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General Principles and Selection Policy
The Longview Public
Library recognizes the wide number of people
being served and the diversity in their
cultures, needs, and interests. It is in recognition of these factors
that the Library adopts the following
principles to assure the Library serves all
its constituents well.
- The First Amendment to
the United States Constitution protects the
freedom to read. It is essential to our
democracy and will be upheld by all Library
staff in the selection and access to all
library materials.
- The Library will uphold
the freedom to read principles contained in
the statements of the American Library
Association and the Texas Library Association.
Examples of these include the Library Bill of
Rights, the Freedom to Read Statement, the
Access for Children and Young People to
Videotapes and Other Non-Print Material, and
TLA’s Intellectual Freedom Statement, all
appended to this document.
- While it is this
policy’s intent to encourage free access to
materials, the Library reserves the right to
restrict the client’s opportunity to remove
select materials from the Library. These
materials will be available only on site.
Examples include, but are not limited to,
reference, genealogy, local history,
microform, and periodicals.
- Parents and/or legal
guardians have sole responsibility for what
children read, view, or hear. The
Library and its associated authorities do not
serve in loco parentis (in place of the
parents). Only parents or guardians may
restrict their own, and only their own,
children’s access to library materials.
Selection of library materials will not be
inhibited by the possibility that materials
may inadvertently come in the child’s
possession.
- The Library will
provide materials for use by all members of
the community. Access to and use of
material will not be denied or abridged
because of origin, race, age, background, sex,
or views. Likewise, none of these
factors shall be cause to exclude from
selection any material of authors, artists,
publishers, or producers. However,
library staff may legitimately consider other
resources available to clientele groups
through other local sources and Interlibrary
Loan when selecting materials.
- Selection of materials
by the librarian does not imply agreement with
or approval of the content, viewpoint,
implication, or expression of the material.
- Librarians will judge
materials on the basis of the content and
style of the work as a whole, not by selected
or random passages or scenes.
- The public library is
not a curriculum center and does not provide
basic texts, curriculum resources, or
materials in quantity for schoolwork.
However, the individual student or teacher
will often find the supplementary resources of
the Library to be enriching and useful.
The staff will not develop the collection nor
arrange it by the curriculum needs of the
local school districts, colleges, or
universities.
These principles form
the basis for the Library’s selection
policy. Limiting factors include the
large number of print and non-print materials
available, the large number of interests and
topics possible, and the reality of budget
constraints. While recognizing these practical
limitations and remembering the basic precepts
listed above, Library selection staff will
strive to maintain diversity, quality, and
responsiveness to community interest patterns.
- Diversity of materials
to meet the purposes of use, age levels, and
educational levels will be maintained by
actively seeking review sources for
alternative and/or opposing views and
unpopular as well as popular materials in
order to reflect the diversity that exists in
our culture. Subject specialists may be
consulted as needed for selection in areas
outside staff expertise.
- Quality of materials
will be maintained by the application of
professional discretion and standards
established by the library profession and
through the use of appropriate selection
tools. A list of available selection
tools is appended to this document.
- Responsiveness to
interest patterns will be maintained by
careful consideration of client requests for
purchase, patterns of use of existing
materials, patterns of purchase of similar
materials from retailers such as “best
seller lists”, and any other source of
information that can help librarians to know
of community interest patterns.
Responsibility
and Authority
Contents:
Community Analysis
| Mission Statement & Role of the Library
| General Principles and Selection Policy
| Responsibility and Authority
| Specific Selection Policy by Collection
| Selection Tools
| Gifts, Duplication & InterLibrary Loan
| Replacements & Collection Maintenance
| Requests for Reconsideration of Library Materials
| Gift Receipt
| Freedom to Read
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