Burbank Public Library Policy: Collection Development
I. Purpose
This formal policy serves six vital purposes:
- It acts as a blueprint for our collection, guiding staff in decision-making regarding the selection, management, and preservation of the collection under budgetary and space limitations.
- It identifies responsibilities for developing collections that reflect the Library’s mission statement.
- It establishes the parameters and priorities, guiding staff in developing budgets and allocating resources.
- It informs the public of the principals guiding our collection development.
- It adapts to reflect new and differing areas of interest and concern to the community.
- It states the Library’s commitment to intellectual freedom and to providing information expressing a variety of viewpoints.
II. Mission and Values
The mission of the Burbank Public Library is to connect the community to opportunities for growth, inspiration, and discovery.
III. Authority and Responsibility for Collection Development
The ultimate responsibility for the selection of all library materials rests with the Library Services Director, who operates under the auspices of the Burbank City Council. Under the Director, selection is delegated to the professional staff. Staff collection management decisions reflect the Library’s mission statement and the standards and principles in this document. The collection receives continuous evaluation to be sure that the Library is fulfilling its mission to provide material in a timely manner to meet patrons’ interests and needs. Statistical tools, such as circulation reports and turnover rates, are studied to determine how the collection is being used and how it should change to answer patron need. All library staff and members of the public are welcome to offer suggestions for purchase. Suggestions for purchase are evaluated in accordance with the standards for selection.
IV. Statement of Objectives
Burbank Public Library’s primary objective for collection development is to ensure the collection meets the broad and diverse interest of the community and respects both the library’s autonomy and their specific community needs. The Burbank Public Library serves as a center for voluntary inquiry and the dissemination of information and ideas. Library materials should be provided for interest, information, and enlightenment of all people, and should present diverse points of view in the collection as a whole. The Burbank Public Library preserves the right of the public to receive access to a range of social, political, aesthetic, moral, and other ideas and experiences.
To support the primary objective, library materials are selected, organized, and made accessible to meet the diverse needs of the residents, industry, and government of the City of Burbank.
V. Overview and Scope of the Collection
The Burbank Public Library’s collection includes books, CDs, DVDs, periodicals, microforms, online materials, internet Hot Spots, and more. The Library collects in multiple languages. Current collections emphasize popular works, basic reference, and local scholastic support. The Library’s collection is nonarchival, except for the Burbank in Focus digital collection and the local history collection at the Burbank Central Library. The Burbank Central Library houses the largest collection of books, DVDs, CDs, audiobooks, magazines and newspapers. Branch collections are not as comprehensive as that of the Central Library. Materials are selected for those collections according to the needs of those neighborhoods and in relation to the collection as a whole.
The Library offers its patrons access to a greatly expanded collection via our interlibrary loan service. The Library also provides service electronically through its online catalog, website, subscription databases, and collection of e-media that currently includes e-books, e-audiobooks, videos, music, and periodicals. The Library’s e-resources are available to anyone present in the library, and, with limited exceptions, offsite to the Library’s cardholders through the library’s website, vendor websites, and apps.
VI. Intellectual Freedom Statement
The Library neither approves nor disapproves of the views expressed in materials included in its collection. The purchase, or inclusion, of an item is not to be considered an endorsement, official or otherwise, by the Library; it is merely an expression of community interest. Selections for the Library will not be made based on anticipated approval or disapproval, but solely on the merits of the material in relation to building the collection, serving the needs and interests of users, and in accordance with the selection criteria in this policy.
Within the framework of the United States Constitution, the Library Bill of Rights, and the Freedom to Read and Freedom to View statements of the American Library Association, the library will provide materials representing all approaches to public issues of a controversial nature.
The Library endorses the principles of the Freedom to Read and Freedom to View Statements, the Library Bill of Rights and related documents adopted by the American Library Association (ALA):
Diversity in Collection Development
Free Access to Libraries for Minors
Evaluating Library Collections
VII. Materials Selection Policy
Burbank Public Library serves a community of diverse interests and concerns. The library offers a broad selection of materials for children, adolescents, and adults. The Materials Selection Policy establishes guidelines for the selection and placement of library materials in the library.
Library staff makes selections based upon principle and not personal opinion; reason and not prejudice; and professional judgment, not censorship.
Collection development decisions are made based on selector expertise and knowledge of what is already in the collection, by evaluating reviews in library journals (online and in print) and other library selection tools. The Library selects materials based on a variety of criteria including:
- Demonstrated or perceived community interest, need, or demand by Library users or potential users
- Suitability of subject, style, and reading level for the intended audience
- Quality, including durability, clarity, accuracy and usability
- Value of the resource in relation to its cost
- Contemporary or local significance and/or permanent value
- Local author, illustrator, or subject
- Relevance to the experience and contributions of diverse and varied populations
- Significance and/or reputation of author and/or any other contributors
- Relation to existing collection
- Space limitations
- Evaluations in critical review media
These criteria are applied as appropriate across all subjects, languages, and material types/formats. In each case, the material is judged on the volume as a whole, not by detached excerpts. Each type of work is considered in terms of its own merit and intended audience. There is no single standard that can be applied in all cases. Works are not excluded because of frankness or coarse language. On controversial questions upon which there are divergent points of view, the Library policy is to provide material representing all sides of the discussion as far as availability permits.
Some works may contain views, opinions, and concepts that are outdated, offensive, or harmful, or may be created by people who are offensive or controversial. All materials in the collection are selected and regularly evaluated using the standards above as needs change over time, and in pursuit of an overall collection that is inclusive and responsive to the diversity of viewpoints and experiences in the community.
Parents or guardians are responsible for decisions regarding their own children’s use of library materials. Parents or guardians have the right to guide the reading, viewing, and listening of their children but must give the same right to other parents or guardians. Selection of adult materials will not be restricted by the possibility that these materials may come into the possession of minors.
VIII. Gifts and Donations
The Library will accept gifts and donations based on the same material selection standards that apply to purchased materials. The decision to accept o reject a gift is the Library’s prerogative.
Gifted materials are accepted with the understanding that they may be discarded if the library determines that they are of little or no value to the collections. Balanced development of the collection along lines of community needs and interests must be the prime consideration in handling gifts.
Monetary value of gifts for income tax purposes will not be determined by the library. Such appraisals must be made by the donor.
Library gift materials not added to the library’s collection may be sold or recycled by the Friends of the Burbank Public Library.
The Friends of the Burbank Public Library is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization (Tax Exempt ID# 95-3603527).
Replacements
Materials that have been lost or damaged may be replaced using the same criteria as for selection. Other factors considered when deciding on replacements include the number of copies the Library system owns, the availability of newer materials on the subject, existence of adequate coverage of a field, demand for a specific title, and obsolescence of the format or media type.
IX. Withdrawing Circulating Materials
Systematic withdrawal of circulating materials, known as de-selection or “weeding” is required to keep the Library’s collection responsive to patron needs, to ensure its vitality and usefulness to the community, and to make room for newer materials or newer formats. The Library will utilize the CREW: A Weeding Manual for Modern Libraries as a guide to determine when materials should be removed from the collection. Withdrawing materials also helps the Library evaluate the collection by identifying areas or titles where additional materials are needed, and the subjects, titles, formats, or authors that are no longer of interest to the community. A racial equity analysis is applied to the withdrawal process to ensure the collections’ overall responsiveness to the community.
Disposal of withdrawn Materials
Materials that have been withdrawn from the collection may be sold, discarded, or given away to local organizations.
X. Patron Challenges to the Collection
It is the responsibility of librarians, as guardians of the people's freedom to read, to defend challenges to that freedom by individuals or groups seeking to impose their own standards or tastes upon the community at large.
The Library Services Director and librarians are aware that a person or persons may take issue with the selection of any specific item, and they welcome opinions from the public. However, they do not undertake to please all patrons by the elimination of items purchased under guidance of the policies herein.
Procedures have been established that will ensure consideration of any request for restriction or removal of any item in the library’s collection. However, until such an examination has been made and a decision has been reached by the Library Services Director, no such restriction or removal shall take place. No group or individual will be permitted to impose partisan emphasis upon the library’s collection, since all political, religious, and social opinions may be represented in a public library. Frankness of language will never be considered sufficient justification to restrict or remove library materials.
Any patron with an active Library card who resides in the City of Burbank that has questions, concerns, or objections regarding a specific item may fill out a Request for Reconsideration of Library Materials form. A committee consisting of the Library Services Director, a representative from the City Attorney’s office, and the supervisor of the Library division in which the item is shelved will review the item and respond with a final decision.
An individual can submit up to three requests for reconsideration per 12 months, with each request limited to a single title. To be eligible, the patron must be a Burbank resident with a library account that has been active for at least six months. Groups and organizations are not eligible to submit requests. Mass challenges of multiple titles from non-residents and groups or organizations will not be considered.
Once a patron has requested reconsideration of a title, the individual may never request reconsideration of that same title again. If the Burbank Public Library receives multiple reconsideration requests for the same title within a five-year period, the Burbank Public Library may adopt essentially the same written decision for each request, without repeatedly establishing and seeking advice from a committee.
Review of Policy
This policy will be revisited by the Library Division Manager, Community Connections who will recommend changes or revisions to the Library Services Director on a yearly basis.