Woodbury
Public Library
Library
Materials Selection Policies
Overview
The mission of the Woodbury Public Library is to provide
access to resources that inform, educate and entertain our diverse community. It is a center for lifelong learning,
welcoming patrons of all ages, backgrounds and interests. The Library's
collections respond to the informational, education and cultural needs of the
community.
The Library is a public forum for the collection, use and
dissemination of information and ideas in a democratic and free society. The Library
also is neutral ground, making information and ideas available without
discrimination, without coercing a viewpoint on our public, and by resisting
barriers to information others may wish to impose.
Inclusion of material in the collection does not consist of endorsement of its
viewpoint by the Library.
Responsibility
The Board of Trustees delegates the responsibility for the
selection to the Library Director, who may delegate some selection to staff
librarians.
Selection
of Materials
Providing a high quality library collection is an art, not a
science, and many factors are considered in the
selection process.
The most important factor in selecting materials is to
acquire items of current usefulness and of interest to the patrons of the Library.
For items in high demand, duplicate copies may be purchased.
Many other selection factors include: anticipated demand;
patron requests; price; reviewed recommendations; format; presentation;
differing points of view or perspective; and the needs of the current
collection.
The Library may join with other libraries to
jointly offer certain materials on a rotating or cooperative basis.
As determined by the Director and staff librarians, and in
accordance with national and regional protocols, interlibrary loan will be used to fulfill appropriate requests from patrons.
Types of Materials
Collected
Information is
collected and made available in many formats. These include, but are not
limited to:
Because of space and budget limitations, certain types of
materials may be collected in the one format that we
believe to be the most useful for our patrons.
Donations of Books and
Other Material
Donations of books and other material to the Library are evaluated by the staff librarians for their usefulness
to the collection, being guided by the same general selection principles as for
newly purchased materials.
Donations will be acknowledged, if
this is requested. However, the responsibility for assigning a monetary value
of the donation is with the donor, not the library.
Removing Materials from
the Collection
Space in the Library is finite. The ongoing acquisition of
new materials also necessitates the ongoing removal of other materials.
Many factors are used to determine
what materials should be removed, including:
Withdrawn materials will be sold as used
items or discarded.
Challenges to Materials
Any person who wishes to complain about a book or other
material from the Library will fill out a form and return it to the Library
Director. The Director and the Board will review the complaint and determine
the proper disposition of the issue.
During the time any complaint is under review, the
challenged material will not be removed from the
active collection.
Intellectual Freedom
The Board of Trustees of the Woodbury Public Library affirms
its commitment to:
and
Adopted by the Woodbury Public
Library Board of Trustees on