Day 4, Hour 20

I focused today on more research, as I am hoping to give Andy a rough outline of policy and procedure by the end of next week. I am finding more and more that there are many research libraries that do not lend their materials; most of the repositories that do circulate materials only do so for faculty, staff, and doctoral or graduate students for the purpose of completing a research project. In light of this information, I do not think it is unreasonable to say that the materials here in the Rock Hall Library will not circulate.

I have considered the idea of allowing faculty to check out materials, but there is a slim chance this would work. First, we would have to determine if only Tri-C faculty would qualify or if we would include faculty from other colleges. There is also the issue of policy, and how well it is implemented and adhered to. I found a case study today in Library Journal titled "Faculty Borrowing Privileges" in which a university branch library director was faced with the problem of the university's faculty abusing borrowing privileges. She had a difficult time convincing the Director of Libraries that this was a problem; this director was more concerned with maintaining a good working relationship with the faculty, and feared that reprimanding them would only cause problems and subject the librarians to unfair judgment. Nancy R. John, in her response to the case study, wisely stated that "few library policies are as open to emotional attack as those concerned with borrowing privileges." Perhaps the best policy will be to not let items circulate at all, regardless of the patron's status.

Many libraries, like The Getty Research Institute Library, have differing levels of users that maintain differing privileges based on what each level permits. A high level, for example, may allow the user a wider array of browsing materials and extended hours in the library; a lower level patron may be restricted to a certain area. A great number of these libraries, however, are vast institutions with many different collections, and some collections cannot even be browsed, but require a request for materials that would later be supplied for use for a short period of time. The Rock Hall Library will contain both a browsable collection and non-browsable archives. It would not make sense to limit the browsing of the open stacks collection, since it is in the open in one large room, but perhaps the paging of items in the archives could be limited to those with a higher library status.

Coming up next: As you can see, I still have a lot of research and work to do regarding creating a working policy and procedure. I should mention that I also began compiling a survey to send to various research and academic libraries, so that we can get an idea of how their institutions operate. This will all continue into next week, so stay tuned!

Thanks for reading, and have a good one!

Laura

Day 3, Hour 15

Today, I wanted to get back to the list of biographies I am compiling for the inductees. So far I have added 1-3 sources for almost every person inducted in 1986 and most of 1987. However, I am still having a difficult time narrowing down which biographies are "better" than others. Since this is a brand new library and we are going to need to acquire basic sources first, I need to know which are the most important to get for right now. I imagine that the librarians will also be working on a limited budget, so selection will be important.

The most important thing I must focus on, especially since I am currently enrolled in the Selection and Acquisition of Library Materials course at Kent State, is to choose items fairly and intelligently. I do not intend to censor or reject certain items, and I know this can be a difficult topic to consider. Not having any experience in collection development until now, I believe this practicum is going to prove extremely valuable in helping me to develop a keen eye for quality and a discern for the most important materials.

That being said, I would be interested to hear ideas from others on how you would choose the "best" sources on certain artists. Keep in mind that sometimes, the list of biographies for one person can reach up to twenty; I am trying to keep the titles I add to the list at under three per person.

Coming up next: I will continue to research policy and procedure to get a working idea of how patrons will use this very unique library.

Thanks for reading, and have a good one!

Laura