Resource Selection Policy
Introduction
The Board of Trustees of the Park Forest Public Library supports the Library Bill of Rights and the American Library Association’s Freedom to Read and Freedom to View Statements. (See attached)
It is the goal of the Park Forest Public Library to seek to meet the informational, educational, cultural, and recreational needs of the library user.
The Park Forest Public Library works collaboratively with other libraries, especially those of the south suburbs, to meet patrons’ requests where budgetary restraints or limited appeal prohibit the addition of particular resources to the collection.
Community Served by the Park Forest Public Library
The Park Forest Public Library serves, primarily, patrons residing within the library’s boundaries as well as those under contractual agreement with the Olympia Fields Public Library District. This area is comprised of a wide range of the socio-economic spectrum and derives its income from diverse sources; from suburban commuter to manufacturing. The library serves patrons from a wider area through its participation in the statewide and worldwide reciprocal borrowing program.
Description of Library Patrons
The Park Forest Public Library maintains an open door policy to all patrons. It serves young children to senior citizens. The library strives to provide resources of interest to all educational, religious, ethnic, economic, and social backgrounds.
Responsibility for Selection
The Board of Trustees of the Library represents the public who owns the library. The Board is responsible for the adoption of policies that govern the operation and program of the Library. The Library Director is responsible for the operation of the Library under the policies set by the Board.
Resource selection is the responsibility of the Library Director. He or she may delegate selecting, ordering, maintaining, and weeding the Library collection to the appropriate staff as outlined by the Board of Trustees of the Park Forest Public Library’s Resource Selection Policy.
The collection is designed to meet the needs of the Park Forest Public Library patrons. It is the duty of the staff to acquire resources that meet these needs even though the resources may present views contrary to the personal beliefs of staff members, Library board members, community organizations, or individuals. No employee may be disciplined or dismissed for the selection of Library resources when the selection is made in good faith and in accordance with this written Resource Selection Policy.
The Scope of the Collection
The library seeks to provide a broad range of resources to meet the varied needs of its patrons. The Library’s collection includes books, large print books, and newspapers, CD recordings, DVD recordings, preloaded digital media, and downloadable digital media. The Park Forest Public Library also provides access to special Internet-based reference services.
New formats shall be considered for the collection when, by industry report, national survey results, and evidence from local requests, a significant portion of the community population has the necessary technology to make use of the format. Availability of items in the format, the cost per item, and the Library’s ability to acquire and handle the items will also be factors in determining when a new format will be collected. Similar considerations will influence the decision to delete a format from the Library’s collection.
Area school and college libraries serve the curriculum needs of students. Without duplicating these resources, the Park Forest Public Library does recognize the need to provide basic class-related resources that supplement the curricula. Textbooks are not ordinarily purchased by the library.
The Local History collection is maintained off site by the Park Forest Historical Society. The Library cooperates with the Park Forest Historical Society to answer any questions regarding local history.
The selection of resources in certain areas is limited to general or basic works which are not too specialized or considered beyond the province of public library service. The library will not collect certain specialized genealogical sources or religious resources that proselytize, propagandize, or foster intolerance toward other religions.
Standards for Selection
General Considerations
The Park Forest Public Library policy directs that the selection of resources shall be made on the basis of their value to interest, enlighten, and inform all people of the library’s community. No Library resource shall be excluded because of the race, nationality, political, or social views of the author.
Selection of resources is influenced by:
- Anticipation of and response to continuing and changing needs and interests of the community and individuals.
- Current and historical significance.
- Comprehensiveness, accuracy, and objectivity.
- Contribution to diversity and viewpoints on controversial issues.
- Professional judgment.
- Input garnered from critical reviews and selection sources.
- Patron demands.
- Budgetary considerations, including the expense of necessary software or hardware.
- Credentials of the author and/or publisher.
- Timeliness.
- Suitability of physical format for library use.
Library patrons and all staff are encouraged to suggest titles for purchase. All suggestions will be considered and a decision made based on the above criteria, balancing the obligation to meet demand with the obligation to exclude resources which do not meet selection criteria or are available through reciprocal borrowing. Multiple copies of a title may be purchased if there is adequate patron demand.
Adult Non-Fiction
This collection’s role is to ensure the availability of information and resources for independent, self-directed learning as well as cultural and recreational pursuits. Staff must consider the author’s competency, overall excellence of the resource, superiority in treatment of controversial issues, appropriateness to the level of user, popularity of the author, and the uniqueness of the author’s perspective.
Adult Fiction
The library attempts to purchase a wide variety of fiction to satisfy the needs of all borrowers. As some of the language and incidents in contemporary novels will offend some tastes, individual borrowers will need to be selective when choosing resources. Staff will consider titles on the basis of reviews, the appeal of a book for a specific audience, the artistic skill of the writer, popular demand, maintaining a series, and the reputation of the author. Authors who are known to be popular may be selected for the automatic acquisition list through the library’s vendor.
Large Print Collection
The large print collection is targeted to readers with visual problems and will often duplicate titles in the general collections and follow similar standards of selection. The library may select some genres of large print books for automatic acquisition through the library’s vendor.
Children’s Resources
The Juvenile collection is targeted to children in infancy through sixth grade and must meet similar criteria as all other resources selected for the library’s collections. Literary quality, good design and format, and illustration are important criteria for consideration. While the Library does provide supplemental resources to enrich the resources available to students and teachers, classroom textbooks and readers are not selected.
The Children’s collection is intended to provide children with the library resources necessary to aid their personal and educational development. Assignment of maturity or reading level is made according to prevailing norms but is not intended to restrict any person in his or her use. Some items may be included that are not considered appropriate by all adults for children. While some resources may be too mature for one child, other children may be ready for them. Only the child and his or her parents can decide what resources shall be used by that child, and neither the Library staff nor other Library users shall make these decisions for other people’s children. Parents are responsible for what their children check out and may restrict their usage at their discretion.
Young Adult Resources
The Young Adult collection is targeted to pre-teens and teenagers from roughly grades six through twelve. The main purpose of this collection is to serve the educational, developmental, and recreational needs of this population while serving as a stepping stone from the juvenile collection to the adult collections.
Periodicals
The library subscribes to several local newspapers. Newspapers are kept for a limited time in print because of space considerations.
Audio-Visual Resources
The library purchases audio-visual resources targeted to all age groups. The collection contains educational and entertainment DVDs, CDs, video games, and mp3 players with a single preloaded book. The collection also includes flash drives with information on learning a specific foreign language. As additional formats become available, the library may add to these formats as outlined above in the Scope of the Collection section. Selection follows similar guidelines to printed materials, paying special attention to popular works and the quality of sound and/or visual content.
Online Services
Databases and other online services are selected based on similar selection criteria to print materials. Special attention is paid to the quality of the database’s sources, the availability of full-text articles and images, and affordability. The library participates in group purchases of databases whenever possible to minimize the cost of such services.
Digital Content
The library attempts to purchase a wide variety of e-books, digital magazines, and digital audiobooks to satisfy the needs of all borrowers. Staff will consider titles on the basis of reviews, the appeal of digital content for a specific audience, popular demand, and availability in print form. Patrons may download titles to their own devices.
Gifts
The library accepts gifts of books and audio-visual materials in good condition with the understanding that items will be added to the library collections only when needed. The same principles of selection apply to gifts.
When accepting gift materials, the library cannot price materials for income tax purposes. Upon request, donor cards are issued to acknowledge receipt.
A monetary gift for the library’s collections may be given for acquiring resources recommended by library staff or for the purchase of specific items suggested by the donor. The Library encourages gifts not earmarked for specific items in order to permit the most flexible use of the donation for the enrichment of the collection.
Resources purchased with gift funds are subject to the following limitations:
- The Library retains unconditional ownership of the resource.
- The Library makes the final decision on its own use or other disposition of the gift.
- The Library reserves the right to decide the conditions of display, housing, and access to the resources.
- No resources will be sequestered or assigned to separate “special” collections except for administrative purposes.
Collection Maintenance
Weeding
The library maintains an active policy of withdrawal based on the elimination of unnecessary items, outdated resources, books no longer of interest or in demand, duplicated, worn or mutilated copies. Frequency of circulation, community interest, and availability of newer and more valid resources are of prime consideration.
Duplication and Replacement
The decision to purchase duplicate copies of a title is based on popularity, importance of the book, and budget constraints. Replacement of lost, damaged, or worn-out titles is determined by availability of new and better resources in the field, timeliness of the resource, and requests for the title or subject. Classics are replaced whenever possible with the same or more useful format.
Reconsideration of Library Resources
General Considerations
The Park Forest Public Library upholds the principles of intellectual freedom as delineated above and by the First Amendment, the Library Bill of Rights, and the Freedom to Read Statement adopted by the American Library Association. The Park Forest Public Library will not ban books or other resources in accordance with 75 ILCS 10/8.7.
A basic goal of the Library is the preservation of intellectual freedom. It offers resources at all levels of development on many subjects of interest, leaving the patron in control of what is read or viewed.
Library resources will not be marked or identified to show approval or disapproval of the contents, nor will items be sequestered, except for the purpose of protecting them from damage or theft. Selection for the adult collection will not be inhibited by the possibility that resources may inadvertently fall into the hands of children. An open shelf policy will be followed at all times.
Comments from members of the community about the collection or individual items in the collection frequently provide librarians with useful information about interests or needs that may not be adequately met by the collection. The Library welcomes expression of opinion by patrons, but will be governed by this Resource Selection Policy in making additions to or deleting items from the collection.
Members of the community are encouraged to bring their concerns regarding any specific titles or items in the collection to the attention of the Library Director through a formal complaint process.
Resource Complaint Procedures
- Patron fills out “Request for Reconsideration of Library Resources” (Appendix IV).
- The Library Director is notified; she or he will then:
- Notify the Library Board of Trustees.
- Ask the selector, with an ad hoc committee, to evaluate the original reasons for purchase.
- Review the patron’s objections and the response of the selector and ad hoc committee.
- Respond to complainant.
- If complainant is not satisfied, he or she may appeal to the Board of Trustees.
- The Board may hold a hearing or take other appropriate action.
Adoption and Revision of Resource Selection Policy
A two-thirds majority vote of the entire Board of Trustees is required for adoption of this policy.
Revision of this policy may be accomplished in the following manner: (1) Proposed revision to be submitted in writing, by any member of the Library Board or by the Library Director, (2) Such proposed revision to be referred to an ad hoc committee of the Board appointed for the purpose; said committee to make a recommendation to the Board on the proposal no sooner than 30 days but within 60 days, (3) Revision to be adopted by a two-thirds majority vote of the entire Board at a regular meeting.
This policy is scheduled for review every three years.