplyDeleteHowever, I also collect 800s which is tough because they don't circulate like the popular 600s and I'm not a big poetry/essays buff. It's hard to know when to discard, what the circ stats mean, etc. And then I have the entire adult Spanish language collection which covers fiction, nonfiction, DVDs, audiobooks, reference, etc. The materials are hard to find in the first place but I know what's popular with my community at least. I've definitely had some misses and some scores but it's a frustrating one for sure.
I am definitely still learning as I go and trying to read reviews, listen to the community, use stats etc. all as guides so I don't just buy what I want. Except in the cookbooks. I'm often the first person to check out the cookbooks I've ordered.
I love Copper Canyon's catalog for poetry. If you've never looked at it, I recommend it highly.
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