Collection Development – What’s your plan?
Susan D Kaufman, Manager Clayton Library Center for Genealogical Research
Houston Public Library / 5300 Caroline St. / Houston, TX / 77004
www.houstonlibrary.org
Having a plan for genealogical research material collection development guides your purchases,
donations and gifts in creating your library collection. What and how should you choose? What
things should be taken into account when creating your plan? How will you pay for materials?
What partnership should you develop? This lecture is a discussion of issues, challenges and
choices.
A guiding plan of service, which includes a collection development policy, should be created by
material collecting entities. These principles offer consistency for choosing of the materials to be
selected. This document should not be a static document and should be reviewed on a regular
basis.
Many of the readings below have their own bibliography or external Internet links. Numerous
further readings and examples can be found there.
Outline:
 Mission Statement
 Developing a collection plan
 Issues for evaluation
 Ideas for plans
INTERNET RESOURCES
Library Mission Statements
Writing a mission statement
<www.aallnet.org/sis/pllsis/Toolkit/ToolkitMissionStatement.pdf >
Includes links to sample library mission statements
Writing a Collection Development Policy
Librarians Index to the Internet
<http://lii.org/ - search “collection development policies”>
Guidelines for a Collection Development Policy Using the Conspectus Model. International
Federation of Library Associations and Institutions
<www.ifla.org/VII/s14/nd1/gcdp-e.pdf>
Dartmouth College Library Collection Management & Development Program. Guidelines for
Writing Collection Development Policies. <www.dartmouth.edu/~cmdc/bibapp/cdpguide.html>
Sample Collection Development Policies
AcqWeb’s Directory of Collection Development Policies on the Web
<www.acqweb.org/cd_policy.html>

Michigan History, Arts and Libraries
<www.michigan.gov/hal/0,1607,7-160-17445_19270-52107--,00.html#VI>
Specifically mentions “Genealogy Collection”
Ohio Libraries
<winslo.state.oh.us/publib/policies.html> (no www)
Sample policies from small, medium and large libraries in Ohio
Pasadena (CA) Public Library
<http://ci.pasadena.ca.us/library/collection.asp>
Collection Development Policy – Genealogical Society
McCleary, Linda Caldwell. Collection Development. FGS Forum. Austin, TX. Federation of
Genealogical Societies. Summer 1996 8:2 also available on line at:
<www.cas.usf.edu/lis/genealib/colltn.htm>
PRINTED RESOURCES
Barrett, Sheila M. DuPage County Libraries Genealogical Resources. Elmhurst, Ill. : Elmhurst
Public Library. 2005
Harris, Margaret J. Establishing a Genealogy Collection in a Public Library. Masters Thesis,
Texas Woman’s University; 1981
Parker, J. Carlyle. Library Service for Genealogists. Detroit, Mich. : Gale Research Co., 1981.
Rubin, Richard E. Foundations of Library and Information Science. New York;
Neal – Schuman Publishers, Inc. 1998
Smyth, Elaine B. A practical approach to writing a collection development policy. Rare Books &
Manuscripts Librarianship. 14 no1 27 –31 1999.
Wood, Richard J. and Frank Hoffmann. Library Collection Development Policies: A Reference
and Writers’ Handbook. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, Inc. 1996