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How I Choose Library Materials
I'm often asked by non-librarians how my library decides what materials to buy. Great question. Here's a brief overview on how that works for me in my current position.
My personal collection development areas are children's and junior high music, picture books, and children's and junior high paperbacks. I like the variety because I just plain like variety, plus it gives me a pretty good overview of what's new/hot in various areas, so I can sound more intelligent when patrons ask for reading suggestions, books they can't remember the name of, etc. How I decide what to purchase varies for those three areas.
Music is the hardest area for me. Children's music doesn't get the widespread professional review coverage that "adult" music does. I browse new music on Amazon, look for award winners, and keep my ears open, but it's not a very, um, methodical method.
Junior high music gives me even more grief, because most of the kids are listening to "adult" music they hear on the radio. These albums may get professionally reviewed, but they aren't reviewed with the "Are these 'appropriate' for 11-13 year old kids?" question in mind. Common Sense Media is a helpful source of age-sensitive reviews by kids and parents, but, given its volunteer-reviewer nature, it's not nearly exhaustive. We have a suggestion box which gives me an idea of what's popular, but I still have to study the song titles and user comments to try and gauge whether they're PG. I've gotten dozens of requests for 50 Cent and Kanye West, but it ain't gonna happen. Fortunately, I can pass those request on to our adult department.
With paperbacks, I keep an eye on upcoming releases of trade books that weren't necessarily fly-off-the-shelf popular but got good reviews and could use some more exposure in our face-out paperback carrels. I buy trades of popular and classic hardcovers and popular series. Our school liaison also buys multiple copies of books on school reading lists and Illinois' Caudill Award nominees.
The toughest part of ordering paperbacks is trying to gauge the popularity of new series fiction. A few months back, I went to Borders and jotted down the titles of dozens of series. Back at the library I ordered a bunch. Some fly off the shelves, others barely circulate. Series books are an area where it's imperative to keep your ears open to kids' suggestions. If they heard about a new series from a friend, you can guarantee there's a whole crowd of kids who'll be demanding it in no time.
The most straightforward ordering I do is picture books. I read several children's book review journals: Kirkus Reviews, School Library Journal, The Horn Book, Booklist, and The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books. If it gets a positive review, chances are that I'll order it. (I'm lucky, in all areas, to have a generous budget.) If it isn't reviewed in a professional journal, chances are I won't order it. We might have the money but we don't have the space—or, let's face it, desire—to expand/dilute our collection with less-than-good books.
We do welcome patron requests, but a request doesn't obligate us to make the purchase. In fact, what initially got me on this train of thought was the following email I had to write this morning:
Dear [Patron],
I am the librarian who does most of the library's picture book purchasing. Thanks for your suggestion that we purchase [ABC], by [DEF]. We do welcome such suggestions from our patrons; there are a whole lot of books out there, and sometimes a good one will slip through the cracks.
In the case of [ABC], I feel I must decline at this time. Due to space and budget restrictions, our library generally limits purchases of new books to those published by reputable houses that receive good reviews in professional book review journals such as Booklist, Kirkus Reviews, and School Library Journal. We also avoid purchasing books that must be ordered directly from the publisher and not through a vendor such as Barnes & Noble or Amazon. [We actually do most ordering through Baker & Taylor, but that means nothing to most non-book-industry types.] Because [ABC] has not, so far, received any professional reviews and is available only through [publisher XYZ's] website, and because [XYZ] does not have a strong reputation as a publisher, I am hesitant to order it specially.
However, our library does own dozens of fiction and nonfiction picture books about dinosaurs, which we hope you and your daughter will continue to enjoy. Dinosaurs show no signs of going out of style, so our collection of dinosaur stories will only continue to grow as your daughter does!
I then sent her the link to my library's list of recommended dinosaur picture books, thanked her again for her suggestion, and signed off.
The two biggest red flags were the book's lack of professional reviews and lack of distribution. I Googled the publisher and found that while it isn't a vanity or POD (print on demand) press, it has a pretty dodgy reputation among both writers and readers.
Notice that I was able to rationalize not purchasing the book without making a judgment on its content. For all I knew, the patron was [DEF's] cousin, or even [DEF] him/herself!
Great post. I forwarded it to my colleagues.
Glad it's helpful!