Guidelines for Establishing Special Collections of Materials by Physically Storing Them in One Shelf Area Location

1. There should be a proven, year-round need for the collection.
2. Up-to-date bibliographies of materials in the proposed collection should be preferred over physical groupings whenever possible and feasible.
3. Persons who propose the special collection should be able to establish that use of the involved materials will be significantly greater as a specially located group than would be true if the individual works were shelved in their usual location.
4. The need for the special collection should be predictable to last for at least 5 years.
5. The clientele that the collection will serve must be identified and described.
6. Any special immediate or long-term budget considerations that would be created by the special collection must be explained.
7. Browsing collections should be given more favorable consideration than non-fiction subject groupings. For example, it is likely that a much stronger case could be made for special collections of mysteries or large print books than for astrology.
8. Special materials that would not ordinarily be purchased under the collection development directions of the library system should be carefully considered.

Special Collections

Definition: A collection of materials shelved or stored together as a group. Typically their catalog number/shelf location would not have caused them to otherwise be stored as a group in one location.

Background: Some of the major reasons often used for creating such collections have been:

1. Increased convenience for browsing by library users
2. Media type
3. Special storage facilities required due to size, shape, media type
4. Special lending restrictions
5. Special audience needing assistance

In many cases these were legitimate reasons for having special collections in the past, and some instances may justify them today. However, until the advent of automated records and the timely, accurate information such records provide, quite often special collections were generated for one major reason: the records of the library concerning the collection of materials were so out of date, and perhaps misfiled if the library was on a card catalog, that the records were sometimes as much a hindrance as a help in locating specific materials or determining if the materials were even supposed to be in the collection. If a library grouped materials that were frequently requested into a special collection and continued adding new titles to that collection, then they formed a way around the inadequacies of the library records.

The automated records, including the online catalog, of the Metropolitan Library System have eliminated this major reason for many of the old special collections. The printed records generated by automation also help eliminate the need for such collections.

Today the online records for use by library staff provide staff a complete, accurate, up-to-the-minute record of materials owned, at what libraries owned, and whether or not the materials should be on the shelf at that instant in any library. They may also determine what materials are currently on order but not yet received. The library user has a Computer Output Microfilm (COM) catalog for their use that lists all inventoried holdings of the library system, accessible through subject, author and title entries. These films are completely updated every three months. Yet another avenue available to the library user in locating nonfiction books is the printed Subject Locator Guide. This printed and bound guide alphabetically lists all subject entries in the library catalog, and under these headings lists all of the catalog number/shelf locations that materials on this subject may be found. By the entries the user can immediately discern what shelf locations have the least and most number of books in that given subject. Today, in the last quarter of 1986, the library system is conducting pilot test sites for an online catalog for use by the general public, which will further enhance the immediacy and completeness of information concerning the materials collection to the library user.

The Problems: To a great extent, special collections have become a hindrance to managing the proper storage of the materials as well as locating them. In this era of immediacy and accuracy, they also present possibilities for justified complaints by library users.

Special collection designations do not appear in the Subject Locator Guide for users who are seeking nonfiction materials by subjects. Thus, any nonfiction materials shelved in a special location will be misplaced for the user of this Guide.

Special collection locations do not appear in the catalog number/shelf information placed on materials by which library staff shelve them. Therefore, libraries must rely on special markings generated locally. Quite often these markings are in the form of small, colored paper dots that re glued to the books or other media.

1. Usually, the color of the dot indicates what special collection the book is shelved in.
2. In a library with a large number of special collections, sometimes the same color of dot may used twice, and its placement on the physical book indicates to which special collection the book belongs.
3. Dots glue on and can later fall off.

Special collections, then, contribute to the possibilities of individual materials being improperly shelved/stored. Mis-shelving creates an environment for poor library service and management. Following are some of the major factors affected:

1. Library user reserves (system reserves) for specific materials are harder to find or not found at all.
2. Specific items on which tracers are placed may not be found. Tracers include handling problems such as verifying that a library user did return a borrowed item for which (s)he has been charged, recalls for new cataloging.

Given the current environment, problems with staff errors in handling materials and difficulties of library users in using the materials collections can be expected to increase geometrically with either an increase in the number of special collections in the libraries and/or an increase in the overall size of the materials collection.

Special collections require additional staff time to order, catalog and process materials when compared to the same processes involved in dealing with materials that are not part of a special collection.

A proliferation of special collections can be expected to cause problems for library staff who work Sunday at a library that is unfamiliar to them. They may fail to locate requested materials that are filed in special collections, and they will run a high risk of
shelving special collection materials in the wrong place.

Procedures for Considering Establishment of a New Special Collection

A memorandum requesting consideration of a new special collection should be submitted to the Director of Public Services. These requests should at least contain the information shown on the Required Information Memorandum that follows.

1. The Director of Public Services will review the request. If the request is denied by the Director of Public Services, then the request is not approved, and the applicant will be notified in writing, including the reasons for the request denial.
2. In the event that the Director of Public Services sees merit in the request, then written comments concerning the proposed collection will be obtained from Automation, Materials Selection and Planning Services. The Director of Public Services will provide written comments concerning the proposal to the others when soliciting their comments.
3. The Director of Public Services will present the proposal for a collection, along with the written comments mentioned in Step 3, to the Executive Director and the Administrative Team for further consideration.
4. Implementation of approved requests will be made according to steps and timing that are negotiated and agreed to by all departments and persons involved in selecting, ordering, cataloging, storing, publicizing, evaluating and measuring success of the project.

Guidelines for Establishing Special Collections of Materials by Physically Storing Them in One Shelf Area Location

1. There should be a proven, year-round need for the collection.
2. Up-to-date bibliographies of materials in the proposed collection should be preferred over physical groupings whenever possible and feasible.
3. Persons who propose the special collection should be able to establish that use of the involved materials will be significantly greater as a specially located group than would be true if the individual works were shelved in their usual location.
4. The need for the special collection should be predictable to last for at least five years.
5. The clientele that the collection will serve must be identified and described.
6. Any special immediate or long-term budget considerations that would be created by the special collection must be explained.
7. Browsing collections should be given more favorable consideration than non-fiction subject groupings. For example, it is likely that a much stronger case could be made for special collections of mysteries or large print books than for astrology.
8. Special materials that would not ordinarily be purchased under the collection development directions of the library system should be carefully considered.

Memorandum Proposing a New Special Collection
Minimum Information Required

1. Name of library agency, person proposing the collection and signature.
2. What materials that are already owned/typically selected by the library would be included in the collection? Describe if possible by subject content, cataloging call numbers, format, media, special purpose, and so forth. Be as comprehensive as possible.
3. Describe the persons that the collection would serve to the extent possible. How many are there, age, occupation, unique characteristics, library use patterns, and so forth.
4. Does this proposal involve including materials not usually selected by the library system? If the answer is YES, please describe the materials and their purposes as fully as possible.
5. To what extent would the special collection serve the intended clientele better than they are now served? Please describe, use quantitative measures such as questions answered, circulation, in-library use whenever possible.
6. How long do you estimate the need for this special collection will last?
7. What budget considerations are connected with this proposal? Please explain as fully as possible.