LIS 5250 : Variety of formats for library collection

Citing the American Library Association’s “Selection and Reconsideration Policy Toolkit for Public, School, and Academic Libraries,” Kerby (2019, p. 26) tells us that library collections must “Include a variety of resources in physical and virtual formats.” And among its shared foundations, the American Association of School Libraries (2018, p. 98) likewise emphasizes that “The school library provides a collection of resources and materials in all formats.”

Reading both in print and on screens has benefits for children’s literacy, according to recent findings by the National Literacy Trust in the U.K. “One of the strongest emerging themes is that children and young people who are engaged with reading, i.e. who are good readers, who enjoy reading, who read daily and who think positively about reading are more likely to read both on paper and on screen than their peers who have low engagement with reading” (Clark & Picton, 2019, p. 2).

How can I make sure that the library collection provides the widest possible access to information in a variety of formats?

Short answer: It will require careful budgeting. Kerby (2019, p. 24) recommends first establishing and clarifying your selection criteria, which will help you to know “exactly what you need” in the library.

But, because no library can “hope to add every available item,” sometimes libraries have to make tough choices between items that all fit the criteria of their collection development policy (Sullivan, 2013, p. 71).

That same argument could apply toward choosing between available formats, and Sullivan (2013, p. 77) addresses some of the issues that can arise when considering different formats, including print, audiobook, and e-book. “The audiobook may be on a CD, on a flash memory device such as a Playaway, or it may be downloadable audio.”

Sullivan realistically asks, “Can you simply use a review of the physical book when choosing an electronic version? “If you think the answer is yes, you may not have considered just how complicated this issue can be. Some picture book e-books simply present the text as it appears in the printed book. Others are more interactive than simple e-books; they can have all sorts of functionality, from live video to creative writing opportunities” (ibid).

Citing the ALA Toolkit, Kerby (2019, p. 26) identifies special considerations for choosing electronic resources: including ease of use of the product, availability of the information to multiple simultaneous users, equipment needed to provide access to the information, technical support and training, availability of a physical space to store the information or equipment, and availability in full text.

Wherever a library is faced with tough choices, between titles or between formats, one strategy for selectors is to let themselves be guided by the preferences of customers.

“Is it possible to allow children to choose materials? Certainly. It can be as simple as putting catalogs from children’s publishers out on a table with scraps of paper and pencils” (Sullivan, 2013, p. 72).

Even then, considerations can arise. For one thing, is this material easily accessible at another library? I want the library where I work to stock some of the most popular, useful, and engaging materials, but it isn’t realistic for me to stock everything that is available at a larger library, particularly when I want to encourage the patrons of my library to make use of that larger collection.

What parts of the collection might least likely be physical?
Among sections in a library that might least be expected to rely upon physical books, I would nominate the Reference section. How likely is it that a library will retain heavy, thick, printed encyclopedias when carefully curated databases are available to access information online? These databases are far more likely to be recent and up-to-date because updating them does not require a massive reprinting of a bound volume or set, followed by a library then having to purchase that new volume or set.

Every K-12 school and student in the state of California has access to “online educational content from Britannica, ProQuest, TeachingBooks and Gale” through the K-12 Online Content Project (California State Library, 2020).

“These content resources, sometimes referred to as “library databases,” provide teachers, school librarians and students with a massive amount of digital information: magazines, books, scientific research, newspaper articles, photos, videos and more — all aligned with the standards that California has created for its schools” (ibid).

The exception among Reference to a reliance on digital formats might be locally-produced resources that are unique to the community. For example, in the school library where I work, our parents’ group has donated bound volumes of school yearbooks. I shelve these books in the reference section, and they are hugely popular. They offer depictions of the school’s local history and, moreover, the information contained within these books will not be duplicated in a statewide educational database.

Music and film are two other areas of the library that I foresee will be increasingly digital. New resources are consistently being added to the K-12 Online Content Project; the most recent addition includes educational videos produced by PBS “covering topics in science, history, current events, music and drama” (ibid).

(That usage may be different in a patron’s home without reliable Internet. Such a patron might still need DVDs instead of streaming videos through a library platform or a commercial vendor. They might similarly be unable to access a music streaming service, and may continue to check out CDs from their local library.)

Digital collections in the future
I think that issues still being addressed today will affect how library collections look in the future, including a possibility that new formats may yet emerge. Breeding (2017, p. 16) emphasizes that each new format for materials includes “its own technical, business, and legal requirements.”

For example, one issue that is being addressed right now is “controlled digital lending” or CDL, wherein libraries make digital copies of physical books that they own, and then loan out either the digital, or the physical, book to a borrower. “[O]nly one format can circulate at a time to maintain a one-to-one ‘owned-to-loan’ ratio. In other words, if the scan is checked out, its print counterpart cannot circulate, and vice versa” (Courtney, 2022).

A group of publishers are challenging CDL through a lawsuit against the Internet Archive, arguing that “a library loan via CDL represents a lost license fee” (ibid).

Courtney (2022) retorts that “while I understand why these large corporate publishers would like to force libraries into an expensive, limited, non-negotiated, and highly profitable licensed access market for e-books, libraries should not have to buy (and rebuy) expensive, time-limited licenses to provide digital access to the physical books they have already purchased.”

Accessible formats
As part of its commitment to serving all patrons, the library’s collection will ideally be accessible to users with disabilities.

To cite one example, readers with print disabilities might be served by physical books that include “large-size” print, but a study in 2013 suggested that e-readers are more effective than print for some readers with dyslexia.

The study focused on 103 high school students with dyslexia and it found that use of a small handheld e-reading device, “formatted to display few words per line,” significantly improved the students' reading speed and comprehension when compared to reading on paper (Schneps, et al., 2013).

Speaking from experience, various adjustments are available when reading a book on an e-reader. The user may choose a certain typeface, for example. I use “Open Dyslexic” when I read e-books on my Kindle.

The user may also choose a larger or smaller font size depending upon their preference, or set their device to “dark mode” viewing. In addition, text-to-speech settings can read an e-book aloud. A reader may also adjust their viewer to scroll the text as they read.

References:
American Association of School Librarians. (2018). National school library standards for learners, school librarians, and school libraries. ALA Editions.

Breeding, M. (2017). Meeting the challenge of simultaneously managing digital, electronic, and print collections. Computers in Libraries, 37(2), p. 16-18.

California State Library. (2020.) California’s K-12 online content project. Services to the public. https://www.library.ca.gov/services/to-public/k-12-online-content-project/

Clark, C. & Picton, I. (2019). Children, young people and digital reading. National Literacy Trust. https://cdn.literacytrust.org.uk/media/documents/Reading_digitally_-_April_2019.pdf

Courtney, K. (2022, Sept. 16). In defense of library lending. Soapbox. Publishers Weekly. https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/columns-and-blogs/soapbox/article/90358-in-defense-of-library-lending.html

Kerby, M. (2019). An introduction to collection development for school librarians (2nd ed.) American Association of School Librarians.

Schneps, M.H., et al. (2013). E-readers are more effective than paper for some with dyslexia. PLoS One 8(9). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0075634

Sullivan, M. (2013). Fundamentals of children’s services (2nd ed.) American Library Association.