Tracy Lewis » Collection Development

Collection Development

Coahoma County High School

Collection Development Policy

2025-2026

 

Library Monitoring Rubric: Section 2.3 

Librarian Growth Rubric: Standard 8 School Libraries

Library Guide: Section 4.1

 

 

Position Statement:

The Coahoma County High School (CCHS) promotes intellectual freedom through access to a variety of books and media across a spectrum of topics. The school library’s primary role is to support the curriculum, and it is also a space where thoughtful, informed ideas and information can be openly and safely exchanged between students. School libraries are spaces of anti-censorship. The principles of the American Library Association's Library Bill of Rights provide a foundation for the CCHS collection policy.

The school librarian cooperates and collaborates with colleagues and administration to build collections appropriate to the development and maturity levels of students in each grade. The process of collection development includes 1) the selection and deselection (weeding) of current and retrospective materials including donations; 2) a defined strategy for the purchase of acquisitions; and 3) the evaluation of collections to ascertain how well they serve patron needs.

The collection development process employs educational criteria to select resources that are unrestricted by personal, political, social, or religious views. Students and educators served by the school library have access to resources and services that are free of the constraints that can come from personal, partisan, or doctrinal disapproval. The school librarian assumes responsibility for resisting censorship efforts by individual persons to define what is or is not age-appropriate for all students or adults to read, view, or hear.

The school librarian promotes the principles of intellectual freedom within the school library by providing resources and services that create and sustain an atmosphere of free inquiry. The school librarian teaches skills that allow students to easily access the library and the Panther Library Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC). The librarian also collaborates with classroom teachers to integrate research skills into project activities, and to provide students with the skills to effectively locate, evaluate, and use a broad range of materials. Through these processes, students and teachers can experience the free and robust debate characteristics of a democratic society.

 

Selection Principles:

The primary role of the school library is to provide resources that support the school curriculum including access to print and electronic books, online magazines and newspapers, and research databases in support of the curricular themes of each content area. In addition, the CCHS library actively promotes and encourages reading for pleasure and general knowledge. 

The school librarian, through communication with school faculty and the Library Advocacy Committee, selects age and grade-appropriate library materials. Books, e-books, and other materials are selected through an annual library needs assessment that is given to faculty, and a student book request list that is ongoing. Educational goals, curriculum alignment, faculty requests, student interests, and existing materials are considered to meet the MDE School Library Guide’s suggestions for school library collections. Materials selected shall be favorably reviewed in one or more current reviewing tools. Examples of industry-respected resources include:

Booklist, The Horn Book, School Library Journal, Library Reads, African American Literature Book Club, ALA Rainbow Booklist, Diversity in YA, Middle and Junior High Core Collection, High School Core Collection, Latinxs in Kids Lit, Voice of Youth Advocate, Multicultural Review, and multiple other sources recommended by the American Association of School Libraries.

After receiving data via the faculty needs assessment, student book requests, and reading recommended reviews, decisions on books and materials to be purchased reside with the school librarian.

 

Donations and Gifts:

When organizations and individual parties express interest in donating books, reference resources, and other education-related materials to a school library, the school librarian must review potential library donations using the following criteria: 

  1. Materials should be new or barely used, complete, and attractive. 
  2. Reference materials, including atlases, encyclopedias, subject-specific multi-volume sets, and other nonfiction resources should be no more than 3 years old; science, medical, computer, and other resources in areas in which information quickly becomes outdated should be no more than 2 years old. 
  3. Fiction books that are more than 10 years old will not be accepted except books by well-known and requested young adult authors and classics. 
  4. Nonfiction books should not reflect outdated stereotypes of racial or cultural groups in either text or illustration and should avoid oversimplification of complex issues and other distortions that would give readers erroneous or misleading information. 
  5. Textbooks, workbooks, standardized tests, dated periodicals, pamphlets, and catalogs will not be accepted.

 

Evaluation & Weeding (De-selection and Discard):

Materials will be weeded (the process of evaluation and removal) from the library collection according to the results of the previous school year’s spring collection analysis, and the policies set forth by the Mississippi Department of Education when they meet any one or more of the following criteria (CREW): 

  1. Items that are in such poor physical condition that the readers cannot use them.
  2. Materials whose leaves have become yellowed and brittle with age.
  3. Sources that contain material that is outdated or no longer relevant. This applies particularly to materials in science and social studies. The copyright date is a great help in evaluating this type of material, though not the only factor to be considered.
  4. Books that have been replaced by new and revised editions.
  5. Materials that are not suitable for the readers using the collection.
  6. Items that are duplicates of books once popular, but seldom used.
  7. Books that have been weeded can be found by obtaining a “Withdrawn Report”.

 

The librarian will also bear in mind the MUSTIE technique to determine when an item needs to be removed from the collection, allowing space for acquiring new works:

Misleading— factually inaccurate information should be discarded from the collection

Ugly— books that are worn out beyond repair should be discarded

Superseded— by a new edition or a better book on the same subject.  These books should be discarded as well.

Trivial— if there is no discernible literary, historical, or scientific merit, and/or if it does not circulate, it should be discarded.

Irrelevant— if it does not meet the needs of the library and the community, it would be better to be discarded.

Elsewhere— if the material is easily attained in another library or another/ preferable format in the library, the material may be discarded.

Weeding must occur in the library annually per the MDE school library guide and to accommodate new books and materials.

 

Challenges and Request for Reconsideration:

Informal Statement of Concern

At any point, if the library receives a question or concern about specific library materials held in any of the collections, the concern may be addressed and resolved through a conversation with the librarian, explaining the collection development policy.

Formal Request for Reconsideration

A formal request for reconsideration must be presented in writing using a standard form (APPENDIX A) provided at the CCHS library, requiring an explanation of the nature of the concern and the content of the item. A committee composed of the librarian, teachers, and administration will reconsider the inclusion of the item in the library collection. Each challenge form will receive evaluation and feedback from the committee. The committee will work to provide a resolution to the request within two weeks.

 

 

 

 

 

Bibliography

American Association of School Librarians (AASL) - A Division of the American Library Association (ALA).

“Right to Read Act.” Available online at https://www.ala.org/aasl/advocacy/right2read 

 

American Library Association (ALA). “Freedom to Read Statement.” Available online at

 https://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/freedomreadstatement 

National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).  “The Students' Right to Read.”  Available online at 

https://ncte.org/statement/righttoreadguideline 

Mississippi Department of Education - Library (MDE Library). “MDE Library Guide - Section 4: Library 

Collection.” Available online at https://www.mdek12.org/LC