Thanks to everyone for attending this breakout session! Feel free to add your own ideas & comments to the wiki page below.

Breakout Session Notes
Hosts: Jen Sullivan & Scott Nicholson
Scribe: Erin Dorney

What do you consider to be a balanced collection?

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• "An impossible dream"
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• It depends on the library (academic, public, medical)
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• Including varied points of view on a subject by overcoming your own points of view
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• Personalizing for your community or user base
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• Balance between what? One library building? A consortrium? A public library system?
  

Challenges:

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• What are ways to address collection with faculty in academic environments?
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• What happens when something you choose for your collection is offensive or uncomfortable for your users?
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• Should we give users what they want or give users what they "need"?
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• It used to be that you find a balance
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• Now, it seems to be you provide what users want. Are we "that desperate" to get users?
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• In the past, we haven't had the research we now have that shows that reading anything will increase literacy skills int he long run.
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• Do we have a responsibility to provide resources that aren't available other places? (i.e. DVDs available at Blockbuster, Netflix, Wegmans, etc).
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• The Long Tail
  
  

Format Balance:

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• Is sometimes driven by what is easily available (i.e. VHS became harder to purchase, so DVDs are more widely carried)
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• Libraries can't continue to purchase all of the different formats due to space issues.
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• Does anyone have written format policies?
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• Some libraries add sections to their written collection development policies
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• Some libraries include this in long-range /strategic planning
  

Leasing vs. Buying? Seems like the leasing costs more, but with purchasing, there is the space issue.

Challenged books? Doesn’t happen much.

Donated books? Discuss before adding to the collection. “No gift is free”

Do we create balanced collections or representative collections?

Offensive or opposing opininons?

Ethics

• Personal and professional
  
• Librarian self censorship
  
• Whether you recognize your struggles and how you let them effect your decisions
  
• Effects selection and deselection
  
• Holocaust denial resources
  

Tips
Locate someone close to your community and ask their opinions

Weeding

How does participatory librarianship challenge our traditional viewpoints about collections?
On authorship?
Less focus on who wrote what, more focus on what most users believe is true/right
Authoritative data vs user contributions
Local preservation of history and community

When popular subjects change, what section do you put them in?
i.e. intelligent design in science or fiction?
i.e. alien encounters
labeling – where do you put the bible? Fiction, non? Reference?
Mythology?

3 points:
1. Importance of collections with opposing views
2. Lack of written policies
3.




Resources
20 Maxims for Collection Building- A contemporary system for the 21st century

Balancing Act- Give 'Em What They Want vs. Give 'Em What They Need

It's About Building Balanced Collections- Are Public Libraries "Dumbing Down"?