In this chapter, Evens relates experiences and insights about information service collections that reflect experiences that I have personally had while working for various libraries. Some of his observations are common to library staff who are accustomed to assisting patrons, while others are glimpses into the world of a collection developer. Whether they be positive or negative, all are useful for budding librarians looking to someday create their own collections.
Evens first cites the common and satisfying experience of a patron’s gratitude for finding exactly what he or she needed, especially in cases where an individual did not think that something was possible to find or didn’t know the exact something that they were looking for (Evens, 2008, p. 88). As a library clerk, I have had this happen to me many times. One particular woman, a grade school teacher, comes up to my desk every few weeks with a new obscure topic she needs picture books about and we always find something she can use. Another seemingly common experience is the peculiar notion that some patrons cling to that “libraries equals books” and not places where information is the real currency (Evens, 2008, p. 90-91). It is not as frequent as it once was, however we still have people occasionally come into our library and critique us for giving into the computer fad, before asking where all the good books have all gone. A third and not so common notion that Evens raises is that all the materials a collection could amass are futile unless people use them (Evens, 2008, p. 95). Some would argue that they have intrinsic value as objects that contain knowledge, but I agree with Evens specifically because knowledge is a process of personal discovery and not a thing that can be stored (like a virus knowledge must be passed on or it goes dormant and dies of disuse).
Evens also provides some professional insights into collection building and its complications that affect the experiences even basic staff have with a particular collection. Who has access to what can be a tricky issue, especially when it comes to the materials and resources to which a child should have access (Evens, 2008, p. 95). The library that I work for has changed its policies on what materials children can take out in the past year, expanding them to adult books but making the crucial choice to limit them from taking out any adult movies. Another issue professional collection developers have to constantly work around is that of which movements in literature and information to follow and which to ignore (Evens, 2008, p. 92). If a library purchases resources about one movement that turns out to be more of a fad, then that library is left with too many new resources that no one wants (Evens, 2008, p. 92). A great service my library has recently started using is from McNaughton, which lends us many copies of the latest best selling novels so that we do not have to purchase too many copies of the books that are currently popular but will only circulate a few copies in a few months. Lastly and most importantly, Evens recommends thorough and frequent “scanning” be done by all libraries (Evens, 2008, p. 93). My library is perhaps one of the most pertinent examples of what can happen when “scanning,” or assessing both the collection and the service community, is not done for a number of years. As a result, our overall collection is still in desperate need of weeding and updating, but we no longer have the kind of budget to achieve such a large-scale renovation quickly enough for all our patrons.
The above insights are all important to consider when creating or updating a collection. Moreover, they are all issues we as librarians will have to deal with in the future as more resources become available in more formats. We will all have some hard decisions to make in order to stay relevant to our communities and we must do our due diligence to make the right ones.
Evens, G. Edwards. (2008). Reflections on Creating Information Service Collections. In Ken Haycook & Brooke E. Sheldon (Eds.) The Portable MLIS: Insights from the experts. (pp.3-14). Westport: Libraries Unlimited.
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