Interview Report on Collection Development

Sandra Findley

Emporia State University

Collection Development and Management LI 855 XR

Professor Rocci June 30, 2013

I interviewed Candice Baldwin who is the Library Director for Metropolitan Community College (MCC)-Longview Library, where I am employed. She is the librarian in charge of collection development and management. I learned a great deal about how collection development and management is handled at our institution from Candice. She provided very insightful and thorough answers to my interview questions. Following is my report. Where did you get your MLS? Ms. Baldwin obtained her MLS from the University of Illinois Champaign/Urbana. Did you take a class in collection development? If yes, was it helpful? Ms. Baldwin took one class on purchasing scientific materials during library school. She did not find it helpful. What criteria do you use when selecting materials? Ms. Baldwin has worked and purchased library materials for public libraries, an Army Post library, a U.S. Army graduate level school library, and community college libraries. She has experienced each library to be different and the criteria to be different for each type of library. Following is the criteria that she currently uses for the community college library:

Is the reading level appropriate (lower reading levels are better) Is the item related to the curriculum taught Have students asked for similar materials for class assignments Is the item necessary to update an older edition or older material Has the faculty asked for the items Will the items be used by the campus for a unique campus event

In addition, at every library she works with the staff to develop a collection development policy as soon as she begins working at the institution so the criteria is very clear not only to the library staff, but also to the users. How many on your staff participate in collection development? There are primarily seven staff members that participate in collection development. Six reference librarians read the book reviews and/or provide book purchase selections to Ms. Baldwin. She is the final approver/selector.

Do your users have input in the collection development? The faculty is welcome and encouraged to suggest materials. Most student input comes from our suggestion box and sometimes through email messages sent to Ms. Baldwin.

Who drives the selection of your materials? The librarians or the users? In an effort to save money, Ms. Baldwin was asked to change our material selection method from librarians to users this year. It was very difficult and almost impossible to get selections from the faculty. They honestly prefer that the librarians do the selecting of materials. Consequently money was left over in the book budget at the end of the year, which was what the administration wanted.

How has technology changed the way you order books? Technology has made it faster; however, the purchasing bureaucracy at this institution minimizes any of the speed. Online book reviews are not used at this library. Prior to this position, Ms. Baldwin was at a community college where online book reviews were used, and they were allowed to submit book orders directly through the library automation system. She really liked that system.

What are your thoughts on eBooks or e-resources? Ms. Baldwin has worked as a full-time librarian for the past 35 years and had hoped to retire before the eBook change. But, that isnt going to happen for her. She has a personal Kindle and an iPad with book reading apps. She sometimes uses those devices, but she prefers print material. She has also noticed that MCCs users prefer print material and that many of the students do not own any type of reading device and sometimes do not even have a computer at home. More than 10,000 eBooks are available through the catalog that students can use online. These eBooks get about 3,000 uses every year throughout all five MCC campuses. MCC is in the process of purchasing a new eBook product through MOBIUS. EBSCO is the vendor. The collection is primarily academic level; however, there is a community college collection and a K-12 collection included which Ms. Baldwin thinks will be better suited for MCC students lower reading levels. These 120,000 books will be downloadable to all mobile devices (newer Kindles, iPads, phones, etc.), and MOBIUS plans to load the MARC records for all of the books into the MOBIUS and local cluster catalogs so that a user will be able to easily download the titles without going into another database set. When Ms. Baldwin offered the free trial to the MCC faculty, she found that most of the faculty had a hard time figuring out how to download the books, and it remains to be seen how well this eBook collection/product will be received. Also, similar to the days when the electronic journal databases replaced print indexes, the selection of material has been removed from both the librarians and the users. She feels that it is a difficult change to embrace. eBook vendors offering actual purchase of individual titles (Overdrive, eBook Library, etc.) are very costly, however, she anticipates that those vendor products will improve and become more of the norm in book selection.

What is the best part of your job? Ms. Baldwin loves solving problems (challenges). She thinks that the best part (and worst part) is that the problems (challenges) never end.

What do you like most about the way your job has evolved in the past five years? Ms. Baldwin loves technology and truly embraces the technological changes. The fact that she can work remotely from home and on the go with her iPhone, iPad and laptop, has made her job easier. That technology wasnt there for her five years ago.

How do you expect your library to change in the next five years? Ms. Baldwin expects more and more electronic resources, yet, tighter and tighter funds. She also expects less staff and changing roles for all of the staff (librarians and support staff) to provide appropriate library services. The administration at MCC has a vision of creating campus Student Success Centers where a variety of student support services (counseling, learning center/tutors, student employment, student life and leadership) will be located inside the library. Concluding remarks I enjoyed my interview with Candice and feel that Ive learned a lot about more collection development in our organization. Our acquisitions person is retiring and I will be taking over this position as of July 1, 2013 - our new budget year! I knew some of this information already since Ive been heavily training on this the past few months, but this interview helped me to learn even more.