Professional Documents
Culture Documents
date of every 10th item in 1993 1994 2001 1985 1993 2008 1996 2001 1995
the Dewey section 1997 2002 1998 2009 2007 2007 1992 1997 2003
this section
Newest copyright date of 2016
this section
Notes of conversation Is section current enough?
MEDT 6465 Selection
with media specialist The librarian noted because of the topic, it is generally
poets.
Are there other formats that are more desirable for this
The 800s literature section of the Fayette County public library juvenile section was
selected for this review. This collection includes poetry, plays, speeches, and Shakespeare. There
are currently a little over 460 books in this section. Publication dates range from 1958 to 2016,
which encompass a wide span within this range. The average copyright date for this complete
section is 2001, meaning the estimated average time of publication of these books in the
collection would be about 15 years ago. For this particular section, this dating does not
and observations.
The librarian, Joy Vallandingham, was available to provide information on the literature
collection. Having previous experience in another county and having only been at this current
library for a total of four weeks, Ms. Joy was able to provide sufficient and historical information
regarding the literature collection. During the collection mapping, a book of poetry from 2016
was already on the shelves, indicating that the previous librarian maintained the collection with
at least some additions, and periodically sought to maintain the section, however not as
extensively as other larger sections that require more up-to-date fact-based information (e.g.
Although there is a listing of the Dewey system categories provided online and within the
library search system, book and materials search is completely restricted to key word, title and
author searches. The current librarian was not able to access information via the OPAC system as
the search system at this public library is based on the indicated search method even when a
patron searches on a dedicated computer in the library. Nevertheless, Ms. Joy was able to
research some information such as the oldest book in this collection (1958) compared to the
hand, based on the data collected one would find that most books in this section had a copyright
date of 2001 (see figure 1), which could indicate a significant amount of additions to the
collection around the turn of the century. This emphasis on replenishing this section appears to
have dwindled, however, not completely neglected as books and materials were noted in later
years as well (e.g. 2002, 2003, 2004, 2009, 2012, 2016). These latter publications also indicate a
consistent yet smaller stream of collection updates in comparison to the turn of the century.
Because there was no way of discussing the development of the collection with the
previous librarians, sampling from this collection reveals a variety of literature-based media.
These include culturally-based works as well as comedic style works and historical works such
as that of Shakespeare. The librarian did note that additional collections from more current and
emerging authors/poets might necessitate a need to add to the collection as well as providing
additions based on the limited interests for comedic-style literature expressed by the community
population, however the librarian felt the collection is representative of the needs of the
The librarian also noted that the collection was developed over time. As she has been at
this public library, she was not sure of the specific details as to how the collection was
developed. She has observed that most children look for joke and pun-like books in this section
and there is otherwise not a lot of interest, save for a few specific books search needs. The
librarian feels like the collection at the local public library is sufficient for the needs of the
community, save a few additions of joke books and emerging new authors, and feels like a