Etta Gold sent me this very useful paper she presented at the Chicago convention and I thought I would post it for everyone. Thanks, Etta!
[cid:image003.jpg@01CFFC1E.CB2016D0] Lisa Silverman Library Director, Sinai Temple Blumenthal Library 10400 WILSHIRE BOULEVARD, LOS ANGELES, CA 90024 310-481-3215 (direct) 310-481-3218 (main) library.sinaitemple.org<http://library.sinaitemple.org/> Freshman Seminar AJL Convention, Chicago -- July 2009 Creating Functional Policies Presented by Etta D. Gold, Temple Beth Am of Miami, Florida ego...@earthlink.net<mailto:eg...@shadow.net> eg...@tbam.org<mailto:eg...@tbam.org> Sample Policy Statements Mission Statements A written statement of purpose outlining the goals and activities, the vision and values of the library is essential in establishing its character and makeup. It also ensures that everyone - staff, patrons, sponsors - all know exactly what the intentions and aspirations of the library are. Sample #1: The mission of the Temple Beth Am Library is to provide materials of education, entertainment, and enrichment for our schools, congregation, and community. The Library staff shall coordinate programs to supplement and enhance the variety of educational, social, and spiritual activities and events that take place at Temple Beth Am. The Library staff is committed to excellence and service that brings about a positive experience for every library user. Sample #2: The Samuel and Rebecca Astor Judaica Library is dedicated to serving the San Diego community at large as a central source of Jewish knowledge by providing access to information in support of the mission of the San Diego Center for Jewish Culture: to promote Jewish culture, heritage and creativity in the arts. Special attention is given to materials that supplement the programming of the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center and the San Diego Center for Jewish Culture. The SRAJL also maintains extensive special collections on both the Nazi Holocaust and Israel. Our vision statement: The SRAJL will be a central and vital part of the San Diego Jewish community by providing access to information in all formats in the areas of Jewish heritage and culture. It will provide for all of the information needs of its patrons and will be a central reference source for Judaic information not contained within its own physical facility. Samplings of public library mission statements are published on the web at: http://www.sldirectory.com/libsf/resf/studies.html Collection Policy Statements A formal written statement of the principles guiding a library's selection of new books and materials, including the authority and criteria used in selection and weeding can be very helpful, even indispensable, to a smooth operation. The policy should include a carefully considered written 'selections policy' that covers gifts and other donations. This, along with regularly scheduled evaluations and inventories serves to document the current collection, pursue lost books and "holes," discard out-of-date and tattered books, while establishing a framework for future acquisitions. Sample #1: The school library media specialist is responsible for materials selection, acquisition, and collection development. Guidelines in materials selection include: o Ensuring that all subjects in the curriculum are supported and strengthened. o Ensuring that adequate reading materials are available to meet demand. o Reviewing requests of the library community. o Ensuring that materials are appropriate for the level of the K-5 community. o Materials selection is made by consideration of review media, announcements of new publications by publishers, user recommendations, librarian personal review, study of bibliographies on specific subjects and examination of present collection. Sample #2: The evaluation of materials is characterized by flexibility, open-mindedness, and a responsiveness to the changing needs of the library community. Because needs change, the materials must be evaluated initially and on a continuing basis. Materials are evaluated as a whole and not on the basis of a particular section or sections. A work will not be excluded from the library's collection because it presents an aspect of life honestly, as long as it is age appropriate. Criteria for selection may be different for different items at different times. Sometimes the criteria include artistic merit, scholarship, award winners, or the value of the material to the informational needs of the community. Sometimes the criteria is substantial demand, i.e., current trends in teaching, series books, interdisciplinary units taught in themes. Recreational materials are collected to provide enjoyment, stretch the imagination, cultivate a love of learning and reading, stimulate creativity, supplement study, and provide an awareness of many different ideas. To build a collection that is vital and useful to the community, the Library strives for prompt acquisition of new materials and elimination of worn-out and dated materials. Purchase requests - patron and staff requests are carefully considered and weighed in relation to the total library collection and budget. Gifts of materials that have no conditions as to use, location, rebinding, or disposal are accepted by the library, and may be added even though they would not have ordinarily been purchased. Generally, the same standards of selection are applied to gifts. Duplication - Duplicate copies of materials are purchased to take care of permanent or temporary demands, i.e., dictionaries, thesauri, class sets of fiction titles, materials used in school wide units. Replacements: In considering replacement of library materials withdrawn because of theft, damage, or wear, each case is weighed with regard to several factors. If there are duplicate copies, other books that adequately cover the subject area, similar material that is more recent, and demand for the title are all considered. In the book collection, superseded editions are weeded regularly and replaced with the latest editions. Every effort is made to replace important titles. Samplings of Collection Development Policies are published on the web at: http://paarl.wikispaces.com/Useful+Links#Samples Weeding Policy Statements Weeding should entail the same care, thought and judgment as selection. Thought should be on the goals of the library as well upon the availability of funds for replacement of existing titles before older titles that are still useful for the collection are weeded. Sample #1: Books that should be weeded from the collection include: * Duplicate copies of titles that are no longer in demand; Three to five years without circulating and librarians knowledge that it has not been used in the library for reference. * Titles which have been superseded by newer editions; * Books that are worn, damaged, or not in sufficient demand to justify extensive repair or rebinding; * Books that contain out-of-date material and which are superseded by more current titles in any given category. * Sets of textbooks and old textbooks unless single copies are to be used for reference; * Sets of readers which can be returned to the classroom or other storage areas. Sample #2: Our librarian shall consider the physical condition, qualitative worth and quantitative worth of the item, and look for the following things: last date of circulation ( 3 years with no circulation + 10 years old) physical condition timeliness bias reliability in or out of style/fad interest duplicates superseded editions subject areas material type - Super8, beta tapes, floppy disks technical aspects - sound, equipment needed content relevance The librarian shall week accordingly Samplings of weeding policy statements are published on the web at: http://eduscapes.com/sms/access/weeding.html [cid:image004.jpg@01CFFC1E.CB2016D0] Lisa Silverman Library Director, Sinai Temple Blumenthal Library 10400 WILSHIRE BOULEVARD, LOS ANGELES, CA 90024 310-481-3215 (direct) 310-481-3218 (main) library.sinaitemple.org<http://library.sinaitemple.org/>
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