Collection Development

This week I began helping with the collection development for juvenile non-fiction. I began at the 599's and started working backwards.  With a listing of books with poor circulation records, I began to look at the books that had not circulated in the past five or more years and publishing dates.  We still had books that were published in 1950's and 60's on the shelves.  As I looked at each book, I began to remember the criteria used for weeding.  I looked at the content, age of information, accuracy and relevancy.  Many older books had black and white photos in them and I pulled them immediately.  Some books had never been taken out but were still current so I have tried to display them to generate some interest.  After weeding the books from the shelves, we look at the catalog to determine if they are the only book in the library system since we don't want to eliminate materials that may still be wanted.  When I weeded and purchased at the school library, I did not have to consider other library holdings before pulling.  We also look for other ways to recycle the materials if they are weeded from the system  We have a Friends group that has an on-going used book sale at the library and also have a company that will take some of our discarded books.  Others that are not reused are recycled through a recycling company.
I am looking forward to the next step of identifying holes in the collection and areas that can compliment our local school's curriculum.  I have subscribed to Booklist and am looking at the last two months to identify suggested materials that could be added.  Animal reports are common for second grade students so I want to make sure we have a good selection of lower reading level but high interest animal books.  Third grade students learn about world wide countries and cultures and also would need access to animal information.
We have a good selection of science project materials and more have been ordered since we have received a Stewart's grant to enhance the science section to help students research for Science Fair projects.  We are also planning a spring break program geared towards science and will hopefully generate more interest in science.  We recently received new non-fiction so I created a display for them in the children's section and several have already been checked out.
I am enjoying learning this process that is so important in serving our patrons.