Collection Development Policy
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I. Purpose of Policy The Charlestown-Clark County Public Library’s (CCCPL’s) collection development policy serves two primary purposes: 1) to guide staff in its efforts to meet community needs and interests while simultaneously navigating the high volume of works published, budget demands, and space limitations; and 2) to acquaint the public with the principles by which the Library selects and maintains its collection. The policy establishes roles and responsibilities and outlines the process by which patron questions and concerns are addressed. II. Mission, Community, and Scope of Collection
CCCPL’s collection is intended to meet the informational, educational, and recreational needs of its users. CCCPL serves the approximately 60,000 residents of northern Clark County, Indiana, living in rural, suburban, and small-town settings. III. Support for Intellectual Freedom CCCPL provides an impartial environment in which individuals and their interests are brought together with the universe of ideas and information spanning the spectrum of knowledge and opinions. Together with its Board of Trustees, the Library adheres to and supports the American Library Association’s Library Bill of Rights, Freedom to Read, and Freedom to View statements in support of acquiring and managing collections. (see Appendices B, C, and D) The Library collects and makes available materials reflecting a diversity of viewpoints. Some materials may be considered controversial or unorthodox to some groups or individuals within the community. Disagreements over acceptability of library materials do not result in automatic inclusion or exclusion from the collection. Library-initiated displays and programs will not exclude topics, books, media, or other resources solely because they may be considered controversial. CCCPL affirms that the use of library materials is an individual matter and that patrons should select or reject the use of materials for themselves. Please note that parents and legal guardians are responsible for guiding and directing the use of library materials for their own minor children and that selection of adult material will not be constrained by the possibility that minor children may access them. IV. Responsibility for Selection Selection of library materials is a collaborative effort between branch managers, department managers, collection development manager, and library associates, with branch managers and department managers making final selection decisions within their branches or assigned areas of responsibility. The library recognizes that a patron-oriented collection is built by:
A. Staff engaging in two-way communication with patrons to determine their needs In addition to materials selected and owned by CCCPL, the Library is a member of various consortia and subscribes to online databases in which digital items are selected by other consortium members and vendors outside the purview of CCCPL’s policy. Additionally, materials outside of CCCPL’s collection may be obtained from other libraries through the interlibrary loan process. V. Selection Criteria When available, CCCPL consults professional reviewing sources in its decision-making process. The following criteria is of particular importance in selecting library materials. Depending on the area of the collection and intended audience, some criteria may be weighed more heavily than others:
A. Reputation and authority of the item’s creator CCCPL provides access to materials in various and sometimes multiple formats based on price, space in collection, demand, and relevancy. Some formats of materials may be eliminated and replaced as public demand and technology change. VI. Local Authors, Self-Published Materials, and Publisher Inquiries The Library may purchase or accept donations of local works, self-published books, or publisher gifts, provided they meet CCCPL’s selection criteria and have received at least one independent, positive review in one or more professional review journals. Materials requested to be added to the collection may be brought to the attention of the Library via email (clarkcolib@gmail.com) or in person at any one of the branches, with attention addressed to the collection development manager. Requester must provide the following information: title; author; ISBN; price; link to reviews in professional journals; and a brief description of the material, its intended audience, and information about how and where to purchase. VII. Acquisition of New Resources CCCPL acquires selected materials by purchase or donation (see “Donations to the Library”). Items are most often purchased through a contracted library book vendor. If unavailable through the vendor, items are purchased from a reputable bookseller. Donated items are evaluated based on the policies set forth in this document. VIII. Donations to the Library CCCPL reserves the right to accept or decline any and all materials donated to the Library. All donations will be evaluated using the selection criteria outlined above. The donated items become the property of the Library and will not be returned to the donor if they are not added to the collection. The Library shall have the right to make all decisions with respect to the retention, storage, processing, use, and disposition of any donated materials. The Library is not obligated to keep donated materials for any length of time. When donated items are withdrawn from the collection, the Library will not notify the donor of the withdrawal. Guidelines for donated materials:
A. Items must be in good condition: we will not accept any items that are moldy, foul-smelling, bug infested, yellowed, soiled, torn or otherwise damaged, or items that have gotten wet. IX. Collection Maintenance and Weeding Each section of CCCPL’s collection is reviewed on a regular basis for accuracy, condition, currency, usage, diversity, and subject area gaps. Based on this evaluation, materials may be either kept, repaired, replaced, or permanently withdrawn (weeded). The library continually weeds items from the collection, basing its decisions on the following criteria:
A. Infrequent circulation Items that are withdrawn from the collection are handled in a responsible manner, which may include the following:
A. Donation to community partners (schools, churches, shelters, detention centers, etc.) The Indiana Room collection is not subject to these weeding policies, as that collection is archival in nature (see Appendix A). X. Reconsideration of Materials
Comments and conversations about CCCPL’s collection and individual items provide librarians with important information regarding interests or needs that are not adequately covered by the collection. The library welcomes the expression of opinions by patrons, but material selection and de-selection are governed by this Collection Development Policy. If a Clark County, Indiana resident who is a CCCPL card holder in good standing is concerned with the content of a specific item within the collection, that item should be brought to the attention of the appropriate branch manager, department manager, and/or Library Director for discussion. Approved by the Charlestown-Clark County Public Library Board of Trustees June 20, 2024. Appendix A Indiana Room Collection
CCCPL’s Indiana Room collection consists of books, newspapers, documents, photographs, family histories, government records, maps, and artifacts. The collection primarily focuses on Clark County, Indiana history and the genealogy of its citizens. Secondarily, the history of Indiana is included. Original and secondary source materials are preferred. The collection is meant to be used by everyone for genealogy and local history.
A. Relevance to the community The library has contributed over 80,000 digital images to Indiana Memory from original source materials owned by the Library. The digital collection is continually having images added by staff. Weeding items from the Indiana Room Collection is very rare. Reasons for weeding would include damaged, poor condition or no-longer accurate information. Appendix B Library Bill of Rights The American Library Association affirms that all libraries are forums for information and ideas, and that the following basic policies should guide their services. I. Books and other library resources should be provided for the interest, information, and enlightenment of all people of the community the library serves. Materials should not be excluded because of the origin, background, or views of those contributing to their creation. II. Libraries should provide materials and information presenting all points of view on current and historical issues. Materials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.
III. Libraries should challenge censorship in the fulfillment of their responsibility to provide information and enlightenment. V. A person’s right to use a library should not be denied or abridged because of origin, age, background, or views. VI. Libraries which make exhibit spaces and meeting rooms available to the public they serve should make such facilities available on an equitable basis, regardless of the beliefs or affiliations of individuals or groups requesting their use.
VII. All people, regardless of origin, age, background, or views, possess a right to privacy and confidentiality in their library use. Libraries should advocate for, educate about, and protect people’s privacy, safeguarding all library use data, including personally identifiable information. Inclusion of “age” reaffirmed January 23, 1996. Although the Articles of the Library Bill of Rights are unambiguous statements of basic principles that should govern the service of all libraries, questions do arise concerning application of these principles to specific library practices. See the documents designated by the Intellectual Freedom Committee as Interpretations of the Library Bill of Rights. Appendix C The Freedom to Read Statement The freedom to read is essential to our democracy. It is continuously under attack. Private groups and public authorities in various parts of the country are working to remove or limit access to reading materials, to censor content in schools, to label "controversial" views, to distribute lists of "objectionable" books or authors, and to purge libraries. These actions apparently rise from a view that our national tradition of free expression is no longer valid; that censorship and suppression are needed to counter threats to safety or national security, as well as to avoid the subversion of politics and the corruption of morals. We, as individuals devoted to reading and as librarians and publishers responsible for disseminating ideas, wish to assert the public interest in the preservation of the freedom to read. Most attempts at suppression rest on a denial of the fundamental premise of democracy: that the ordinary individual, by exercising critical judgment, will select the good and reject the bad. We trust Americans to recognize propaganda and misinformation, and to make their own decisions about what they read and believe. We do not believe they are prepared to sacrifice their heritage of a free press in order to be "protected" against what others think may be bad for them. We believe they still favor free enterprise in ideas and expression. These efforts at suppression are related to a larger pattern of pressures being brought against education, the press, art and images, films, broadcast media, and the Internet. The problem is not only one of actual censorship. The shadow of fear cast by these pressures leads, we suspect, to an even larger voluntary curtailment of expression by those who seek to avoid controversy or unwelcome scrutiny by government officials. Such pressure toward conformity is perhaps natural to a time of accelerated change. And yet suppression is never more dangerous than in such a time of social tension. Freedom has given the United States the elasticity to endure strain. Freedom keeps open the path of novel and creative solutions, and enables change to come by choice. Every silencing of a heresy, every enforcement of an orthodoxy, diminishes the toughness and resilience of our society and leaves it the less able to deal with controversy and difference. Now as always in our history, reading is among our greatest freedoms. The freedom to read and write is almost the only means for making generally available ideas or manners of expression that can initially command only a small audience. The written word is the natural medium for the new idea and the untried voice from which come the original contributions to social growth. It is essential to the extended discussion that serious thought requires, and to the accumulation of knowledge and ideas into organized collections. We believe that free communication is essential to the preservation of a free society and a creative culture. We believe that these pressures toward conformity present the danger of limiting the range and variety of inquiry and expression on which our democracy and our culture depend. We believe that every American community must jealously guard the freedom to publish and to circulate, in order to preserve its own freedom to read. We believe that publishers and librarians have a profound responsibility to give validity to that freedom to read by making it possible for the readers to choose freely from a variety of offerings. The freedom to read is guaranteed by the Constitution. Those with faith in free people will stand firm on these constitutional guarantees of essential rights and will exercise the responsibilities that accompany these rights. We therefore affirm these propositions: 1. It is in the public interest for publishers and librarians to make available the widest diversity of views and expressions, including those that are unorthodox, unpopular, or considered dangerous by the majority. Creative thought is by definition new, and what is new is different. The bearer of every new thought is a rebel until that idea is refined and tested. Totalitarian systems attempt to maintain themselves in power by the ruthless suppression of any concept that challenges the established orthodoxy. The power of a democratic system to adapt to change is vastly strengthened by the freedom of its citizens to choose widely from among conflicting opinions offered freely to them. To stifle every nonconformist idea at birth would mark the end of the democratic process. Furthermore, only through the constant activity of weighing and selecting can the democratic mind attain the strength demanded by times like these. We need to know not only what we believe but why we believe it.
2. Publishers, librarians, and booksellers do not need to endorse every idea or presentation they make available. It would conflict with the public interest for them to establish their own political, moral, or aesthetic views as a standard for determining what should be published or circulated. 3. It is contrary to the public interest for publishers or librarians to bar access to writings on the basis of the personal history or political affiliations of the author. No art or literature can flourish if it is to be measured by the political views or private lives of its creators. No society of free people can flourish that draws up lists of writers to whom it will not listen, whatever they may have to say. 4. There is no place in our society for efforts to coerce the taste of others, to confine adults to the reading matter deemed suitable for adolescents, or to inhibit the efforts of writers to achieve artistic expression. To some, much of modern expression is shocking. But is not much of life itself shocking? We cut off literature at the source if we prevent writers from dealing with the stuff of life. Parents and teachers have a responsibility to prepare the young to meet the diversity of experiences in life to which they will be exposed, as they have a responsibility to help them learn to think critically for themselves. These are affirmative responsibilities, not to be discharged simply by preventing them from reading works for which they are not yet prepared. In these matters values differ, and values cannot be legislated; nor can machinery be devised that will suit the demands of one group without limiting the freedom of others. 5. It is not in the public interest to force a reader to accept the prejudgment of a label characterizing any expression or its author as subversive or dangerous. The ideal of labeling presupposes the existence of individuals or groups with wisdom to determine by authority what is good or bad for others. It presupposes that individuals must be directed in making up their minds about the ideas they examine. But Americans do not need others to do their thinking for them. 6. It is the responsibility of publishers and librarians, as guardians of the people's freedom to read, to contest encroachments upon that freedom by individuals or groups seeking to impose their own standards or tastes upon the community at large; and by the government whenever it seeks to reduce or deny public access to public information. It is inevitable in the give and take of the democratic process that the political, the moral, or the aesthetic concepts of an individual or group will occasionally collide with those of another individual or group. In a free society individuals are free to determine for themselves what they wish to read, and each group is free to determine what it will recommend to its freely associated members. But no group has the right to take the law into its own hands, and to impose its own concept of politics or morality upon other members of a democratic society. Freedom is no freedom if it is accorded only to the accepted and the inoffensive. Further, democratic societies are more safe, free, and creative when the free flow of public information is not restricted by governmental prerogative or self-censorship. 7. It is the responsibility of publishers and librarians to give full meaning to the freedom to read by providing books that enrich the quality and diversity of thought and expression. By the exercise of this affirmative responsibility, they can demonstrate that the answer to a "bad" book is a good one, the answer to a "bad" idea is a good one. The freedom to read is of little consequence when the reader cannot obtain matter fit for that reader's purpose. What is needed is not only the absence of restraint, but the positive provision of opportunity for the people to read the best that has been thought and said. Books are the major channel by which the intellectual inheritance is handed down, and the principal means of its testing and growth. The defense of the freedom to read requires of all publishers and librarians the utmost of their faculties, and deserves of all Americans the fullest of their support. We state these propositions neither lightly nor as easy generalizations. We here stake out a lofty claim for the value of the written word. We do so because we believe that it is possessed of enormous variety and usefulness, worthy of cherishing and keeping free. We realize that the application of these propositions may mean the dissemination of ideas and manners of expression that are repugnant to many persons. We do not state these propositions in the comfortable belief that what people read is unimportant. We believe rather that what people read is deeply important; that ideas can be dangerous; but that the suppression of ideas is fatal to a democratic society. Freedom itself is a dangerous way of life, but it is ours. This statement was originally issued in May of 1953 by the Westchester Conference of the American Library Association and the American Book Publishers Council, which in 1970 consolidated with the American Educational Publishers Institute to become the Association of American Publishers. Adopted June 25, 1953, by the ALA Council and the AAP Freedom to Read Committee; amended January 28, 1972; January 16, 1991; July 12, 2000; June 30, 2004.
A Joint Statement by:
Subsequently endorsed by: Appendix D Freedom to View Statement The FREEDOM TO VIEW, along with the freedom to speak, to hear, and to read, is protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. In a free society, there is no place for censorship of any medium of expression. Therefore, these principles are affirmed:
This statement was originally drafted by the Freedom to View Committee of the American Film and Video
Association (formerly the Educational Film Library Association) and was adopted by the AFVA Board of Directors in February 1979. This statement was updated and approved by the AFVA Board of Directors in 1989. |
