The Tompkins-Seneca-Tioga BOCES School Library System has devised a plan for
Cooperative Collection Development (CCD) for its member libraries. This plan will
mutually benefit all member districts by creating special collections in participating
libraries that others in the system can draw upon through the established interlibrary loan
network. Pursuing a cooperative collection development plan is not meant to reduce
costs but it improves services and maintains needed access to information. The CCD
Plan will address the changing information needs of users, support the NYS Learning
Standards, and ensure equity of access to resources.
DEFINITION
Cooperative Collection Development is defined by the American Library Association’s A
Guide to Coordinated and Cooperative Collection Development Among Libraries is,
“Cooperation, coordination or sharing in the development and management of collections
by two or more libraries making an agreement for this purpose.”
BENEFITS
1. Specialized materials are purchased by each participating school. This policy will
decrease expensive duplication and make acquisitions more economical and cost
effective.
2. Libraries cannot satisfy patrons’ needs with local resources alone. Through a
networking school library system, members have increased access to specialized
materials.
3. Cooperative Collection Development would encourage all to plan in advance for
research in order to use interlibrary loan services.
4. Services are enhanced to students with special needs such as the gifted and
talented, physically handicapped, and remedial students.
5. Individual schools with strong collections in specific subject areas could become
“showcase schools”. Developing these collections in-depth will meet not only the
needs of their own faculty and students but also all the cooperative school library
members.
SCOPE
1. All members of the Tompkins-Seneca-Tioga BOCES School Library System are
invited to participate.
2. The School Library System, with input from the CCD Committee, will work to
develop a COSER that will address and support the CCD Plan.
3. Schools will circulate materials according to the School Library System
Interlibrary Loan Guidelines.
OBJECTIVES
1. Each library should continue to acquire a balanced collection of materials in all
subject areas sufficient to meet the basic needs of the staff and students in each
school. Through collection assessment, each school could assess their
collection’s strengths and weakness in all subject areas.
2. Each library should:
a. Identify its current areas of strength
b. Insure the preservation of these materials
c. Continue to build this collection
COLLECTION PLANNING PHASES
Each participating school in cooperation with the CCD committee will be completing the
following phases towards developing a cooperative collection
Step One:
Select one or more periodical titles to be preserved and continue to collect
Step Two:
Select one or more sources of reference materials to be preserved and
collected.
Step Three:
Select an appropriate area of materials (print, non-print and/or electronic)
to be preserved and collected as an emphasis area.
PROCEDURES
Step 1: Periodicals
1. The Cooperative Collection Development (CCD) committee has
drawn up a list of periodical titles which have been submitted to each
school library system member who in turn have committed themselves
to preserve these periodical titles and continue to hold for specified
number of years.
2. The Union List of Periodicals indicates the depository school for each
designated periodical title.
Step 2: Reference Materials
1. Each school library has submitted to the CCD committee a list of three or
more reference sources which they have agreed to keep current.
2. The committee has coordinated these lists and designated the reference title(s)
and the holding libraries.
3. The system has provided each member with a list of the reference materials
and depository libraries.
Step 3: Monographs
1. Each school library will submit to the CCD committee a list of three or more
areas of strength in categories for their emphasis area meeting the needs of
their school’s curriculum.
2. The committee will coordinate these lists and designate the holding libraries
for these specialties.
3. The system will provide its members with a list of these libraries and their
specialties.
SELECTING AN EMPHASIS AREA
Picking a narrow field of concentration for a specialty area has advantages and
disadvantages.
ADVANTAGES
1. Each librarian will be working within a limited subject area which should
require only a minimum amount of time.
2. The limited scope should not be a strain on the librarian’s time
3. The collection emphasis will generally support a single research subject.
4. Bibliographies of this collection will be easier to compile
5. Small collection areas will take less time for evaluation.
DISADVANTAGES
1. The holding school may eliminate the emphasis area from their collection.
2. The holding school curriculum may change and the school may no longer
wish to collect in that area.
3. If little is published in emphasis area, librarian may purchase quantity rather
than quality.
THE COLLECTION AND NATIONAL SELECTION LISTS
Comparing a school’s collection with national selection lists may or may not prove
helpful. Since these standards may not match a particular school’s curriculum, they
might be used as a preliminary step in the identification of emphasis collections.
Nationally recognized selection lists: Elementary School Library Collection, Middle and
Junior High School Library Catalog, and the Senior High School Library Catalog were
used to recommend percentages for each Dewey area for elementary, middle and junior
high and high schools.
It is still the work of the library media specialist to adapt any basic list to local needs,
selecting for special curricular projects, and keeping the collection up-to-date through
judicious weeding and continuous evaluation. Keep in mind that the total collection chart
will not help identify emphasis collections that would span several Dewey classes.
Research shows that on the average, library media specialists build different collections
than these lists recommend, especially if curriculum mapping is being closely adhered to
by the library media specialist. There is an over-abundance of emphasis in these lists on
fiction in the junior and senior high level, however, when funds are limited, it would
seem wiser to concentrate purchases in the non-fiction areas.
COLLECTION BUILDING
Building the school library collection should be a systemic method of taking the
collection from where it is to where it should go. Questions to ask are: In what areas
should purchases be made? Once that problem is solved, what will actually be
purchased?
School based collections are established primarily to supplement curriculum. Selection
should be focused to avoid errors which involve time and money. School library
collections should be flexible to meet the changing and increased demands of the
curriculum. To maintain an active flexible collection, it is important to not only add, but
delete and discard those materials no longer appropriate and pertinent to the collection.
BUDGETING
1. The designated holding library should make definite purchases that will be a
part of the core collection as first choice.
2. Second choice purchases can be added to the collection as supplemental
materials as funds become available.
3. Schools other than holding libraries should avoid first or second choices and
as third choice purchase materials that would be beneficial in supporting
curriculum projects.
4. Other schools may make suggestions to the holding school for purchases;
however, the holding library is under no obligation to comply.
COLLECTION ASSESSMENT
Collection assessment is critical to CCD. The School Library system will support this
effort by participating in opportunities to learn more about new techniques for qualitative
and quantitative analysis. Specifically, procedures outlined in Debra Kachel’s book,
Collection Assessment and Management of School Libraries, will be explored and
practiced.
Although librarians will be assigned a group of specialization by the CCD committee, it
will be their responsibility to gauge the relative strength of their present collections.
Thus, further monies spent to enhance the collection can be put to the most efficient use.
A collection that will support most instructional levels will require a maintenance of
materials for limited or generalized purposes, of less than research intensity. It includes a
wide range of basic monographs, complete collections of the works of more important
writers, selections from secondary writers, representative journals, reference and
fundamental bibliographical tools relative to the subject.
Methods of collection analysis can also include:
1. Analysis of individual monographs and reference material presently in the
collection, copyright, general condition of the material, etc.
2. Analysis of the availability of materials through annual inventory
3. Consultation with subject specialists or other teachers who may have
familiarity with the collection
4. Comparison with subject specialists or other teachers who may have
familiarity with the collection.
AAAs Science Booklist
Books for Secondary School Libraries
Children’s Catalog
Choice
Elementary School Library Collection
Fiction Catalog
A Guide to Historical Reading
Guide to Reference Books for School Media Centers
Junior High School Library Catalog
Library Journal
Magill’s Bibliography of Literacy Criticism
Recommended Reference Books for Small & Medium Size Libraries and
Media Centers
School Library Journal
Senior High School Library Catalog
5. Local effects of curriculum changes, especially those in support of the NYS
Learning Standards.
COLLECTION DEPTH
The following are indicators of collection depth which may be examined and assessed.
Every teacher planning a unit of instruction may expect:
1. A variety of media (print, non-print and/or electronic)
2. Materials which are current (as called for by the topic studied)
3. Materials relevant to needs.
4. Materials which are durable and in good repair.
5. Enough materials for the number of students studying the unit.
6. Materials which span the reading/viewing/listening/comprehensive levels of
the students.
7. Materials which appeal to student interests
8. Materials which span opinion/cultural/political issues if appropriate.
9. Ease of access to materials, equipment and facilities given reasonable time for
planning.
10. The best of new materials purchased for the unit.
EVALUATION OF CCD
To assist in an evaluation of the CCD projects, we request that each holding school keep
a bibliography designating:
1. The number of items owned in the emphasis area by the library prior to CCD
2. The number of items added during the school year that CCD was implemented
STORAGE AND DISCARD DECISIONS
Consideration will undoubtedly have to be given to storage of new materials purchased.
Considerable weeding may have to be undertaken to make room for the new materials.
Extra space may have to be allotted to accommodate a larger collection in the school’s
area of specialization.
Materials selected by a particular school for discard should be listed and send to the
System office so that other schools will be notified before actual discard.
RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE SCHOOL LIBRARY SYSTEM
1. Collecting and coordinating the lists of emphasis areas from each participating
schools library.
2. Yearly review of the effectiveness of the emphasis area specializations.
3. Review requests and keep schools informed about changes or redirection of
emphasis areas in individual school libraries.
4. Annual review of the guidelines.
5. Continued coordination of the CCD program to promote the implementation
of these guidelines.
Once a CCD COSER is in place:
6. Coordinating purchase orders, processing, stamping and distribution of
materials.
7. Keeping schools informed about coser requirements.