COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT 

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The purpose of this paper is to briefly explore two important, but often overlooked, aspects of collection development and resource sharing: 1) attitudes and perceptions of library staff;  and 2) the political/fiscal climate in which public libraries operate.  Staff  attitudes and political/fiscal matters are, in turn, affected by increasingly rapid change in all aspects of librarianship.  Change is now the order of the day and affects everything we do: our customer base, the media we use to satisfy customer needs (e.g. print, A-V and electronic), our buildings and our budgets.

In response, public librarians are becoming more proactive and less reactive.  Courage, foresight and persistence are required personality traits for librarians, who must become comfortable with taking nothing for granted and for adapting service patterns continuously to meet changing community needs.  Instead of waiting in libraries for the customers to arrive, librarians are reaching out to perform sophisticated community market analyses, which become essential guideposts for collection and service priorities.  It is hard to find a sustainable comfort zone in an environment defined by change and uncertainty.  The challenge for California's public libraries is even greater in the face of widespread, serious and persistent budget shortfalls.

In addition to these problems, there are other barriers to good service - both real and perceived.  Pressures from outside and within our profession constantly remind us that our services need to be ever more relevant to customer needs: whatever the status quo, it is most likely already out of date.

Two examples of other modern myths create confusion and raise stress levels even higher: 1) In the 21st century will public librarians be invaluable or quaint examples of obsolescent "technology"? and 2) Must a librarian speak the same language and belong to the same ethnic group as a customer to get the job done?

Needed Improvements

In order for library staff to design good collections, they must understand much more about why and how people use - or might use - public libraries.  Thanks to research sponsored by the California State Library in 1985, at least some of the answers are known.  Most people visit a public library not to become more informed, but to satisfy emotional needs and to make "sense"  of an often senseless world.  They come to solve problems, meet friends and receive emotional support.¹    Library users, like most everyone else, seek a balance between personal autonomy and connectedness with the world.  Librarians must design services which recognize that a visit to the library often has deep, emotional ramifications.  This is also the key to success at the polls.

So far, librarians do not know nearly enough about how people make use of information in their lives, or how public libraries and new electronic media will fit into the overall scheme.  Computer scientist Phil Agre says that what is needed is "a better understanding of how to organize and present information and how people use information once they have it."  Agre emphasizes that the focus of research should shift from computers to social scientists, psychologists, and librarians - to people instead of machines.²    A recent example of this idea is the doctoral program being initiated by the Indiana University School of Library and Information Sciences to study human-computer interaction, "drawing on psychology, cognitive science, sociology, and ergonomics." ³   In the meantime, the California State Library and local public libraries can help the process in many ways.

Possible State Library Actions

• Serve as an advocate for public libraries in Sacramento and locally, as appropriate. If local public library budgets improve, so will collections and greater potential for resource sharing.
• Promote an affordable, dependable telecommunications backbone for public libraries statewide.
• Sponsor research into the details of: 1) how/why people do/do not use information in their lives; and 2) how public libraries can use these data to become more meaningful to customers and community members. Research into ethnic variables could include everything from vendor evaluations to development of a multilingual library lexicon for subject headings and computer terms.
• Partner with others to eliminate the two-thirds super majority in local funding elections. (An interesting tidbit: Since the alleged tax revolt began almost 20 years ago, only two out of 50 states [California and Missouri] require a super majority vote.)
• Partner with others to empower and involve more Californians in voting and becoming active in their own self-governance.  This has extremely important implications for public libraries - and for their diverse customers.

• Plan/perform community analyses, which should reveal at least two things:  1) how to better serve existing and potential customers; and 2) how to broaden/deepen the perceived value of public libraries to people who will never use the library at all.  In many cases, these non-users exert political influence far greater than their demographic "niche."
• Create/sustain dynamic collection development policies that are based upon an understanding of how to respond to community needs/demands for library collections.  Innovative outreach/community analysis will reveal customer preferences in media format, language and literacy level.  Whenever possible/feasible, collection priorities should reflect community priorities - especially those involving basic, emotional issues such as health, education, employment and housing.
• Develop staff with bilingual and bicultural talents as well as sensitive interviewing skills and a business approach to good customer service.
• More is not better, and remote access is not ownership.  Most library users want the right information, right now.  Library staff mediation, not disintermediation, will be invaluable in providing this custom fit.  In most cases, putting something tangible in a customer's hands before he or she leaves is more important than knowing it exists somewhere else. As needed, selective outreach will take library resources to where the customer is.
• Try to place the basic thrust of the collection just behind the curve of popular demand and current events.  A public library should not strive to become a popular bookstore or an Internet switching station.  Most people expect a public library to provide services that are at least a tiny bit dated, but which are enhanced with the value that careful selection, processing and interpretation provide.
• Partner with local groups on projects/events that are identified as community priorities.
• Be suspicious of generalities - whether about the wonders of technology or how various ethnic groups are supposed to think/behave.  Public libraries are places where people help people get a little closer to their potential.  This is perhaps the most human of endeavors, and librarians should be proud of the role they play.
• Use all of the above to promote successful local library funding elections!