MLIS, Reflections Collections and Money!

My day job is at a public library. A lot of this information hit home for me. Particularly the parts about budgets for a collection librarian. A budget is a necessary evil for any library. A librarian using their judgement gained through education and service can be questioned about any purchase due to monetary constraints. It is unfortunate that in most public library systems the people who control the money aren't serving the patrons and seeing their needs on a daily basis. This chapter talks about needing to obtain expert reviews and opinions to justify purchases. In the real world these things may not matter when the budget needs to be cut. I hate that I agree with the point that usually the most vocal people get what they want and those that are under served don't get heard.

I work at a library where we have lots of different formats of books. We too struggle with space issues, what do we get rid of or relocate to a different library. These are tough questions. In the end someone is going to lose a service that they value. Another issue our library faces is funding (like everyone else in the world). We have a collection that the FRIENDS of our library support because our administration can't afford to support it. In reality each entity can fight for what they "want" to fund, which may not necessarily be what "needs" to be funded.

I learned to be proactive when it comes to budget and change. Collection librarians should also try to look at collections that will be around for a long time. I can see how it would be difficult to forecast this. Things that were not surprising to me are to network, read professional journals, and develop a complaint process. I view my world as a work in progress and if people don't complain you won't learn.

Evans, G. E. (2008). Reflections on Creating Information Service

Collections. In Haycock, K., & Sheldon B. E. (Eds.) The

Portable MLIS: Insights from the experts. (pp. 87-97). Westport,

Connecticut. Libraries Unlimited