CALENDAR
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7th Annual APLESA Conference
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DAILY SUMMARY - Session 4 - Collection Development Towards User Needs - Mover: Kenya (Mr Iraya)
RAPPORTEURS - Ms M. Lenyatso
(Senior Clerk Assistant)
Mr T. L. Moipolai
(Clerk Assistant)
Type setting: K. S. Ramonyai
(Senior Typist)
The presenter narrowed down the topic to the Parliamentary organisation only. Therefore his presentation endeavours to give an overview of the collection development towards the needs of Members of Parliament and the Senior Staff of the Institution.
Collection development has been defined in the library point of view as the process of planning and stock acquisition programme that help to cater for immediate needs, to create a coherent collection within a specific given time and to meet the objectives of the library service. It is also understood as a book collection policy.
The collection development policy is the backbone of the library as such it can not be created over night although it undergoes rapid change.
A collection development policy will help in the following aspects -
· Achieve a unified view of areas to be developed
· Co-ordinate between individuals responsible for the current and
future collection.
· Reduce adhoc decisions
· Maintain consistency in collection
· Helps avoid confusion in the minds of selectors and patrons.
· Helps in the evaluation of library collection.
Factors Influencing Collection Development (Kenya experience)
Kenya does not have a written collection development policy as such accrued into the following:
· Lack of acquisition of materials and equipment
that could be used in the dissemination of services.
· The Librarian is sometimes piled with unwanted gifts.
· The status of the Member of Parliament may be a problem to the
Library.
· Inexperienced staff in the collection development may be a problem.
Mr Iraya stated that the Kenyan collection development policy is not very clear.
Acquisition Policy
Although acquisition policy is an important step in the monitoring of a Library can also be a hindrance to the collection of development process, especially in purchasing materials such as Library manuals, classification of Schemes Encyclopaedias, Dictionaries etc.
· The Kenyan Library does not enjoy the privilege
of a legal deposit and as such the Librarian has to budget for every publication
published and needed by the legislators and this includes reviewed chapters
of government laws.
· The mean budgets for the Library hinder the inter-library resource
sharing. They no longer receive Daily News Papers from the Zambian Parliamentary
Library.
Varying professional Interests
Mr Iraya has acknowledged the fact that Parliamentary Libraries are not similar in APLESA and that differences have a baring on Individual Members' attributes such as Socio-Economic and Political background, hobbies and qualifications.
He said all these affects the aspects of user needs which also affect collection development.
He said an unclear policy precipitates, like in their case, a breeding ground for the "unwanted gifts" Syndrome which causes them to create more space in the already under spaced rooms and this added more work to the librarian.
Discussions and Contributions
The presenter was asked to expand on the evaluation of the Library collection and to look into the user profile.
In his response Mr Iraya said that the aspect of evaluating is understanding the user of the collection Evaluation of a document must be user friendly.
Uganda suggested that evaluation of the collection can be done through a survey. There are some shelves which are not commonly used and there are those one you can easily find the books.
South Africa advised that a Librarian should be firm and be in a position to guide Members and educate them.
South African Experience
They felt that the collection policy is overdue so they hired two consultants who visited their collection, interviewed Unit Managers and had a workshop with all Managers therefore consolidated the information. South Africa said the acquisition Librarian gathers views of Members of Parliament before purchasing items.
Malawi said the collection development is actually done by people who are in the right position to take decisions.
Uganda stated that publishers Catalogues are passed around for Members and staff to indicate what they want.
South Africa added that the Collection development policy should be dynamic and cater for different users.
Zambia wanted to know the difference between collection development policy and Acquisition Policy.
Mr Iraya responded by saying that the former deals with finance/money and the latter deals with attributes of collection development, it plays an important role in Book growth or material.
Innocent said Acquisition is a subset or a collection and collection development policy is what one has and how it is dealt with.
Swaziland wanted to know what to do with something you do not need but given to you "unwanted gifts".
In response to this South Africa stated that they have the storage which has two parts, the keepbooks and not keepbooks.
In addition to this Uganda suggested that if one has something which they can't use then they should find somewhere it can be used.
Summary
In conclusion, Mr Iraya said the most important client to focus on is the Member of Parliament and therefore suggested that they carry out user profiles which are almost prompted as parliamentary status and this will help to come up with future needs for the clients.
He further requested that member countries should avail material that can assist other members in uplifting their services. Moreover, there should be a computerised network linkage to ease the sharing of information.
Parliamentary Libraries should consider the handicapped in their Library buildings.
