So Many Choices!

As the semester progresses, I have been working on many little projects to get a feel for the different aspects of reference librarianship.  One of the projects that I just finished working on was a collections development project, in which I got to work closer with one of our reference librarians, Kerri.  Collection development is an ongoing process, for there are always more books being written and published.

First, Kerri had me work with the McNaughton collection, which is housed in the library’s browsing room.  Each month, a list is published that includes all of the titles that will become available to be acquired for a collection.  I was able to look at the May 2015 collection.  There were so many titles, but of course the library does not have room for them all! It was so hard to narrow down the list from over eighty to twenty-five.  In the end, I looked for a wide variety of genres and viewpoints, as well as other factors such as the author and how popular the book was.  It made me realize how much thought and effort goes into developing a collection.

Additionally, I looked through a list that is published by the group Indie Bound, which highlights titles that were published by indie publishers.  With this list, I had to do some deeper research because there is no synopsis with the titles, so I looked up the book for its content and also for the reviews.   It was hard to separate my own personal interests in order to make decision that would benefit the community, but in the end I got the hang of it.

I really liked this project because it allowed me to see a different side of the library! Below are some titles to look forward to in our collection!