Policy Statement
It is the policy of Dakota County to offer library services to county residents including a robust collection of materials for educational and entertainment purposes. The intent of this policy is to guide library staff and to inform the public of the principles the library uses to purchase material. The public, through knowing the principles on which library collections are developed, gains a better understanding of the scope of the collections and why specific items, formats, or topics are included or not included. Nothing in this policy impairs or limits the rights of a parent, guardian, or an adult student under Minnesota Statute 120B.20.
Definitions
The word Materials means print and digital books, audiobooks, and magazines, electronic resources, music and movies in any format, and the vast array of physical or digital items a library could collect.
Selection means the decision to add materials to the collection or to retain or withdraw material already in the collection, or to acquire licenses for proprietary online databases. Selection does not mean recommendation.
Collection refers to the entire body of materials the library has available for customers to use and borrow. This includes books, newspapers, magazines, in all formats, kits, and electronic devices.
Collections Manager is the staff member who oversees the selection, purchasing and cataloging of all items in the collection. A Master of Library Science degree is required for this position.
Selection staff are the library personnel who choose and purchase items for the collection. There may be several selection staff each having a particular category such as children's books, as their responsibility. This position requires expertise in the subject area of responsibility and being trained in library collection management.
Review Committee will be comprised of the Library Director, Deputy Director, Collections Manager, Selection Manager, and a Selection Librarian. Each member of the committee has experience, education or advanced training and understanding of library collections.
Source
Minnesota Statute 134.51
Library Bill of Rights and Freedom to Read Statements
The Dakota County Library, therefore, incorporates as part of these guidelines the Library Bill of Rights, adopted by the Council of the American Library Association on January 23, 1996, and the Freedom to Read Statement as revised June 30, 2004 by the Council of the American Library Association, and the Freedom to View Statement endorsed by the American Library Association, Jan. 10, 1990.
General
Maintenance
All materials are periodically evaluated by staff to ensure that they are still useful to the public. Items may be withdrawn due to:
- Damage or wear
- Outdated or inaccurate information
- Superseded
- Low usage
- Space considerations
Objectives
The Dakota County Library acquires, makes available, and encourages the use of materials in all formats which:
- Address the information needs and serve the diverse interests of the people of Dakota County without exclusion.
- Stimulate thoughtful participation in the affairs of the community, the country, and the world.
- Enlighten and entertain.
- Tell the stories of a wide representation of the community.
- Give access to a variety of opinions on matters of current interest and encourage freedom of expression.
- Support literacy for all ages, self-education, supplement formal study and continued lifelong learning.
Selection Criteria
To build an inclusive and relevant collection, all acquisitions whether purchased or donated will be considered by selection staff according to the following selection criteria.
Customer interest, both expressed and anticipated, as well as the library's strategic plan, are the primary influences for the materials and formats that are selected. Materials are also selected to ensure that the collection as a whole contains materials on many different topics, that there is a choice of materials or formats on the subject, and that multiple viewpoints are expressed.
The library allows each library customer to choose materials which suit their tastes and needs and to reject for themselves materials of which they do not approve without restricting the freedom of others to read what they desire.
Collection development staff use a set of criteria to guide selection decisions. Not all criteria are applied to each selection decision.
General criteria for selection:
- Publicity, critiques, and reviews (Most library materials are selected on the basis of reviews).
- Customer requests and/or suggestions which are gathered through the public website, emails, phone calls or in-person visits.
- Present and potential relevance to community needs.
- Format options.
- Price of material.
- Relation to the existing collection.
- Relevance to current trends and events.
- Physical design suitable for library use.
- Relation to other resources in the community.
Content criteria for selection:
- Competence, reputation and qualifications of author or publisher.
- Consideration of the work as a whole.
- Currency of information.
- Objectivity and clarity.
- Comprehensiveness.
- Represents a diverse point of view.
- Sustained interest or demand.
- Usefulness of the information.
- Relevance to local history collections.
- Provides unique contribution to a field of study.
Access to Materials
Dakota County Library has collections housed in 10 library locations which are linked through electronic and delivery networks designed to make its total resources readily available and widely accessible. The number of items selected will vary according to the size and location of our branch libraries.
- Dakota County Library applies its content selection criteria to determine the presence of materials and other resources in the collection and is responsible for making a wide variety of viewpoints available to all.
- Dakota County Library does not limit the selection and development of library resources simply because minors will have access to them. Dakota County Library's failure to acquire materials on the grounds that minors may be able to access those materials diminishes the credibility of the library in the community and restricts access for all library users.
- Dakota County Library uses labels as a means of organizing resources; labels serve as directional aids intended to facilitate access by making it easier for customers to locate resources.
- Dakota County Library recognizes the purposes and resources of other libraries and media centers in Dakota County and in the metropolitan area and shall not needlessly duplicate functions and materials.
- Dakota County Library will not attempt to develop a complete research collection. Requests for books not owned by the library, especially for scholarly materials, will be referred to other libraries in the metropolitan area through established channels. The library will actively seek to broaden these sources through agreements with other libraries and groups of libraries.
Request for Reconsideration
Library customers may request a selection decision be reconsidered by completing a Request for Reconsideration of Materials form available from any Dakota County Library. The completed form should be returned to the library and will be sent to the Review Committee.
The Review Committee shall consider a customer's challenge based on the library's objectives, general selection criteria, content selection criteria, and guidelines found in the Library Bill of Rights, Freedom to Read Statement and Freedom to Write Statement adopted as part of this policy. To the extent the request is based on banning, removing, or restricting access to a book or other material based solely on that material's viewpoint, message, ideas, or opinions, the request may be summarily denied by the Review Committee under Minnesota Statute 134.51(1). The customer will receive written notification of the Review Committee's decision.
If the customer does not accept the Review Committee's decision, they may appeal to the Library Advisory Committee. Appeals must be received by the library at least fourteen days in advance of the next regularly scheduled meeting of the committee.
Following the Library Advisory Committee decision, a written response will be sent to the customer providing the Library Advisory Committee's decision.
The customer may appeal the final decision of the Library Advisory Committee to the Minnesota Court of Appeals.
Upon completion of a content challenge or reconsideration process, notification of the challenge will be sent by the Library Director to the Commissioner of Education within the Minnesota Department of Education.
Procedures
Procedures will be maintained by the library.