Collection Development and Information Resources
Collection Development and Information Resources tests how you build, maintain, and defend a collection that serves the curriculum and the reading lives of students. Expect questions on selection criteria, acquisition, weeding, challenged materials, licensing, and the policy documents that make decisions defensible.
Selection and policy
- Adopt a board-approved collection development policy that states selection criteria, who selects, how gifts are handled, and how reconsideration requests are processed.
- Apply consistent criteria: curriculum alignment, accuracy, authority, currency, readability, student interest, treatment of bias, format, and cost.
- Use professional reviews, state award lists such as the Oklahoma Sequoyah Book Award lists, and advisory committee input rather than personal taste alone.
- Weed with CREW/MUSTIE-items that are misleading, ugly, superseded, trivial, irrelevant, or available elsewhere-and document the cycle.
- Review licenses for databases and e-books: simultaneous use, interlibrary loan, accessibility, privacy, and renewal costs vary widely.
Worked example
A librarian reviewing the 500s finds a 1998 space atlas with Pluto as a planet, duplicate almanacs, and a popular coding series with two missing volumes. Using MUSTIE, she removes the atlas and duplicates, replaces the atlas with a current database and a 2023 print title, and reorders the missing volumes. She records the decisions in the collection map, checks the district's reconsideration policy before discarding a donated title that a parent may question, and notes the replacement costs in the next budget request. The reasoning: weed by criteria, not by age alone; preserve intellectual freedom by following policy; and connect withdrawals to curriculum needs and budget planning.
Traps that cost marks
- Selecting from personal preference or bestseller lists without review evidence.
- Discarding challenged or controversial materials without the reconsideration process.
- Confusing weeding with censorship or with removing everything old.
- Ignoring license terms, accessibility, and privacy when buying digital resources.
- Spending the entire budget on one format or one department.