Core Competency F

Use the basic concepts and principles related to the selection, evaluation, organization, and preservation of physical and digital information items.

Statement of Competence
Collection management is one of the more vital concepts of which to have a deep awareness while working in the field of library and information science. Even if an information professional’s job does not deal directly with collection development, every library staff member encounters collection management in some form. The selection of library materials usually falls to the collection development staff, but these employees depend on recommendations from customer service representatives in order to know what the patrons want to see on shelves. Evaluation of materials can be performed anywhere at any time, and by any staff member from a page to a branch manager. All employees also take part in organizing materials, whether on the shelves or selecting specific materials for specialty programming like storytime and book clubs. The preservation of materials is the most specialized task, and like selection, is predominantly carried out by staff members who have specific training in this area. However, it is important for all staff members to be aware of the basic process of material preservation in order to keep the collection in good condition.

Selection, evaluation, organization, and preservation of library materials applies to both physical and digital items. I would like to hypothetically explain the life cycle of one physical book, a hardcover fiction novel, and one issue of a digital academic journal in order to elaborate on this point.

First, the physical book is selected by a member of the collection development team based on the suggestion she received from a colleague. The colleague is a librarian at one of their system’s branches, and realized that the novel is not present in the catalogue and would benefit patrons she speaks with on a regular basis. After the librarian’s request is approved and the collection development team receives the book, it is sent to the branch and officially put into circulation. The issue of the digital journal has been pre-selected because the library system already has a subscription to the journal. Patrons can access the most recent issues online for free using their library card. Library staff has found that this particular academic journal is accessed most by college professors and researchers.

The evaluation of both physical and digital items can happen at any time. Evaluation can be formal, such as when employees are performing a weeding project, or a casual, chance encounter with a single book. Evaluation for digital items is a much more deliberate process, because employees are more likely to stumble upon a physical item that needs to be evaluated for relevancy or condition than a virtual one. In the life cycle of the physical novel, after the item has circulated for a period of time staff members might reevaluate its place in the collection based on number of circulations and its physical condition. A low number of circulations corresponding to the length of time the novel has been on library shelves might result in weeding, even if it is still in good physical condition. Conversely, if the item has circulated hundreds of times in just a few years and is falling apart, the staff might decide to take it out of circulation and request a new copy from collection development; thus the process for this particular item begins again. Digital items face a slightly different evaluation process. Because they are only viewed on the computer there is no need to judge their physical condition. Evaluating the e-journal issue’s place in a library collection would have to do with how many people have viewed it, and whether the journal as a whole is still used enough to justify the library paying for their subscription. Any staff member can evaluate an item, but it is usually up to the branch manager or collection development department whether to discontinue a subscription or remove all copies of an item from circulation.

Organization of library items can take several different forms. The obvious is organizing physical items which includes shelving and shelf reading. All staff is technically responsible for this, but in a public library the crux of it falls to pages and volunteers. Digitally, organization comes in the form of making sure files are where they should be and that all the library’s virtual items are findable. This is usually the job of the e-materials department if the library’s digital collection is large enough to warrant such a department. The physical novel would be labeled with its call number, probably “FIC” or “Fiction” followed by the author’s last name. In order for patrons to locate the book it would need to be placed in the correct position on a well-organized shelf. The specific issue of an e-journal would need to be labeled with the title of the journal as well as its publication date, and several tags relating to the contents. This way patrons searching the database would be able to find it using several different methods.

The final collection management concept is preservation. The hypothetical fiction novel wins a prestigious prize, and suddenly first edition copies are considered collector’s items. The library owns several first edition copies, and decides to place one in the special collections section. At this point the book would be taken out of general circulation and transferred to its new department where it would either be displayed or kept in an archive. This way, the library owns an original copy of the work that will not fall apart from frequent use but is still available for interested patrons to view. The e-journal issue is already preserved, in a way, because it has already been digitized from its paper form and added to computer archives. The library owns a digital copy of the journal, and can keep it in their archives for as long as it is relevant. In this respect, preservation of library collection items is a more streamlined process when the items are digital. However, special collections of physical materials such as first editions and manuscripts are staples of all different kinds of libraries.

Evidence 
Manuscript Study
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DescriptionThe first piece of evidence to show my mastery of Competency F is entitled “Manuscript Study.” I completed the assignment as the final paper for LIBR 280: History of Books and Libraries in the Summer 2014 semester. The aim of this paper was to examine one ancient manuscript and one rare book according to specific characteristics assigned by the professor. The characteristics we were to identify and describe included information about the authors, a physical description of the item itself, speculation on how the item was assembled, description of any notes made by hand that were not part of the printing, and the place and time of publication.

For my manuscript, I chose one entitled Commentary on the Book of Numbers. The author, Rubinus Maurus, lived between the years 776 and 856 and produced a large body of work focusing on Biblical commentary. This work is one of four books which contains commentary on each of 36 Biblical chapters detailing the Israelites’ forty-year journey to Canaan. The manuscript was written by hand and I identify it to have been written by many different scribes because of the change in handwriting from one section to the next. I also include pictures at the end of the study to show marginalia, page prickings that were used in the manuscript’s assembly, examples of the dashes scribes used to keep their place while writing, and one of the many illuminated initials at the beginning of a section. The printed book I studied was Eight Bookes of the Peloponnesian War, an English translation of Thucydides’ originally Greek work. The original work was published some time between 431 and 404 BCE and thoroughly documents Thucydides’ documentation of the Peloponnesian war until the commentary breaks off suddenly, apparently because of his death. Like the manuscript study, the study of the printed book includes pictures of the pages highlighting notable features like watermarks, illustrations, and mistakes made in the text. I personally viewed both of these items and took the pictures included in the report. They are members of the University of Oregon’s Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA) library collection in Eugene, OR.

Argument
The Manuscript study shows that I have gained an understanding of the aspects of Competency F having to do with the evaluation and preservation of physical items in a library. The report of each item goes into great detail about features of the materials. This shows I can effectively evaluate an item for physical condition and speculate on the way it has been used in the past in order to determine how it should continue to be used in the future. This skill will be useful in my future career when performing weeding projects or when I come across an item that is in excellent condition and should be prominently displayed. My detailed evaluation of these items also shows that I have an idea of what makes an item rare and valuable, which will be useful when sorting through donations to the public library should I come across something that should be sent to the special collections department. In addition to evaluation, this assignment shows I fully comprehend the concept of library material preservation as discussed in Competency F. During the writing of this paper I made several visits to the University of Oregon’s SCUA and viewed many of the rare and valuable items they keep in their archives. In doing this I was briefly exposed to preservation methods that special collections libraries use to keep their materials usable decade after decade. This will obviously be valuable information if I find myself working in special collections, but even if I stay in public libraries for the duration of my career it is beneficial to understand basic preservation techniques. Using acid-free paper to repair a torn page, for example, is an aspect of preservation that I learned in the writing of this paper that is relevant to the day-to-day operations of a public library. For these reasons, I feel that “Manuscript Study” effectively illustrates my comprehension of Competency F.

Mini Young Adult Collection
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Description
In the Summer 2016 semester I attended INFO 265: Materials for Young Adults. The culminating activity for this course was the building of a 35-entry blog in which we created a mini collection for the young adult section of a hypothetical library. We were instructed to select books, movies, music, and other forms of media that would be appropriate for young adults, explain about the items we chose, and then explain why we chose them to be in our collection. My collection includes 28 fiction novels that fall into the young adult genre, two audiobooks, two movies, and three “crossovers,” or books that were not necessarily written with teens in mind but that teens will enjoy regardless. Each entry includes a plot summary, critical evaluation of one aspect of the work or of the work as a whole, information about the author or director, the genre, potential ties to curriculum that teachers could use to relate the book to other things their teens are learning, and a short list of potentially challenging issues included in the work such as violence or sexual content. Each entry also includes a picture of the book or movie cover and the reason I included the work in my collection. Some of the reasons relate to my loving the work during my own time as a teenager, and others come from my current point of view as a youth services paraprofessional selecting materials I think the young patrons at my library would enjoy. This blog involved an extreme amount of work, which paid off in several ways including the option to continue it after the class finished and keep adding new items as I discover them.

Argument
The Mini Young Adult Collection shows my comprehension of the parts of Competency F having to do with selection and organization of materials, as well as basic collection management principles. While assembling the blog I gained an understanding of how a library’s collection management team does their work. Limiting the collection to 35 items forced me to choose only the best items, just as a collection development professional must choose what to include and what to ignore while filling library shelves. Justifying my choices also helped me understand how difficult it can be to explain to someone who challenges an item why the item is on shelves to begin with. Both of these points have to do with Competency F’s emphasis on the concept of selection as well as general collection management. Putting this assignment together provided me with a window into working in collection development and interested me in joining a collection management team at some point in my career.

Organization is another concept that this assignment helped me to master. I was organizing physical materials in a digital environment, which combines the concepts of physical and digital collection management. Putting this blog together involved weeks of intense organization, during which I refined the skill of identifying an item by several different characteristics, as well as the assembly of a multi-faceted blog from scratch. Over the course of INFO 265 I learned how to organize materials into an accessible format for patrons and library staff alike to use and understand. This was largely due to the emphasis in this assignment on the collection management principles of selection and organization.

The Positive Impact of Anticipatory Design on E-Reference Collections
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Description
The final piece of evidence I would like to present as proof of my understanding of Competency F was completed this semester, Spring 2017, in the one credit class INFO 210: Reference and Information Services. The essay is a position paper, taking the opinion that anticipatory design would have a positive effect on the use of e-reference collections in libraries. Anticipatory design is a relatively new concept that is currently chiefly utilized by search engines and shopping websites. It anticipates the results a user wants based on past searches. For example, if an Amazon shopper last purchased a fiction book and a pair of sneakers, they will be shown other, similar books and shoes made by the same manufacturer the next time they sign on. The system is anticipating their desire for more novels and sneakers, which may or may not be correct. The user can then tell the system whether they are interested in the suggestions, which will help the website more accurately anticipate their desires for the next time they shop.

My position that anticipatory design would positively impact e-reference collections is based on the fact that many users of a library’s e-reference collection are scholars or students who want their results as quickly and easily as possible. In the paper I compare three different peer-reviewed articles detailing specific e-reference collections to two non-scholarly articles that describe the finer points of anticipatory design for the reader. Through these comparisons I make the argument that what is working now when patrons search for and receive information from an e-reference database would work better and faster if the creators of that database included anticipatory design in their database. I conclude by arguing that libraries must continue to develop as rapidly as technology itself in order to keep their users interested in their services, and incorporating anticipatory design in an e-reference database is an effective way to do so.

Argument
This paper illustrates the Competency F principle of organization of digital content within the broader scope of collection management. Managing an electronic library collection comes with a set of duties unique from managing a physical collection. The person who creates the database for an e-collection must ensure that users will be able to find what they are looking for using tags and comprehensive search methods. They must also ensure that the search process is quick and easy for the user, and that they find their information in a way that satisfies them. While writing this paper, I learned that this means scrupulous organization on the part of the database developer and later, the library collection management team. This concept relates to the broader realization that libraries are working as hard as they can to keep up with digital trends in order to stay relevant in the minds of their technologically inclined patrons. These patrons expect nearly instant gratification when they search for information, and anticipatory design will bring libraries closer to providing this to their patrons in pursuit of research. I came to the conclusion that anticipatory design is the next successful aspect of library e-reference collections because this assignment helped me master the aspect of Competency F concerning organization and management of a digital collection.

Conclusion
As an aspiring public services librarian, I recognize the relevance of collection management skills as they relate to the selection, evaluation, organization, and preservation of library materials. I feel that these three assignments properly illustrate my understanding of Competency F as each focuses on a different aspect, all relating back to the issue as a whole. In my future work, I plan to use this understanding to effectively develop and maintain library collections.