E9-Collection development for adults and special groups

Final examination

This examination is a “take home” examination.  It does not require the presence of an exam supervisor.  You may spend as much time as you wish to complete the question in this examination and you may consult whatever resources you choose.  The examination must be returned to your tutor no later than seven days after you receive it or take it off the website.
 
There are four (4) steps in this examination.  Make sure you complete all four steps and submit your written descriptions for the last three (3) steps to your tutor.  Be sure to keep a copy when you submit the original.
 
As you have discovered in this course, library collection development has quite a number of steps, including gathering information about materials, selecting, and purchasing.  It also includes a bit of marketing and collection organization as it is hardly worth spending scarce money on a book if no one can find it!  In this examination, you will look at collection development as a total picture. 

Step 1

Re-read the pages 2 to 26 of Module 2.  This section focuses on readers’ advisory services but covers the idea of how people find books and materials that are of interest to them.

Step 2

Write a half-page description of how patrons currently find materials in your library (there will be more than one way that patrons find materials in the library)
          For example:

• No catalogue, patrons ask the library staff

• Have an automated catalogue and patrons can refer to a one page instruction sheet on using the catalogue that sits beside the computer.

• Patrons browse the shelves (sections in the library are marked to indicate non-fiction, large print books, etc. and the fiction collection is in a separate room)

Step 3

Write at least one half page to describe some of the problems that people encounter when they try to find fiction and non-fiction materials in your library. 
          For example:

• In our catalogue, the call number for all fiction is FIC.  However, we have separated the fiction books on the shelves into various genres and have not marked the genre on the catalogue entries. People often don’t find genre material that has been ‘pulled’ from the regular collection.

Step 4

In a one-page submission, describe how you might improve your collection, particularly how you might be able to improve access to your collection.
          For example:

• If we purchased more mystery novels, there might be enough books to create a separate mystery section which is an arrangement the patrons seem to want

• Install better signs (including pictures for those with lower literacy levels)

• Put labels on individual books (i.e., mystery, westerns)

• Create reading lists identifying books that are actually in our collection (books that have been made into movies)

• Create an information sheet for patrons explaining how the find books

*End of examination*
Revised: 2008