Standard:

DeSoto Public Library (DPL) strives to provide a collection that is current, balanced, and representative of all fields of knowledge to the extent of its financial resources.

• DPL will purchase materials with consideration to levels of demand and use.
• Librarians are responsible for selecting, developing, and maintaining the collection. Print and nonprint resources are collected, including electronic resources.
• Responsibility for collected materials ultimately rests with the Director of Libraries.

Goals:

• DPL will provide materials that meet DPL's interests and needs.
• The library will provide a broadly based and diverse collection that can support the roles of the library as a popular materials center, a reference center, an independent learning center and a preschooler’s door to learning.
• The library will strive to provide a balance of viewpoints on all subjects in its collection.
• The library will purchase current, and particularly bestselling materials proportionate to levels of demand and use, taking care to anticipate and respond to indications of significant new needs.
• To maintain the vitality of the collection, the library staff will practice ongoing collection management, using output measures, and other data for continuous collection evaluation. Worn, obsolete and dated materials will be weeded from the collection on a regular basis.
• The library will keep abreast of technological changes that affect the development of the collection.
• The library will be aware of the resources available in surrounding libraries and develop its collection with this in mind.
• The library encourages and welcomes customer suggestions, comments, and ideas about the collection and its development.

Materials selection and accessibility principles:

• The freedom to read, along with the freedom to hear and to view, is protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution. This freedom is held to be essential to our democracy and will be upheld, supported, and defended in the selection and provision for accessibility of all library materials.
• Freedom of choice in selecting materials is a necessary safeguard to the freedom to read, to hear, and to view.
• It is the essence of democracy that citizens shall have the right of free inquiry and the equally important right of forming their own opinions. In a free society, each individual may determine for himself or herself what he or she wishes to read, to hear, or to view, and each group is free to determine what it will recommend to its members.
• Selection of materials does not constitute or imply agreement with or approval of the content, viewpoint, implications, or means of expression of the material.
• DPL and its associated authorities do not serve in loco parentis. Responsibility for overseeing children's choices of reading materials rests with their parents and/or legal guardians. It is the parents, and/or legal guardians, who may restrict their children, and only their own children, from access to library materials. Selection will not be inhibited by the possibility that materials may inadvertently come into the possession of children.
• The library will attempt to provide materials for all members of the community that it serves, without exclusion.
• A person's right to access and to use library materials will not be denied or abridged because of origin, age, ethnic background, nationality, or views.
• The library will attempt to select materials that (within the framework of preserving the freedom to read, hear, and view) will provide for the interest, information, enlightenment, entertainment, pleasure, education, development, appreciation, stimulation, enrichment, and/or self- improvement of library customers of all ages, walks of life, value and interest patterns, education, opinion, and persuasion to the degree possible within budgetary constraints, availability of materials, and degree of understanding of the above needs and desires.
• DPL is not a judicial body. Laws governing obscenity, subversive materials, and other questionable matters are subject to interpretation by the courts. Therefore, complaints relating to print materials, video, and CD mediums pertaining to obscenity, pornography, subversiveness, or any other category covered by law, will not automatically result in a removal of such materials. Removal of challenged materials can occur only after proper legal review and ruling of such issues by an independent court of competent jurisdiction. This process includes an adversary hearing in accordance with well-established principles of law, resulting in a ruling against the materials. Conversely, no materials will knowingly be selected which have previously been adjudicated as not in compliance with the law.
• DPL will uphold the principles of the American Library Association's Library Bill of Rights, Freedom to Read, Freedom to View, Free Access to Libraries for Minors, Statement on Labeling, http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/censorship

The following criteria are useful in judging whether to select materials.  An item need not meet all or any specified number of these criteria to be selected.

• Authoritativeness and/or reputation of the author
• Demand
• Bestsellers
• Cost of materials
• Review coverage and publicity
• Currency of information
• Level of need within existing collection
• Impartiality or absence of bias
• Accuracy of information
• Adequate coverage of topic
• Appropriate presentation for the intended audience
• Aesthetic qualities or literary merit
• Technical aspects such as illustrations, sound, and clarity
• Physical characteristics, including typeface, paper, binding, and durability
• Accessibility through indexes and bibliographies

Priority will be given in selection to users with the following types of needs:

• Leisure-time needs
• Informational needs
• Self-improvement needs
• Students’ elementary- and secondary-study needs
• Preschool and early childhood needs

DPL does not attempt to meet curriculum needs of educational programs at any level.

In  addition  to  our  general  collections  of  fiction,  nonfiction,  media,    magazines, newspapers, etc., we may make collections of other items available, including materials in foreign languages as appropriate.

           DPL does not generally collect the following types of materials:

• Manuscripts
• Genealogy
• Rare books
• Textbooks

Electronic Resources:

DPL offers electronic resources to supplement printed materials. Electronic resources are selected using the same basic principles as print materials.

            Donations:

Donations of money and materials are encouraged. They extend the materials budget and help develop the collection. Donated materials are added selectively using standards similar to those used for purchased materials. DPL retains the right to dispose of donated materials by sale or discard.

Customer Requested materials:

DPL may request materials to be purchased by the library. We do not buy materials for DPL on demand. Materials are added selectively using standards similar to those used for purchasing materials generally.

Weeding:

Careful deselection of materials must occur periodically. DPL uses the C.R.E.W. method to weed materials

Intellectual Freedom

DPL is an unbiased repository for the recorded expression of thought and provides free access to all points of view. The selection of an item for inclusion in the collection does not represent an endorsement of any perspective by DPL. The collection will include all sides of controversial issues as far as budget, space, and availability of materials allow. Items will not be included or excluded due to political views, frank language, controversial content, the race, religion or nationality of the author, or the disapproval or approval of an individual or community group.

The method of processing and shelving materials does not reflect a value judgment of the materials. Library materials will not be sequestered except for the specific purpose of protecting them from damage or theft. A point of view or bias will not be designated with markings or labels on materials.

DPL has established procedures for review of customers’ concerns regarding library materials. Customers with concerns about library materials should contact a librarian or library staff in the building.

Last revised: September 22, 2020