Top 12 Ways to be a BAD Selector - Part 2

Continuing on our hit parade of poor selection practices, I bring you part two.

7. Buy heavily in areas you like (cats; dogs; babies; horses; crafts; dad-daughter books) and ignore or shortchange the rest. We all love certain stuff and sniffily disdain other things we personally don't care for. A great selector pretends to be everyman and everywoman and buys widely and well in areas they have no personal stake in or love for. Recognizing your passions and realizing that they are not the only ones are signs you are going in the right direction.

8. Never weed books that you read and loved as a child. A corollary of the above. Getting to know the difference between a true classic that should be kept as opposed to your heart-stopping book adoration of your younger days is critical. It's always hard to bid farewell to something YOU think EVERYBODY should be reading - but they aren't. Sometimes buying a used copy for your own home library is the best solution to that heartache.

9. Buy lots of series non-fiction. While there are some stellar non-fiction series for kids, many are more marginal - poorly written, ho-hum photos like your Uncle Bob used to take, and often rubber stamp "revisions" that change a photo or two or add a box of new information and get a new copyright date to entice you to "update" the series every 5 years.  These series can definitely have a place in areas that kids are ravenous to get their hands on anything (dinosaurs! crafts! transportation! pets!). But they can be a budget sink hole in other areas - buy two copies of a great book detailing all the animals in a particular species for $15.99 each or buy ten single books on ten different animals within this species for $23.00 each?

10. Don't weed - and if you have to, try not to do it more often than annually or biennially or every five years. Another critical area. "I bought those books, I can't just get rid of them". Weeding is one of those easy things to do if you spend a little time daily/weekly in the collection, straightening, looking at what comes and goes; is used or unused; necessary or just a bit too much in the same area/subject. Rather than waiting to do it once in a while, regular weeding keeps the collection fresh and provides a far less stressful experience than wading in once in a blue moon. It also makes it more manageable to quickly look up replacements or do a literature search to strengthen a small area of the collection on an on-going basis.

11. Practice extreme ownership over areas you select in and don't let colleagues make suggestions or add other material. A truly diverse collection reflects many viewpoints and many strengths. Involving and inviting other staffers to put their oar in only makes for a stronger collection. No selector should ever own a collection. Practice generosity in selection and watch the materials fly off the shelves.

12. Never respond to patron requests. "Bleeh, they just want junk". On the other hand, they pay for every book and material and your salary. Give patrons what they want (if it falls within your collection policy). You may actually discover something new or areas you were unknowingly deficient in. You'll still have plenty of budget to get great literature. But you'll have won the trust of your bosses.

What bad selector ways have you seen, read about or observed? Dish!

Graphic courtesy of Pixabay

Top 12 Ways to be a BAD Selector - Part 1

Most of us love the collection development parts of our job.  But sometimes it can also get overwhelming and we make decisions that seem to work in the short-run but have implications in the long-run. The rabbit hole of poor selection decisions can get pretty deep.

We all have areas that we need to improve on in our work as selectors, de-selectors and collection strengtheners.  Are these some of your problem areas or models that management or co-workers expect for your department?

1. Only buy new material; don't bother with replacements or building or strengthening weak areas of the collection. The easiest thing in the world is to get excited and order all the new goodies published and buzzed about. It's sloggy work to go back to fill in holes in the collection and seek out areas that need a boost. But it is this work that the development in collection development is all about. Building a collection is more than the new - it's also creating depth and breadth - which often means researching and buying slightly older titles, buying duplicates for heavily used items, and filling in series and collections where titles have been lost or damaged.

2. Make sure to ignore books with diverse characters and cultures since "no one like that lives here." Quit it. We live in a global society with a rainbow of faces, cultures and creeds. Having books that represent this diversity is a non-negotiable essential. Every book doesn't have to fly off the shelf but it needs to be there so children can not just find themselves but also know there are many people in our world that have lives different - yet similar- to their own.

3. Never buy non-fiction paperbacks or any paperbacks for that matter- those skinny spines are hard to label and they won't last. The great majority of children's books published are not classics. Oops! Sorry. I said it. How long do you need a book on a popular but ephemeral character to last? If you need as many dog or dinosaur books as humanly possibly, why not add additional paperback copies to stretch your budget? If you can buy three books for the price of one (or for some series non-fiction five-seven books), and you only need that character/subject concentration for three-five years, what's the hold-up? Paperbacks can strengthen your collection - for all ages, fiction and non-fiction - and provide needed materials. And I have a secret to share: non-fiction books in general circ far more slowly than other parts of your collection. Non-fiction paperbacks in areas that get only occasional use can stand up and last as long as a hardcover in terms of currency and use by kids.

4. Don't read, skim or listen to the new material to get more familiar with it. Buy it and be done with it. Or try a better idea: get to know the material beyond the review. Page through it quickly before it goes out to familiarize yourself with it. Listen to it on your work commute. Read it at home. Join or establish a youth book club to discuss books. Librarians who actually know the material are those reader advisors that all the kids seek out. Actually knowing books and non-print means passion, knowledge and the ability to truly connect the right kid with the right book.

5. Buy lots of pre-bound and library binding books - kids are so hard on books. Perhaps, but in every age collection? Picture book as well as chapter books as well as non-fiction? Pre-bounds are simply paperbacks with a armor-plated covers. Almost all chapter books are printed on the most acidy-barely-above-newsprint paper known to publishers. The pages disintegrate decades before the covers go. Picture books and wildly popular non-fiction books do take a beating. You might justify the added expense since, because of their illustrations, they are printed on higher quality paper. But how long do you need that book to last given the ever-changing needs of readers. Pre-bounds and library bindings add expense. Can your budget really stand it?

6. Accept "preview packs" or pre-selected books. The job of most cold call salespeople on these things is to get you to accept the whole package of often marginal or remaindered stock. Most of what you see won't be worth it. And the pressure to accept all the contents (better discount!) rather than re-package and send back the unwanted selections is high. We all have better selection skills than this no matter how busy we are.

The next post will continue along this sorry path of poor selection ideas. Stay tuned!


Graphic courtesy of Pixabay