Books & Bits: A library's collection reflects its community

If you regularly follow regional and state news, you’ve likely heard about a book that is causing controversy in a couple of libraries in the state. Today I’m not weighing in on the merits of this book; instead, I wanted to share some insights into how libraries select books and other materials that are in their collections.

The process of adding material to a library – called collection development – is rooted in a library’s mission statement. Carrington City Library’s mission statement begins with “to promote a life-long love of reading enjoyment

. . .” After years of serving library patrons, I’ve learned the best way to promote reading is to get books into the hands of readers, and that means provide them with the books that they really want to read.

To that end, we strive to meet the needs of our patrons by acquiring a “large breadth and depth of materials” (CCL Collection Development Policy). Fiction and nonfiction books for adults, children, juveniles and teens comprise the majority of our collection. We also have DVDs, magazines and audiobooks, and we provide access to an online ebook and audiobook collection.

Logically, our rural library cannot possibly afford to purchase or house the hundreds of thousands of books published each year. Our library patrons are primarily looking for the newest books by favorite authors; thus, the majority of our budget is used to purchase new releases. We also take into consideration requests by patrons and regularly evaluate our collection for areas of need.

When we do not have a book to meet a patron’s request, we can often borrow it from another library. This greatly expands our ability to meet our patrons’ “varied interests, abilities and backgrounds” (CCL Collection Development Policy), all within our limited budget.

Carrington City Library’s collection does not include the book that has been the focus of controversy in our state. As the library director, I can’t say that I’m opposed to or in favor of having this book in our collection because I haven’t evaluated it, and we haven’t had any requests for this title or items similar to it. But I do acknowledge that there are some readers who might want to read it, and I passionately believe that the freedom to read is one of the foundations of a democracy as a part of the First Amendment guarantee to the freedom of expression.

It isn’t the role of our library to determine what people should read. Some books are very popular now but won’t be some day, and that’s okay. Others were popular twenty years ago and still are, and that’s okay too. Some don’t fit into our collection because they aren’t what our patrons really want to read, and that’s okay too.

What’s most important is that we provide a variety of books, which encourages reading. That’s our primary role and one of the services Carrington City Library offers our community.