Collection Development Policy
The purpose of the Wayland Free Public Library’s Collection Development Policy is to formalize the criteria used for selecting materials, as well as designate appropriate staff who are responsible for developing specific areas within the collection. We have included a Mission Statement and Goals, and a brief description of the community and library to help put these criteria into perspective.
Wayland is a suburban community of approximately 14,000 people located eighteen miles west of the city of Boston. The town is recognized for its excellent school system and fine recreational facilities including a lake, ponds, a beach, boating, ski and hiking trails, and public vegetable gardens.
The Wayland Free Public Library (“the Library”) has an illustrious history as one of the nation’s first publicly tax-supported libraries. An elected board of six Trustees governs the Library. They are responsible for hiring a Director to administer the Board’s policies and carry out the mission of the institution. The Library is one of 41 member libraries in the Minuteman Library Network providing access to a wide array of print and non-print materials which can be requested from other libraries in the network through interlibrary loan.
The Wayland Free Public Library is dedicated to meeting the diverse needs of the community,
blending traditional and innovative library resources, services, and programming.
Levels of Collection
The Library collects for four major purposes: 1) to provide popular materials; 2) to foster independent learning; 3) to support formal education; and 4) to support an informed citizenry and foster civic engagement.
In fulfilling its first—and foremost—purpose, the library will maintain a collection of current, popular materials in all formats for all ages. The primary focus will be recreational reading, viewing, and listening, with attention to providing nonfiction materials that are especially popular locally (e.g. Biography, travel, gardening, interior design, cooking). Recent statistics indicate that most of our borrowers use the Library in this way; therefore, the largest portion of resources the Library’s materials budget is devoted to popular materials. In fulfilling the second purpose, the Library must provide a strong reference and information services collection. A wide array of electronic reference and information resources are now available, enabling users to access them online, as well as in person.
In addition, the Library will continue to select materials that will assist students, parents and caregivers in support of their formal education programs and areas of study. Standard reference resources, including databases and other electronic resources, will continue to be acquired. Up- to-date periodical subscriptions, materials on current issues in history, social sciences, science, and technology, including STEM and STEAM, are areas that we will continue to develop for those who are pursuing formal education. In fulfilling all these major purposes, the Library will make extensive use of regional and network interlibrary loan services available through the Minuteman Library Network (MLN) and the statewide Commonwealth Catalog.
The Library’s Collection Development Policy is aligned with the mission of the Library. To assist in the process of selection, the following criteria are used to judge the quality and quantity of the items that are selected for the collection: authoritativeness, relevance, need, demand, value, reception, professional reviews and relationship to other items in the collection and the Minuteman Library Network.
At the discretion of the Library Director, works by local authors that don’t receive widespread critical attention are nonetheless welcome in our collection with the understanding that the library reserves the right to withdraw them at a later time.
The responsibility for selecting materials and developing the Library’s collections rests with the Library Director under the purview of the Board of Library Trustees. The Director is responsible for the development of the collection in collaboration with the staff who select materials according to their areas of responsibility on an ongoing basis. The Library’s professional materials selectors, under the oversight of the Director, regularly read reviews and consider patron requests in helping determine which materials will be acquired for addition to the collection. In Youth Services, materials selection is the responsibility of the Head Youth of Services.
The Library adheres to the Library Bill of Rights (www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill) and the Freedom to Read Statement (www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/freedomreadstatement) established by the American Library Association (ALA) and protected under the First Amendment. The Library respects the rights of parents and guardians to decide what is appropriate for their minor children to read, view and listen to. The selection of materials for the adult collection is not restricted by the possibility that minors may obtain materials their parents may consider inappropriate.
The Library serves the recreational, educational and informational needs of children, young adults, adults and senior citizens. Library users include independent learners, individuals enrolled in formal education programs, those who identify as belonging to diverse ethnic, racial and multicultural groups, individuals for whom English is not their first language, those whose physical or cognitive abilities may require additional support services, including home delivery and assistive devices, those who are socially or economically disadvantaged, retirees, parents, caregivers, teachers and others.
The Wayland Free Public Library collection comprises a wide variety of subjects. The Library seeks to be inclusive, selecting materials that represent divergent viewpoints that reflect the needs and interests of our users. At the same time, issues of cost and usefulness are also taken into consideration. For example, the Library does not purchase textbooks, advanced genealogical materials, and lavish, expensively-priced monographs, with the exception of some reference materials.
The purpose of the Library’s local history collection is to preserve materials that document the history of Wayland and to make these materials, including original and digitized materials, available to researchers and the general public. The major focus of the collection is historical and current information about Wayland. The Library collects some government records, however, only if those records document significant moments in the history of the Town and therefore warrant permanent preservation. Duplicates of existing materials are not collected, except at the discretion of the Library Director and selection staff. Museum objects are generally not collected. When appropriate, Library staff consult with staff at the Wayland Historical Society & Museum and members of the Wayland Historical Commission regarding objects that are not relevant to the Library’s collection. The Library accepts donations if they are deemed relevant to its collection policies.
The Library collects materials in a number of formats, including, but not limited to: print, media, downloadable materials and other electronic resources. We also subscribe to online reference and periodical databases.
The Library’s materials budget is allocated so that all areas, including adult, reference, children’s and teens, audiovisual materials and items in the Library of Things, are assigned a specific percentage of the budget, which fluctuates from year to year depending on demand and availability.
The Library accepts bequests, gifts of materials or other monetary donations by groups, individuals, businesses and others in support of our mission. However, gifts of books and materials must meet standard criteria in order to be added to the collection. Due to space limitations and redundancy, books and materials in good condition donated to the Library that are not added to the collection are often included in the ongoing or special book sales managed by the Friends of the Wayland Library. The Friends are a supporting organization that sponsors fundraising activities to help fund a variety of needs not addressed by the appropriated funds the Library receives from the Town as part of its annual operating budget, including programs, museum passes and other special needs.
Monetary donations in honor of an individual are gratefully accepted. Monetary donations and gifts of securities may also be made to the Library’s Millennium Fund, which is a perpetual endowment fund established by the Library Trustees. Individuals or groups interested in creating a lasting legacy with a large gift or bequest should consult with the Library Director. Artwork and other non-monetary gifts, including memorial gifts, that are not intended for the collection will be reviewed by the Director, but generally are not accepted.
The Library’s collection will be maintained through the ongoing judicious weeding of materials, including outdated, outmoded, low-circulation and worn-out materials. If needed, these materials are replaced with duplicates or newer materials on the same topic. Ongoing, judicious weeding is considered a best practice and is one of the activities we adhere to in order to maintain a balanced collection. Many withdrawn books and materials are given to the Friends of the Library and made available for purchase in the Friends’ ongoing Book Sale located in the Raytheon Room of the Library, including books donated to the Library.
It is the Library’s policy to purchase materials based on the criteria presented above. Some books and materials purchased that meet these criteria may be offensive to some members of the community. In a pluralistic society, the Library’s primary mission is to act as an informational and educational resource with books and materials available for loan on a wide variety of topics in order to meet the diverse educational and recreational needs and interests, viewing and reading habits of local residents. To fulfill its mission and meet these goals and objectives, the Library protects the fundamental rights of everyone in the community to choose what to read, view and listen to and the style or format in which that information is presented.
These protections are codified and articulated by the following statements established by the American Library Association (ALA), which are available by clicking on the links below:
The public library is a unique institution charged with being an unbiased repository of recorded knowledge and information. Any local resident who has concerns about the content in an item or items in the Library’s collection may voice their concerns to any Library staff member, who will direct them to the Library Director. Local residents may also submit a formal Request for Reconsideration (https://waylandlibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Request-for- Reconsideration.pdf) in writing to the Library Director, who will review the complaint and respond in writing within six weeks of the complaint. Appeals may be made to the Board of Library Trustees who will review the complaint at a public meeting of the Board, make a decision regarding the complaint and provide a formal response to the complainant. As the Library’s governing body, the Board of Library Trustees is responsible for protecting and defending the rights of local residents to freely access information in accordance with the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights of the United States Constitution.
The Library is a member of the state-funded Massachusetts Library System (MLS). It is also a founding member of the automated Minuteman Library Network (MLN). One of the main benefits of membership in local, state and regional library cooperatives is reciprocal borrowing and resource sharing enabling expanded access to information and library materials. As such, the Library’s memberships in both MLS and MLN offers the advantage of providing patrons with access to a much wider selection of print and non-print materials in a wide variety of formats.
This policy shall be reviewed by the Board of Library Trustees on a regular basis. Sections requiring revision will be reviewed by staff and presented to the Board for its acceptance into policy at that time.
Approved by the Board of Library Trustees: 2/26/2020 Revision approved: 6/15/2022
Revision approved: 12/18/2024