Collection Development Policy

Adopted July 12, 2021

Selection of Materials

The Millington Arbela District Library selects mate­ri­als that meet the edu­ca­tion­al, infor­ma­tion­al, research­ing, and recre­ation­al needs of the com­mu­ni­ty at large. To pro­vide excel­lent ser­vice to library users, the library pro­vides a free, open, non-judgmental access to col­lec­tions and ser­vices. The library sup­ports intel­lec­tu­al free­dom and dis­avows cen­sor­ship. The library will pro­vide a col­lec­tion of broad ideas and diverse view­points that take the inter­ests of staff and library users into con­sid­er­a­tion. The scope of the col­lec­tion includes mate­ri­als with wide­spread, con­tem­po­rary appeal and his­tor­i­cal val­ue at all read­ing lev­els and ages. The Library Bill of Rights by the American Library Association may be used as a guide to assist library staff in col­lec­tion devel­op­ment.
The assis­tant direc­tor and direc­tor will select and pur­chase library mate­ri­als. Library staff may also assist in the selec­tion process. The direc­tor will have the final say on selec­tion. Before the begin­ning of each bud­get year, the direc­tor will del­e­gate funds to library mate­ri­als and the library board will vote to rat­i­fy or veto the bud­get. The bud­get for library mate­ri­als will be based on the per­for­mance of the bud­get from the pre­vi­ous year, inter­est in the mate­ri­als, and fore­cast­ed library fund­ing.
When select­ing mate­r­i­al, each item is con­sid­ered on an indi­vid­ual basis. When mate­r­i­al is being select­ed var­i­ous cri­te­ria are tak­en into con­sid­er­a­tion. Criteria include if the mate­r­i­al was eval­u­at­ed by selec­tion staff, cov­ers a sub­ject not cur­rent­ly rep­re­sent­ed in the col­lec­tion, has pos­i­tive reviews in pro­fes­sion­al jour­nals, and has pop­u­lar demand. Popular demand can be either an item on a best sell­ers list or high local inter­est.
Library card hold­ers can request the library acquire an item. The mate­r­i­al will be con­sid­ered based on the before men­tioned cri­te­ria. Materials can be request­ed in writ­ing. There is no guar­an­tee that a request­ed item will be pur­chased.
The library col­lec­tion attempts to cov­er a wide vari­ety of sub­jects but is unable to meet every need. To best meet demand the library may pur­chase dupli­cate copies of best-selling books and heav­i­ly used mate­r­i­al. When prac­ti­cal and avail­able, the library will attempt to pro­vide mate­ri­als in var­i­ous for­mats such as book, non-book, audio­book, DVD, etc. The library also par­tic­i­pates in inter­li­brary loan and net­works to allow library users to obtain resources, infor­ma­tion, and ser­vices that the library does not pro­vide on its own.

Gifts & Donations

The Millington Arbela District Library wel­comes dona­tions of new and used books, DVDs, office sup­plies, and oth­er, sim­i­lar mate­ri­als. Once an item is donat­ed to the library, the item becomes prop­er­ty of the Millington Arbela District Library. Donations and gifts are added to the col­lec­tion based on the selec­tion cri­te­ria stat­ed above. If an item is not select­ed as part of the library col­lec­tion, the library can choose what to do with the item such as sell the item, rehome the item, trade for oth­er mate­r­i­al, or dis­card dona­tions. Donations are only accept­ed as gifts and can­not be returned to the donor. Conditions can­not be placed on an item accept­ed for dona­tion. The library can write an acknowl­edge­ment let­ter for gifts and dona­tions but the let­ter will not include an appraisal amount. Appraisal of dona­tions for tax pur­pos­es is not pro­vid­ed by the library and is the donor’s respon­si­bil­i­ty to do so before donat­ing.
Donations and gifts in hon­or or mem­o­ry of some­one are wel­comed by the library. Material pur­chased with these funds will be cho­sen through the library selec­tion cri­te­ria while con­sid­er­ing the wish­es of the donor and the hon­oree. Material pur­chased with memo­r­i­al or hon­orary con­tri­bu­tions will have a spe­cial donor plate when­ev­er pos­si­ble. Honorary and Memorial dona­tions are processed using the Commemorative Donation Request form.
Donations that alter library prop­er­ty, involve real estate or stock, arti­facts, art pieces, or col­lec­tions must be approved by the library board. The library board will take into con­sid­er­a­tion main­te­nance fees, insur­ance costs, laws and reg­u­la­tions, and the library’s needs when deter­min­ing the accep­tance of the donation.

Reconsideration of Library Materials

It is a patron’s per­son­al choice what mate­ri­als they use for per­son­al use. Parents and legal guardians are respon­si­ble for what library mate­ri­als their chil­dren and teens use. Patrons may choose what mate­ri­als work best for them­selves but can­not per­form cen­sor­ship to lim­it or restrict access to mate­ri­als to oth­ers.
There may be library mate­ri­als that do not fit the taste and inter­ests of indi­vid­ual library patrons. Library staff may dis­cuss con­cerns and offer alter­na­tive titles to library users. If an adult with an active Millington Arbela District Library account takes issue with an item in the col­lec­tion and is not sat­is­fied after talk­ing to library staff, the library user may fill out a Request for Reconsideration form and sub­mit it to the library direc­tor. Only com­plet­ed forms will be accept­ed. The per­son fill­ing out the form must have read, lis­tened to, or viewed the mate­r­i­al in its entire­ty for the mate­r­i­al to be recon­sid­ered.
Upon receiv­ing the form, the library direc­tor has 30 days to respond. The direc­tor will respond to the per­son who filled out the form in writ­ing with the deci­sion as to what action is or isn’t tak­en in con­cern to the library mate­r­i­al. The patron who sub­mit­ted the request may appeal the director’s deci­sion by sub­mit­ting an appeal in writ­ing to the pres­i­dent of the library board no lat­er than 10 busi­ness days after the director’s deci­sion. The board’s deci­sion on the mate­r­i­al is final. There will be no retal­i­a­tion by library staff or the board on a library patron that chal­lenges material.

Deselection

Materials are des­e­lect­ed when they no longer suit the library’s needs. Deselection keeps the col­lec­tion rel­e­vant and use­ful. Materials may be des­e­lect­ed due to their phys­i­cal con­di­tion, their cost of upkeep, include obso­lete infor­ma­tion, or are no longer in use by library users or staff. Deselected items are dis­posed of or dis­card­ed in a legal man­ner. These man­ners include donat­ing, sell­ing, throw­ing out, or recycling.